Rhymney, United Kingdom

In 1906 John Edward Lloyd, the Welsh historian, documented that in 1800 David Evans, Thomas Williams, John Ambrose and Richard Cunningham entered into an agreement to build a furnace and to carry on an iron works and a cast iron trade on a plot of land owned by the Duke of Beaufort and Mr Glover. The name of the firm was The Union Iron Company. The works started production in 1801. Two years later negotiations were conducted by Benjamin Hall and a partnership was formed between Richard Crawshay, Watkin George, Benjamin Hall, Richard Cunningham and Thomas Williams to form The Union Iron Works Company. After documenting the arrangements of the partnership, Lloyd (1906) then documented: 'then appears the following remarkable provision: about which Jones commented: 'Possibly it refers to a Small Forge or Smith's Shop being established.'

In the following year a dispute arose between Cunningham and Crawshay whereby the latter accused the former 'with having improperly drawn up bills on account of the co-partnership', of being, as Lloyd (1906) put it, 'a swindler, or words to that effect.' Subsequently Cunningham responded to the dispute by inaugurating a suit against Crawshay and others which alleged that his signature on the deed of Dissolution of the previous partnership had been improperly obtained and under threats and duress, and was altogether void ....' Lloyd (1906) commented: 'it may be assumed that Mr. Cunningham could not, and did not, continue a member of the firm any longer'. And he observed that, after 1806: A whole troupe of English Ironmasters had invaded the Welsh Hills, the indigenous Welsh inhabitants being either lookers-on, or hewers and drawers for those who, with capital and skill, soon changed the solitudes of the high plateau land and the valleys and slopes of the mountains, from a solitude into a teeming hive of human industry. The Welsh looked on and wondered at the changes effected before their eyes: great furnaces being erected in every direction, and money lavishly expended by strangers, of whom they scarcely knew the names, and nothing as to where they came from, except from Staffordshire, London, or Bristol.

In 1825 the Bute Iron Works were built, so-called because it was built on land owned by the Marquess of Bute. It was situated on the right bank of the River Rhymney and immediately opposite the Union Iron Works. Its partners were William Forman, Thomas Seton and Thomas Johnson. The lease for the land was for 92 years. However, a few years after 1825 or thereabouts, the owners of the adjoining Bute Works and The Union Iron Works Company agreed that they should be amalgamated to form one company, the Rhymney Iron Company (Rhymney and Bute). Mushet (1840) observed that the company had six blast furnaces.

Coal mining was occurring at Rhymney by 1870, with employee strikes of 1871, 1873, and April 1875, with a strike averted there and at nearby Dowlais.

In 1906, Sir Henry W. Tyler, the Chairman of Rhymney Iron Company, Limited wrote to Lloyd from London in response to a request for information from him about the modern history of the iron works. Tyler recalled:

A strike was threatened in July 1890 by employees of the Taff Vale and Rhymney Railway, who were seeking a reduction of working hours down to sixty hours a week. The directors threatened to close the railway, and the Cardiff Docks and Colliery too, impacting 150,000 persons.

By the early 20th century the town's collieries employed nearly the entire local population.

September 1906 saw a short strike of 6,000 miners due to the employment of non-unionist labour. The scene again was repeated in April 1913, this time with 52,000 Rhondda and Rhymney union miners against the 50,000 non-union miners employed by mine owners.

August 1911 saw the South Wales anti-Jewish riots in Rhymney, Ebbw Vale, and Tredegar, over "a long-standing grievance with respect to house rents". Shops were looted, and persons injured in conflicts with police and military personnel.

In June 1920, 15,000 miners went on strike, in support of 2,000 miners of the nearby Bargoed Colliery, over safety concerns.

In June 1925, the Rhymney United Choir of 190 mixed voices under conductor John Price gave a command performance before King George V and the Queen at Windsor Castle. The choir had won the National Eisteddfod several times. Pieces included 'God Bless the Prince of Wales', 'Yr Haf', 'Bugeilio'r gweneth gwyn', 'Hob y deri dando', 'Efe a ddaw', 'Llan baglan', 'Aberystwyth', and the 'Welsh national anthem'.

Residents of the valley faced water shortages in October 1925 with a drought to the local reservoir. In late 1925, with the slump in a demand for British coal, 5000 miners of the valley were dismissed by the Powell Durry Steam Coal Company Limited; the valley population given to be 20,000.