Williamstown ( cy, Trewiliam) is a village in the
Rhondda Valley in the
county borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...
of
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vill ...
, within the
historic county boundaries of
Glamorgan, Wales. Williamstown was founded in the 1870s, is located at the foot of Mynydd Dinas and is a district of neighbouring village
Penygraig
Penygraig is a village and community in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. As a community Penygraig contains the neighbouring districts of Dinas, Edmondstown, Penrhiwfer and Williamstown. Penygraig is within ...
.
Early history
Before the Rhondda was
industrialised in the mid to late 19th century, the area where Williamstown now resides, was made up of woodlands occupied by sparsely populated farmlands. Williamstown exhibits very little evidence of early habitation, a few
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
cairns have been discovered on Mynydd Dinas, but most hafodi and farm houses tended to group around the
River Rhondda located lower down the valley.
Much of the land in the Rhondda, once controlled by individual farmers, had been bought up by wealthy
absentee landlord
In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 book ...
s by the start of the 19th century. The land which would become Williamstown was bought by
Walter Coffin, the pioneer of
coal mining in the Rhondda, around the 1850s. In 1867 this land was inherited by the Williams family, through their father, a cousin of Coffin. The Williams family gave their name to the town that was built on their land and among the trustees of the family was Caroline Elizabeth Williams,
Arthur John Williams and Morgan Bransby Williams.
The Rhondda.com
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External links
References
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Villages in Rhondda Cynon Taf