Topic summary
Rhondda Valley
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Rhondda.
Industrial growth (1850–1914)
Initially the shallower pits at Aberdare proved a bigger attraction to prospective mine owners, but once Aberdare became fully worked by the 1860s, the Rhondda saw rapid growth. During the 1860s and the 1870s, 20 Rhondda Valley collieries opened, with the leading owner in the Rhondda Fach being David Davis of Aberdare, and David Davies in the Rhondda Fawr. In 1865, the coal output from the Rhondda Valley was roughly one-quarter of that of Aberdare; ten years later the Rhondda was producing over two million tons more than the Aberdare valleys. These figures would later be dwarfed by massive excavation rates in the last quarter of the 19th century and up to the First World War. In 1913, Rhondda Valley output was 9.6 million tons.