Dowlais

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Dowlais
Guest Memorial Library, Dowlais.
Guest Memorial Library, Dowlais.
Coordinates 51 ° 46 ′  N , 3 ° 20 ′  W Coordinates: 51 ° 46 ′  N , 3 ° 20 ′  W
Dowlais (Wales)
Dowlais
Dowlais
Residents 6926 (as of 2011)
administration
Post town Merthyr Tydfil
ZIP code section CF48
prefix 01685 38
Part of the country Wales
Preserved County Mid glam organ
Unitary authority Merthyr Tydfil
British Parliament Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney

Dowlais ( ˈdɔu̯lai̯s ) is a place ( community ) in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales . At the 2011 census , the place had 6,926 inhabitants. Dowlais is known for its historical role in the iron industry (ironworking); at times the Dowlais Ironworks (Dowlais Iron Company) employed 5,000 people and the plant was the largest in the world at the time.

Surname

The name comes from the Welsh du for black and glais for electricity.

history

Dowlais went through an enormous development in the 18th and 19th centuries through the expansion of the Dowlais Ironworks. In the mid-1840s, between 5,000 and 7,000 men, women and children were employed there. From the beginning of the 19th century to the mid-1800s, the ironworks were run by Sir John Josiah Guest and, from 1833, by his wife, Lady Charlotte Guest . Lady Guest also introduced welfare measures for the iron workers. She built a church and a library. The school (from 1819) was expanded and improved to become "perhaps the most important and advanced school not only in the industrial history of South Wales but in all of Great Britain." In the 1850s, after Sir John's death, the plant came under the control of one Board of Trustees provided. In 1865 the Bessemer process was introduced and £ 33,000 was spent on new steel furnaces. Steel production in Dowlais finally ended in 1936 as a result of the global economic crisis , the iron foundry was operated until 1987.

Dowlais originally belonged to the municipality ( Parish ) Merthyr Tydfil . In 1872 the place had 15,590 inhabitants.

administration

Dowlais is still a constituency (Electoral Ward). In 2003, Dowlais was represented by the independent MP and Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil, John Pritchard.

Attractions

Hardly anything is left of the Victorian buildings that shaped the townscape until the 1930s. Two notable buildings from this period are the Engine House , now used as a community center, and the Stable Block, now public housing.

The mansion Dowlais House , where John Guest and Charlotte Guest lived and where Charlotte Guest translated the Mabinogion , was unfortunately destroyed. The Guest Memorial Library , commissioned by Charlotte Guest in 1863 and designed by Charles Barry , still stands.

St John's Church , a Grade II listed building, is the burial place of several important figures, including John Guest, who built the church in 1827. St John's closed in 1997 but was preserved with government money ( Welsh Government ).

Sports

Dowlais is home to the rugby union club, Dowlais RFC .

Personalities

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Community population 2011. Accessed May 15, 2015 .
  2. ^ Dowlais Ward : 2011 Census: Census Area Statistics. National Statistics: UK government 2016-01-23.
  3. ↑ Dowlais Ironworks, Merthyr Ttydfil. Coflein. 2017-01-04.
  4. ^ Birch: Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry : 255.
  5. ^ "Probably the most important and most progressive not only in the industrial history of South Wales, but of the whole of Britain". Birch: Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry. : 291-5.
  6. ^ Birch: Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry : 291.
  7. ^ Birch: Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry : 358.
  8. ^ Dowlais Glamorgan: Vision of Britain University of Portsmouth (digitized version of the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales from 1872)
  9. ↑ Civic cheerleader on the taxes. Wales Online 2003-07-01.
  10. ^ Katie Sands: Church that hasn't been used for 20 years to get £ 100k cash boost to help convert it into 20 flats. Wales Online 2015-10-29.

Web links

Commons : Dowlais  - collection of images, videos and audio files