Aberdare, Glamorgan

Description
Aberdare, a market-town and parish in Glamorgan. The town stands at the confluence of the Dare and the Cynon, 5 miles SW of Merthyr-Tydvil, and 24 NNW of Cardiff. It has stations on the G.W. and the Taff Vale railways, and the Glamorgan Canal also connects it with Cardiff. The scenery around it is picturesque. Extensive collieries and ironworks are adjacent; and these have raised the place, since about the year 1835, from the condition of a village to that of a large and flourishing town. The parish church of St John the Baptist, a plain stone building, consisting of nave and chancel, dates from the llth century, and was rebuilt in 1859. St Elvan's, a handsome church in the Decorated style, situated on rising ground near the centre of the town, was built in 1850 ; it has a beautiful peal of eight bells, and a very good choir, and the services are entirely in English. St Mary's, in Pembroke Street, a beautiful church in the French Gothic style, was built in 1865; the services are in Welsh. There are numerous dissenting chapels. A fine park of 49 acres was opened in 1869. The principal public buildings are the town-hall, which contains the offices of the local board, school board, &c.; the police station, which also contains the petty sessions room and an armoury for volunteers; the temperance hall, in which the sittings of the county court are lield; the Conservative Club, opened in 1893; and the market-place, in which markets are held on Saturdays. There are three annual fairs on 1st and 16th April, and on 13th Nov. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office. The town is well lighted and the water supply is good. The coal obtained from the collieries in the district is considered the best steam coal in Wales, and is largely used in the navy and the great steamship lines. Population, 38,431.

The parish contains the hamlets of Aberaman, Abernant, Cap Coch, Cwmaman, Cwmdare, Hirwain, Llwydcoed, and Trecynon, and is all within the parliamentary borough of Merthyr-Tydvil. Acreage, 16,619; population of the civil parish, 40,917 ; of the ecclesiastical, 25,811. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of St Elvan, Hirwain, and St Mary, in the diocese of Llandaff; net value, £173. Patron, the Marquis of Bute. The Welsh poet Owen was a native, and the dissenting theologian E. Evans died here.