Markham is a small village in the

South Wales Valleys The South Wales Valleys () are a group of industrialised peri-urban valleys in South Wales. Most of the valleys run northsouth, roughly parallel to each other. Commonly referred to as "The Valleys" (), they stretch from Carmarthenshire in the ...

Caerphilly County Borough Caerphilly County Borough () is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It is governed by Caerphilly County Borough Council. Its main and largest town is Caerphilly. Other towns in the county borough are, Risca, Ystrad Mynach, Newbrid ...

, to the northeast of

Bargoed Bargoed () is a town and community (Wales), community in the Rhymney Valley, Wales, one of the South Wales Valleys. It lies on the Rhymney River in the county borough of Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly. It straddles the Historic counties o ...

. The B4511 road links to Markham from

Aberbargoed Aberbargoed () is a town in the County Borough of Caerphilly, Wales. Aberbargoed once contained the largest ever colliery waste tip in Europe, although this has now been reclaimed and turned into a country park. The town is within the histori ...

and joins the A4048 road to the north of Argoed. The

Sirhowy River The Sirhowy River () is a river in Wales and a tributary of the Ebbw River. Sources The Sirhowy River has its source on the slopes of Cefn Pyllau-duon above Tredegar. After flowing through Siôn-Sieffre's Reservoir it turns south through Tred ...

flows to the east of the village. The village's population was around 1,495 people in 2011.

History

The area was formerly known as ''"Berllan Llwyd"'' and this name appears on tithe maps until the twentieth century. The name would seem to mean "The Grey/Brown Orchard" and was also the name of a farm whose land the modern village was built on. The modern Miners Institute and Welfare Club occupy the site of the farm buildings. The nature of the area was dramatically changed when the Markham Steam Coal Company opened Markham Colliery in 1913. The mine cost £600,000 to sink, but the company also planned and built a new village which would house around 1,000 workers. This village quickly became known as ''Markham'' by both Welsh and English speakers. The planned village was seen as an attractive place to live, as exemplified by the often stated belief that Markham was the first mining village to have a bath in every property. It was shown as Markham Village on an Ordnance Survey map published in 1947, the village affix was dropped on later maps however. Markham Institute was funded by the colliery workers and built in 1928 on land formerly belonging to the Berllan-Llwyd farm. Today Markham is a district of the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of Argoed.

Landmarks

At the heart of the village is an active Congregational Chapel. It celebrated its centenary in 2016. A Welfare Hall was built during its time as a mining village, which also housed a cinema. Today the hall is still used as a Social Club. The village's primary school, Markham Primary School, is a feeder school for Blackwood Comprehensive School. Markham RFC currently play in the WRU Swalec League Five South East. Markham RFC have won the Cyrus Davies Cup three times. They have also been semi-finalists of the Worthington Districts Cup three times.

Notable people from Markham

Gerwyn Price Gerwyn Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh professional darts player and former professional rugby union and rugby league player. He competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world ...

— 2021 World Champion and three-time

Grand Slam of Darts The Grand Slam of Darts is a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation and is known as the Mr Vegas Grand Slam of Darts for sponsorship purposes. The PDC used to invite the best performing players from its rival, the Briti ...

champion and the first Welshman to win a PDC televised major. He is a 6-time major champion and the number eight player in the world according to the rankings as of February 2025.

References

{{authority control Villages in Caerphilly County Borough 1913 establishments in Wales