Timeline

 Alun Morgan has been very diligent over the pandemic period in producing a Timeline of the village between 1838 - 1910. A truly  fascinating read, MrMorgan has very kindly allowed the Society to upload it. A record of newspaper articles over 80  years it gives an unique insight into the period and the changing norms of daily life. We hope to make use of this fabulous resource in our activities over the coming months. 

Here is the introduction to the Time line . I will copy it in chapters owing to its length.

Introduction

 

In his introduction to Resolfen Recalled, Trefor Jones, Secretary of the Resolven History Society, invited interested parties to contribute to the village’s history, including its social history. Although not claiming to be a historian, let alone a social historian, I have risen to the challenge by submitting this Timeline.

The scope of the work covers the period from Resolven’s birth as an industrial community to the time when coal-production in south Wales was almost at its peak, and coincides, to within a year, with the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The reason for this limited time-scale is two-fold: the project had to be manageable and not over-ambitious for one person to complete, and there had to be sufficient source-material available. Both criteria were fortunately met, with the additional advantage that most of that material was out of copyright, meaning information could be quoted liberally. The period under investigation encompasses some of the greatest changes in the village’s history and no work can hope to cover all the lives and events in it. This project, then, is necessarily a series of snapshots of the daily realities of some of the people, some of the time, but for all its incompleteness it is still a positive attempt to understand the thoughts and actions of our forebears.

The structure of the work is chronological rather than thematic, following Resolven’s story year-by-year, month-by-month, and highlighting political, religious, social, cultural and sporting events. It includes many village ‘firsts’: for example, the first police, the first school, the first working-men’s club, the first concert, the first eisteddfod, the first cricket match, the first reported rugby club match, the first parish council, the first billiard match, and the first organised athletics meeting.

The sources of the timeline include newspapers (in original, microfilm and electronic formats), as well as books, booklets, articles, censuses, and maps; a comprehensive list of them can be found in the bibliography. I have not hesitated to use data from both newspaper advertisements and recorded court cases, both rich and invaluable sources of a locality’s social history. Also included is an Appendix, in which I have set out my own thoughts on the village’s place-name, and I am indebted for some of the facts included in it to the standard work by D. Rhys Phillips, although the conjectures it contains, right or wrong, are my own.

I acknowledge with thanks the help and encouragement received from members of staff of the National Library of Wales, West Glamorgan Archives, Neath and Port Talbot Libraries and the Neath Antiquarian Society.

It might be appropriate in this Introduction to advise the reader that Resolven is not to be thought of simply as the area covered by the present-day village, but to be seen in its wider historical and geographical context as part of the centuries-old manorial lands of Soflen, whose boundaries were rigidly delineated by the Melincwrt Brook in the south to the Gwrach Brook in the north, and by the River Neath in the west to Cefn Ffordd, the ancient trackway on Resolven Mountain, in the east. Also to be remembered is the fact that there are frequent changes in street names, for example, present-day Commercial Road was at one time named Neath Road; present-day Neath Road has been called at various times Church Road, Chapel Road, and Jerusalem Road. Likewise, today’s Tan-y-Rhiw has been called Aberclydach Row, Shop Row, Jenkin’s Row and Seion Road, and present-day’s Davies Terrace has previously been called Shoemaker’s Row.

 

 

It might also be useful to give some indication of what Resolven looked like in the years immediately before our Timeline begins. An existing survey of 1814 is able to meet this purpose by providing us with a ‘snapshot’ of the area as a centuries-old community of farms and farmers, for, at this stage, Resolven could hardly be considered a hamlet, let alone a village. The survey contains a list of every farm in the manorial lands of Resolven, detailing each of the farm’s fields (indicating the type of soil to be found there and what was cultivated e.g. wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, wood, pasture), as well as the state of each of the buildings. It also lists lands which were not used for farming. The survey was probably commissioned by the fifth Earl of Jersey, who was then the Lord of the Manor of Resolven, just before the manorial lands were put up for sale. It was, in fact, sold in June 1815 to John Edwards of Rheola who became the new Lord of the Manor residing outside the manorial lands at Rheola instead of at Clun-y-castell, the ancient manor house.

In summarising the contents of this manuscript, I have corrected the anglicised forms of some of the Welsh names, and have omitted those farms which we would not nowadays really consider part of Resolven:

Aberclwyd: ‘Barn, pig house, cow house, stable, dairy, old farm house and garden in good repair, ill-planned. Contains part of the Neath Canal. There is a good deal of level land in this farm, and of a good quality, but in a bad state of cultivation. The fences should be taken up in many places and the field squared in. Very neglected state at present.’ Tenant: William Llewellyn. Tithe value: £25-0s-0d.

