dic Inpenderyn the footsteps of Follow in the footsteps of Dic Penderyn. Was he a hero, 5 villain or victim of the 1831 Merthyr Rising? You decide!

Our trail through takes us to places where the leaders of the rising would have met to formulate their plans and to the locations of several flashpoints during the rising which led ultimately to the massacre of some 26 workers. Dic Penderyn himself was hanged for the alleged stabbing of a British soldier, but the Merthyr Rising PenderynThe New Crown Square Inn (site lives on through the symbolism of the red flag, first flown of the former Castle Inn) as an emblem of workers’ protest during the events of 1831.

The Crown Inn JOSEPH D PARRY’S AIL AN 6 COTTAGE HE TR OW T 2 OLL ITED 0 F VIS 1 EN 4 WH A TICK OFF

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W ST E RE R 2 E N 0 #MerthyrTownTrailsT 1 4 welovemerthyr.co.uk TURN OVER FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EACHA STOP… @welovemerthyr

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A 2 3 The Crown Inn Although we cannot be Three Horse Shoes (now Court of Requests 1 sure exactly where, it was O’Sullivan’s Celtic Bar) The scene of one of the early in places such as this Grade Through March and April 1831, the flashpoints of the Merthyr Rising, 4 II listed former coaching situation in Merthyr Tydfil deteriorated. the Court of Requests was where Pontmorlais inn that the participants in the Merthyr One of the ironmasters, William records of the workers’ debts were Here you can you can see the Rising would have met to formulate their Crawshay, had announced wage kept. Its bailiffs ruthlessly pursued original route the workers would plans. Previous decades were marked cuts for his workers and the voting those debtors, confiscating their have taken in those first days by simmering unrest, punctuated by reform crisis was in full swing. belongings. of June, marching from the occasional outbreaks of violence such Penydarren, Hirwaun and Cyfarthfa as the riots and strikes of 1800 and This public house was a well-known The final days of May had seen Ironworks down to the town 1816. At the heart of this discontent meeting place for the 1831 radicals a mass meeting of some 2000 via Pontmorlais. was variable wages, amidst this simmering unrest. Built in workers at the Waun above Dowlais, rising food prices 1795, it had spacious rooms inside as protesting against the stalled If you have time to explore a bit and widespread debt. well as space for outdoor meetings. Reform Bill and against the Court further, drop into Canolfan Soar, Conflict between Unfortunately for the protesters, of Requests. It may have been on a former chapel now hosting the Ironmasters there is evidence that a this occasion that a cloth was dipped Merthyr Tydfil’s Welsh (owners of Merthyr’s government spy infiltrated in calf blood and raised for the first language and culture huge ironworks) their meetings time as a symbol of workers’ protest. centre. and workers was and therefore ongoing. By the spring the ironmasters In the early days of of 1831, alongside knew a great June, insurrection followed including demands for higher wages and better deal of the the storming of the living conditions, the movement for workers’ plans Court of Requests, the extension of the franchise had in 1831. which you see in also found a Welsh base. Amidst rising front of you. The tension, protesters would have gathered crowd released the in the large back rooms of inns such property which had as this to discuss their grievances been seized and and demands. 6 held there, restoring Now make your way along Swan Street it to its former owners, whilst the 8 and follow the River Taff northwards, debt records were systematically destroyed by burning or thrown crossing to the west bank in front of the fire station. Merthyr’s Iron Heart into the nearby River Taff. The iron heart in the corner of Merthyr Tydfil 5 Penderyn Square is the work of artist Central Library David Appleyard. It is based on a motif So, what was Dic Penderyn’s fate after from Watkin George’s iron bridge the defeat of the rising? A plaque on the which would have crossed the River 7 Penderyn Square (site library’s exterior, funded by the Church Taff at the time of the Merthyr Rising, in and the local Trades Council, although sadly the bridge is no longer of the former Castle Inn) commemorates the events of 1831 The Castle Inn, now a grassed area at the there. Appleyard wanted to reflect the and notes that he was hanged at north end of Penderyn Square, was the focal town’s iron heritage but also designed Y Dic Penderyn The naming of Y Dic Penderyn public Gaol on August 13th 1831. Though point for the main confrontations of the it as a nod to Dic Penderyn himself the facts are disputed, he was alleged Merthyr Rising over several days. saying: house is symbolic of the importance of the Merthyr Rising in working class to have stabbed a soldier, Donald Black It was here that the ironmasters met “The iron heart from the iron bridge protest. of the Highland Regiment, in the thigh a delegation of workers, including Dic provides the perfect metaphor for during the conflict outside the Penderyn, to discuss their Merthyr. It has a direct link to the days When the building was purchased Castle Inn. by JD Wetherspoon, it was originally grievances. The ironmasters of the iron masters, it was originally In 2016, delayed, whilst cast in Cyfarthfa Ironworks using iron named after Josiah John Guest, owner of the Dowlais Iron Company a petition requesting that made in Merthyr Tydfil, it has a personal protesting his more troops be sent connection to Dic Penderyn and it and Merthyr’s first MP. Following a campaign by the Dic Penderyn innocence to Merthyr, but the has existed and become weathered and seeking a patience of the throughout the last 200 years of Society, it was renamed more suitably for its historic location, posthumous workers ran out. Merthyr’s history. It is still here.” pardon was When a large crowd no longer celebrating a Dowlais Don’t miss Welsh poet Gillian Clarke’s signed by some of protesters tried capitalist but rather a folklore hero, two works about the Merthyr Rising 11 000 people. to break into the Dic Penderyn. at the foot of the heart. The Welsh It cited the inn, they were met poem is in the form of an confession made some 40 years after by rapid fire from englyn, a traditional and the rising by another man, Ianto Parker, troops of the Argyll and Sutherland complex to the crime together with the admission Highlanders, resulting in at least 26 killed Welsh by a key witness, James Abbott, that he and probably treble that number injured. verse form had lied at the trial. Elsewhere, the yeomanry was dating back disarmed and sent packing but with the It should also be noted that Dic to the 9th subsequent arrival of extra soldiers, the Penderyn’s trial was held in English. century. insurrection began to collapse. He was a Welsh speaker.

In the following days, the women dragged How should we assess Dic Penderyn? the bodies of their loved ones away to Was he a hero, a villain, a victim or, as is bury them in secret graves on various recorded on this plaque, a martyr of the mountainsides. Welsh working class? You decide.

Thank you to local historian Viv Pugh who compiled this trail and to the alangeorge.co.uk website which hosts many photographs of old Merthyr Tydfil. More information about the Merthyr Rising is available from Merthyr Tydfil Library Service.