Trecynon
| Trecynon | |
|---|---|
 Public Hall and Library, Trecynon |
|
 Trecynon
|
|
| Trecynon shown within Rhondda Cynon Taf | |
| OS grid reference | SN995035 |
| Principal area | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ABERDARE |
| Postcode district | CF44 |
| Dialling code | 01685 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | South Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | |
| Welsh Assembly | |
Trecynon is a village near Aberdare situated in the Cynon Valley, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It dates from the early nineteenth century and its developed as a result of the opening of the Aberdare Ironworks at Llwydcoed in 1800.
The settlement was originally known as Heol-y-Felin (translated as Mill Street) due its location on the road to Llwydcoed Mill. This name was still in use in 1855 when Heolyfelin Chapel was established. The name Trecynon was adopted around 1860 after a competition was held at a local eisteddfod competition to decide upon a name for the village.
In 1811, the Robertstown Tramway Bridge, was built over the river Cynon, linking Heolyfelin and Robertstown. It is the oldest of its kind in the world.
Until 1800 there was only one house at Heol-y-Felin, next to Hen-Dy-Cwrdd Unitarian Chapel, built in 1751. As the iron industry attracted migrants to the Aberdare District there was an increased demand for housing, and, as a result Heol-y-Felin began to grow. Many of the earliest houses in were built along the main road from Aberdare to Hirwaun.
By the 1860s Heol-y-Felin had become one of the main population centres in the parish of Aberdare Parish,and Harriet Street, Ebenezer Street, Alma Street, Mount Pleasant Street and Margaret Street were all built in this period.
Such rapid and intensive development inevitably led to public health problems, as were revealed in 1853 when Thomas Webster Rammell prepared a report for the general Board of Health on the condition of public health in Aberdare. Heol-y-Felin was not considered the worst case in the district by any means but there wereconcerns. John Griffith, Vicar of Aberdare, reported that:
"There is not, to my knowledge, a place in Aberdare more filthy than the neighbourhood of the Royal Oak in the same quarter of the town. Mill-Street proper is in a very bad state from the ash-heaps of rubbish and filth thrown into and lying on the centre of the road."
Likewise, local industrialist Rees Hopkin Rhys reported: "Many of the houses in this quarter are of a very inferior description, and these have no privy accommodation whatever. The new houses, here, as a rule, have one privy for two houses."
...
Wikipedia