MERTHYR TYDFIL

IRON METROPOLIS

Life in a Welsh Industrial Town

by Keith Strange

In April 1850, the Morning Chronicle was horrified by the sheer

density of pubs:

There is one public house or beer shop to every 241/2houses. Out of seven adjoining houses in one of the streets, I counted five public houses and beershops... In Dowlais alone there are not less than 75 of these houses.

Despite the best efforts of the local magistrates and police to enforce regulations concerning opening hours, one could secure a drink at any hour of the day or night, nor were there any age restrictions. As the Merthyr Guardian put it in December 1848:

It is quite painful to enter one of the more popular beer-shops, and see grown up men, with their children - little old men of 12 and 13, drinking beer in plenteous draughts, and smoking their pipes with as much importance as men of larger growth.