Aberaman
Aberaman
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 Lewis Street, the main shopping district of the village |
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 Aberaman
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| Aberaman shown within Rhondda Cynon Taff | |
| Population | 9,865 (2011) |
| Principal area | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Aberdare |
| Postcode district | CF44 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | South Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | |
Aberaman is a village near Aberdare in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. It was heavily dependent on the coal industry and the population, as a result, grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Most of the industry has now disappeared and a substantial proportion of the working population travel to work in Cardiff and the M4 corridor.
Aberaman, to the south of Aberdare, was an agricultural area until the early nineteenth century. Prior to the industrial revolution, Aberaman was the home of the Mathew family, local gentry who owned land throughout Glamorgan and who came to prominence in the seventeenth century when three members of the family served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan. The family seat was at Aberaman Isha, later known as Aberaman House (and which still exists in 2014 but is much altered). The last of the Mathew family, Edward Mathew, died in 1788 and the estate was broken up after two centuries and divided between his three daughters and their husbands.
In 1806, Anthony Bushby Bacon, an illegitimate son of Anthony Bacon, a prominent iron master at Merthyr Tydfil, bought Aberaman House. He shared the Hirwaun ironworks with his brother but proceeded to sell his share to his brother and with the proceeds from the sale, he purchased the Matthews estate at Aberaman, including Aberaman House. Bacon, also known as Anthony Bacon II, did not aspire to be an iron master like his father and, in 1814, sold the entire Cyfarthfa estate, which he alone had inherited, to Richard Crawshay. For the rest of his life he used the Aberaman estate as a summer residence. He died there on 11 August 1827.
After his death, it passed to Crawshay Bailey, who owned the ironworks at Nant-y-Glo and Beaufort. Bailey recognised the potential of the rich coal seams of the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys and bought up land in these areas in the 1830s. Amongst the lands he acquired was the Aberaman estate, which he bought from the executors of Anthony Bacon II, together with its mansion, by indenture dated 17 February 1837. It was several years before he began speculating for coal. By 1845, Crawshay Bailey had, in partnership with Josiah John Guest, built the Aberdare Railway and, around this time, the Aberaman Ironworks and a number of collieries associated with it were opened. Bailey remained the owner of the Aberaman Estate but despite the profitability of his colliery activities, the depression in the iron trade (see below) meant that the enterprise did not prove as successful as Bailey had hoped so he decided to sell the Aberaman estate and return to Monmouthshire. He disposed of the entire Aberaman estate including its collieries, ironworks, brickworks and private railway, to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Co. by indenture dated 2 February 1867 for the sum of £123,500. Bailey retired to Abergavenny.
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Wikipedia