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Concept
Treherbert
Summary
Treherbert () is a village and community situated at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Historically part of Glamorgan, Treherbert is a former industrial coal mining village which was at its economic peak between 1850 and 1920. Treherbert is the upper most community of the Rhondda Fawr and encompasses the districts of Blaencwm, Blaenrhondda, Tynewydd and Pen-yr-englyn.
'Tre-Herbert' or 'Tre Herbert' is correctly pronounced as in 'Tre Herbert'. 'Tre' is a mutation of the Welsh word ‘Tref’, meaning ‘town’, derived from the word for a homestead or hamlet under old Cymric law. ‘Herbert’ was the surname of the Earls of Pembroke, a dynasty of local magnates.
There is evidence of settlements in the Rhondda dating back to Celtic times, but prior to the Industrial Revolution and the advent of coal mining the villages of Treherbert, Tynewydd, Blaenrhondda and Blaencwm consisted of a number of isolated rural farms and scattered homesteads. In 1841 there were only 218 people residing in the 'Middle hamlet of Treherbert', which had risen to 1,203 by 1861.
In August 1845, the trustees of the Marquess of Bute bought the Cwmsaerbren farm from William Davies for a fee of £11,000 to sink the first steam coal pit in the Rhondda valley. A trial pit was sunk from 1850, but progress was slow because all equipment was carried over rough tracks by horse and cart from the Taff Vale Railway's then terminus at Dinas. In April 1853 the first seam of what was called the Bute Merthyr Colliery was struck at a depth of 125 yards, and production was begun in early 1855.
Parish records showed the first use of the name Treherbert from January 1855, commemorating the Herbert earls of Pembroke, one of the ancestors of the Marquess of Bute. The first 38 wagons of steam coal were transported from the newly extended Taff Vale Railway station at Gelligaled (Ystrad) to Cardiff Docks on 21 December 1855. Installation of the railway line facilitated the rapid expansion of the village, and the need to build new houses, the first rows of which were built at Bute Street, Dumfries Street, and Baglan Street.
Official source
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