Personal experiences
Diary extracts:
Tuesday August 12th 1766
"One of the Labourers left his work, at 12 in order to go to Brecon, as an Evicence against a Woman for poisoning her husband he being a Lodger was being desired by her to buy some yellow Arsnick to kill ratts, which she put into some Broth & gave to her husband. An Acct came this day that as soon as she heard the Trumpet sound upon the Judge going into Brecon she expired in Gaol. However the Man went to Brecon"
Extract from The Diary of Charles Wood of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil 1766-1767. Edited by Joseph Gross with an introduction by Philip Riden. Published by Merton Priory Press in 2001
Visits:
"Merthyr was long proud queen of the South Wales coal field, and together with Dowlais ruled the Welsh coal and iron market. As an old mining engineer I had long been thinking over the dire plight of that region, and here was the chance to explore its dark valleys.
Saturday, market day, when I got to Merthyr, and to my surprise found the streets crowded, full of market folk. It looked so busy and thriving, one fancied the peace news must have sent the pit folk crowding to town as in the days before the Great War and the coal slump.
I lunched at a market inn ; two farmers and a tea traveller at the same table. They talked freely - said you could not judge Merthyr by a Saturday crowd, for the town was "hard put to", and the shopkeepers who had been giving long credit were in a bad way, and may never get paid. The tea traveller added cheerfully: "The womenfolk might do without meat, but must have their tea - lots of them live on tea and sardines"
An extract from "Wales England Wed" an Autobiography by Ernest Rhys published in 1940