Cae Aberclydach: ‘Includes Cae Ysgubor, a barn and cow house in bad repair, which should be taken down. It also includes a house and garden at Pentwyn, in pretty good repair’. Tenant: William Jones. Tithe value: £1-2s-6d. Tir Aberclydach: ‘Two cottages in bad repair. Good large garden.’ Tenant: John Miers. Tithe value: £1-7s-6d.

Ton: ‘Includes a homestead. The farm house, barn, stable and shed want repairing’. Tenant: Jenkin Jenkins. Tithe value: £1-2s-6d.

Ynysfach: ‘Includes Public House and two small buildings attached. Not in good repair.’ Tenant: Ann Llewellyn. Tithe value: £2-7s-6d.

Clun-y-castell/Glyncastle: ‘Includes Cae Capel, and a homestead, an old large building with barn and cow house in bad repair, and very inconveniently situated. Forms part of Cwm Clydach: a very steep dingle, in many places an entire precipice, and a good many young oaks and a church on top of the bank. Also includes a garden. At Tan-y-rhiw: the barn, cow houses and cottage in pretty good repair, with the part next to the barn nearly new. This farm in general is in a much-neglected state, although there is a great deal of good, dry, useful land. The farm house itself is in a very bad state of repair.’ Tenant: John Jones. Tithe value: £28-0s 0d. Part of Clun-y-castell Isaf/ Lower Glyncastle:  ‘Three cottages, barn and cow house in bad repair.’ Tenant: Jenkin Jenkins. Tithe value: £2-7s-6d.

 Pentwyn Isaf/ Lower Pentwyn: ‘Includes homestead. Lease originally granted for 1000 years. 300 years expired.’ Tenant: John Jones. Tithe value: £5-0s-0d. Part of Pentwyn: ‘Includes three cottages, one in need of repair.’ Tenant: Jenkin Jenkins. Tithe value: £1-5s-0d.

Pant- y- gelli and Wern Fawr: ‘Includes a two-storey house, slated, and propped up in front and back. The cottage and garden of Wern Fawr are in good repair.’  Tenant: Mary Morgan. Tithe value: £1-5s-0d. 

Nant- y-gleisiaid:  ’Includes cottage, cow house and barn; old.’ Tenant: Lewis Thomas. Tithe value: £4-12s-6d.

 

 

Ty’n-y-cwm: ‘Farm house is slated. Barn, cow house etc; in good repair. Lies low and well sheltered, with a road and steep bank: nearly waste. This farm lies high and wild; there is a great deal of steep banky land on this farm. The dingles are filled with good oak, timber and coppice, in many places much neglected.’ Tenant John Cooke. Tithe value: £5-5s-0d.

Hendref Owen Uchaf: ‘Cottage and cow house. This farm lies high and wild’. Tenant: Jenkin Jones. Tithe value: £4-7s-6d. Hendref Owen Isaf:   ‘Farm house, garden, cow house and beast house want repair. Barn and beast house are slated. This farm lies high and is only fit for stock. The sheep walk is a good mixture of wet and dry land; has a north aspect.’ Tenant: Margaret Thomas. Tithe value: £7-0s-0d.

Ffald- y- dref: ‘Includes farm house, cow house, a stable in good order, and a barn needing repair. The land is well managed and the tenant has raised a great deal of stone wall this last year. He is still doing so, which is very improvable for the lands and he should be allowed for it. Also the fences above the trees.’ Tenant: Thomas Jones. Tithe value: £5-2s-6d.

Pant- y- crybach: ‘Cottage, cow house and garden: want repair.’ Tenant: Richard Jenkins. Tithe value: £1-2s-6d.

Llwyncoedwr: ‘Includes homestead, road and garden. This property is let on a lease for a 1000 years. 300 years of which term is expired.’ Tenant: John Jones. Tithe value: £6-5s-0d.

Drehir: ‘House, garden and back kitchen in good repair. Farm house, cow house, stables, court yard and garden in pretty good repair, but inconvenient.’ Tenant: John Jones. Tithe value: £10-5s-0d.

Melincwrt/Court Mill: ‘Contains two cottages, gardens, and a cowshed in bad repair (…) Corn Mill overshot, 2 pair of stones in pretty good repair. A two-storey house, good garden and cottage in good repair, (…) two cottages, one empty in bad repair, a small garden house, shop and garden in good repair (…). Public House and cottage in bad repair. Good large garden. Tenant: John Jones. Tithe value: £0-12s-6d.

 

 

In 1814, the total estimated value of the Manor of Resolven, which stretched from Blaengwrach to Melincwrt, was £44,950-19s-2d, including £10, 974 for timber.