Wednesday 30th June 1819
but is a most contemptible object……. Wednesday June 30th This morning about eleven o’Clock Papa, Mama and I took a ride on horseback to Lantoni Abbey ten miles from Abergavenny, it is a beautiful ride but I was disappointed in the object of it the ruin is small
and partakes not of the elegance of Tintern Abbey; we returned in a post chaise and my brothers rode our horses home; we took our dinner and then advanced to Merther Tidvil on this road we first welcomed ourselves to Wales the mountains
are very high and beautifully wooded the town is very dirty on account of the very large iron works which are carried on here at ten o’Clock we took a survey of them and were highly delighted at seeing the furnaces opened; a ceremony which takes place every twelve hours; there are
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Abergavenny Castle “hunting lodge” was constructed on top of the motte the year the Coplands visited.
2019 - The 19th century keep at Abergavenny Castle by Ethan Doyle White, copyright holder, published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keep_at_Abergavenny_Castle.jpg
John Newman (The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire, Penguin Books, 2000, ISBN 0-14-071053-1, pp. 100–101) describes it as "an unsympathetically utilitarian structure, enlivened only by thin polygonal shafts at the angles." – Lucy finds it “most contemptible” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abergavenny_Castle
Llanthony Priory became one of the great medieval buildings in Wales, in a mixture of Norman and Gothic architectural styles. Renewed building took place around 1325, with a new gatehouse. On Palm Sunday, April 4, 1327, the deposed Edward II stayed at the Priory on his way from Kenilworth Castle to Berkeley Castle, where he is alleged to have been murdered.
1760 - Francis Chesham: A view of the Abbey Church at Llantony, from within the West Door. Black and white print on engraving, Collection National Library of Wales This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less.
2009 - Remains of Llanthony Priory, by John Armagh and released by him into the public domain for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
The buildings at Llanthony gradually decayed after the Dissolution to a ruin, although in the early 18th century the medieval infirmary was converted to the Church of St David.
In 1799 the estate was bought by Colonel Sir Mark Wood of Piercefield House, who adapted some of the buildings into a domestic house and shooting box. He then sold the estate in 1807 to the poet Walter Savage Landor. The ruins have attracted artists over the years, including J. M. W. Turner who painted them from the opposite hillside. Wood’s house later became the Abbey Hotel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanthony_Priory
Post chaise, four-wheeled, closed carriage, containing one seat for two or three passengers, that was popular in 18th-century https://www.britannica.com/technology/post-chaise Whilst Alex, William and Frank rode their horses back to Abergavenny, Lucy and the rest of the family hired a Post chaise
1876 : Annals of the road : or, Notes on mail and stage coaching in Great Britain by Malet & Nimrod, published by Longmans, Green, and Co., London
2015 Post chaise in Preston Street, Faversham - Enactment of the arrival of the post chaise bearing Major Percy and Commander James White RN with news of The Battle of Waterloo. Photograph by Pam Frey, source geograph.org.uk, with a Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0
Merthyr Tydfil: according to legend, the town is named after Tydfil, a daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, who was slain at Merthyr by pagans around 480.
Print showing the layout of Merthy Tydfil that the Copland’s might have seen on entering the town - from the National Library of Wales Collection at https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/20422 - Apart from various types of buildings, the scene includes a bridge and a church, with a tower of smoke in the distance. It is probably idealised and the town would have appeared more and more dirty as they progressed.
Being close to iron ore, coal, limestone, lumber and water, it was an ideal site for ironworks. By the peak of the Industrial revolution the districts held four of the greatest Ironworks in the world - Dowlais, Plymouth, Cyfarthfa and Penydarren. The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families who supported the establishment of schools for their workers. According to David Williams, in 1804, the world's first railway steam locomotive, "The Iron Horse", pulled 25 tons of iron with passengers on the new Merthyr Tramroad from Penydarren to Quakers Yard.
Numerous drawings and landscapes of villages, towns and landmarks in Wales and Ireland. By French artist Alphonse Dousseau between 1830 and 1869 available from the National Library of Wales and made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
In 1850, Thomas Carlyle wrote that the town was filled with such "unguided, hard-worked, fierce, and miserable-looking sons of Adam I never saw before. Ah me! It is like a vision of Hell, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling, all in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills”.
2006: Merthyr Tydfil's abandoned Cyfarthfa Ironworks. By Perceval at English Wikipedia who grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merthyr_Tydfil_Blast_Furnaces.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merthyr_Tydfil
An excellent potted history of the town together with a wide range of images can be found at https://www.peoplescollection.wales/collections/606527
Welsh Border? Although Monmouthshire was included in the 16th century legislation, it was treated anomalously, with the result that its legal status as a Welsh county fell into some ambiguity and doubt until the Local Government Act 1972. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England%E2%80%93Wales_border Lucy clearly considered Monmouthshire to be England, reaching Wales on the Abergavenny to Mertyr Tydfil road.
Penydarren ironworks is most likely the factory visited by the Copland’s at 10 o’clock in the evening when their furnaces were opened. Established in 1784 by the Homfray brothers, Penydarren was financed by William Forman of London, who provided all the capital, partly on mortgage but taking a share in it himself. Samuel Homfray left the business in 1813. In 1819, the partners were William Forman and William Thompson of London. William Thomson (1792 – 1854) had one daughter, no sons. On the next page we learn that two or three thousand men were employed and that the works belonged to Mr Thomson & Son. The other 3 major ironworks were Dowlais (Guest family), Plymouth (Hill family), Cyfarthfa (Crawshay family). The latter was visited later by Lucy but the Thomson name appears in the family as Robert Thompson Crawshay 1739–1810 who passed the business to his son, William Crawshay (1764 – 1834) at his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penydarren_Ironworks
Can you help us?
Who was the owner of “Mr Thomson & Son”? William Thomson (1792 – 1854), a partner in the Penydarren works, had one daughter, no sons. The site visited by Lucy was separate from the Cyfarthfa works visited on the next day. However, the Thompson name occurs regularly throughout several generations of the Crawshay family, with Robert Thompson Crawshay (1739–1810), Robert Thompson Crawshay (1817 – 1879) and William Thompson Crawshay (1817 - 1879) . or, as Wikipedia states, without reference, “the companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families” and the Mr Thomson & Son Ironworks could have been divisions of the Crayshaw family business. If not the Penydarren Works, could the Copland’s have visited either the Dowlais or the Plymouth Ironworks that evening?
Old Regency Prints or Pictures and maps of the Old Coaching Routes: Any illustrations of what Lucy would have seen in 1819 will bring our research alive. Any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and sites will enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought.