David Davis, Blaengwawr (1797 – 19 May 1866), was a leading figure in the South Wales coal industry and a founder of the
steam coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dead ...
trade.
David Davis was born in Llanddeusant, Carmarthenshire, in 1797.
At a young age, he went to Merthyr Tydfil, where he served an apprenticeship with a relative before opening his own business at
Hirwaun
Hirwaun is a village and community at the north end of the Cynon Valley in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. It is NW of the town of Aberdare, and comes under the Aberdare post town. At the 2001 census, Hirwaun had a populat ...
. The business was successful and he soon became involved in small scale mining at Rhigos. This colliery (with its wharf at Briton Ferry near
Neath
Neath (; cy, Castell-nedd) is a market town and community situated in the Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,258 in 2011. Historica ...
) was sold in 1847, but by that time Davis had taken a lease of valuable steam-coal seams on the Blaengwawr estate at
Aberaman. He sank a pit therein 1843, and transported the coal to Cardiff on the
Glamorganshire Canal
The Glamorganshire Canal in South Wales, UK, was begun in 1790. It ran along the valley of the River Taff from Merthyr Tydfil to the sea at Cardiff. The final section of canal was closed in 1951.
History
Construction started in 1790; being wa ...
until the
Taff Vale Railway
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...
was opened in 1847.
At this time, Davis moved from Hirwaun to a house that he built at Blaengwawr. He also built another house, Maesyffynnon, for his son,
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus,