Queen Coal

Just one point on 'The Story of Wales' the other night: as every Merthyr person knows who walks past the fountain at the bottom of town and bothers to read the writing on the plaque; it was Lucy Thomas, mine owner of Waunwyllt, Merthyr who opened up the South Wales coal field in 1828, 23 years before the opening up of the Rhondda Valleys, after she realized the commercial value of her high quality coal and took it up to the merchants in London. There were already 50 odd pits in the Merthyr area but they served the ironworks to smelt the iron. It was thanks to this pioneering entrepreneur, female at that, that David Davies of Llandinam and John Nixon of Merthyr Vale & Aberfan fame risked investing their last pennies in digging to the bowels of the earth. The programme showed the coalfield expanding around the Rhondda Valleys, but it was Merthyr that led the way to the opening up of the Rhondda & the other valleys, once more contributing to the wealth of Cardiff after it had already made Cardiff rich on the back of the iron trade.