Williamstown () is a village in the

Rhondda Valley Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fawr valley (, 'la ...

in the county borough of

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff () and Ely valleys, ...

, within the historic county boundaries of

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

, Wales. Williamstown was founded in the 1870s, is located at the foot of Mynydd Dinas and is a district of neighbouring village

Penygraig Penygraig is a village and community in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. As a community Penygraig contains the neighbouring districts of Dinas, Edmondstown, Penrhiwfer and Williamstown. Penygraig is wi ...

Early history

Before the Rhondda was

industrialised Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

in the mid to late 19th century, the area where Williamstown now resides, was made up of woodlands occupied by sparsely populated farmlands. Williamstown exhibits very little evidence of early habitation, a few

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s have been discovered on Mynydd Dinas, but most hafodi and farm houses tended to group around the

River Rhondda The River Rhondda () is a river in South Wales with two major tributaries, ''Rhondda Fawr'' (meaning ''big Rhondda'') and ''Rhondda Fach'' (meaning ''little Rhondda''). Description The river has two major Tributary, tributaries, the ''Rhondd ...

located lower down the valley. Much of the land in the Rhondda, once controlled by individual farmers, had been bought up by wealthy

absentee landlord In economics, an absentee landlord is a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. The term "absentee ownership" was popularised by economist Thorstein Veblen's 1923 b ...

s by the start of the 19th century. The land which would become Williamstown was bought by

Walter Coffin Walter Coffin (1784 – 15 February 1867) was a Welsh coalowner and Member of Parliament. Coffin is recognised as the first person to exploit the rich coal fields of the Rhondda Valley on an industrial scale, becoming one of the wealthiest coal ...

, the pioneer of

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

in the Rhondda, around the 1850s. In 1867 this land was inherited by the Williams family, through their father, a cousin of Coffin. The Williams family gave their name to the town that was built on their land and among the trustees of the family was Caroline Elizabeth Williams, Arthur John Williams and Morgan Bransby Williams.The Rhondda.com
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External links

References

{{authority control Villages in Rhondda Cynon Taf