Aberdare Urban District Council

Aberdare Urban District Council was a local authority in Aberdare, Wales. It was created in 1894 as a result of the 1894 Local Government of England and Wales Act and the Aberdare Urban District Council election, 1894 saw the election of the first members of the authority. The Council existed until 1973 and replaced the Aberdare Local Board of Health which had functioned since the 1840s. Its boundaries were identical to those of the original parish of Aberdare. Initially, the Council had fifteen members but this was increased to twenty in 1906, as a result of the increase in population. There were five wards, namely Aberaman (also known as No. 5 Ward), Blaengwawr (also known as No. 4 Ward), Gadlys (also known as No. 2 Ward), Llwydcoed (also known as No. 1 Ward), and the Town Ward (also known as No. 3 Ward).

The first councillors were elected at the 1894 elections.

Most of the first members of the authority had served on the Local Board, including the first chairman, Rees Hopkin Rhys who had chaired the Local Board since the 1860s. Other inaugural members included Rees Llewellyn, owner of the Bwllfa Colliery and Edmund Mills Hann who later became a director of Powell Duffryn Collieries. All three of these men were leading figures in the industrial life of the valley and beyond. From the outset there was a strong representation on the Council of middle-class nonconformist liberals, who were typical of the new elite who rose to prominence in Wales in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods. Chief among these were Benjamin Evans, minister of Gadlys Chapel, Thomas Humphreys, minister of Seion, Cwmaman, and Griffith George, a prominent businessman in the town. All three were leading Baptists.

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