china

• population growth in china

  more job availability + demand for workers -> overcrowding

  only 4 families in merthyr in 1750

  by 1861, population = 51,949
• development of transport links


  taff vale railway in 1841

  glamorgan canal in 1794 links Merthyr to cardiff
• public health


  houses lack clean water - sewage emptied in street

  damp + dirty - tuberculosis, smallpox, Scarlett fever

  life expectancy

  • 22 for a worker
  • 50 for an ironmaster
• truck system


  park of wage in tokens only spent in 'Tommy shops' - expensive

  outlawed after the 1831 merthyr rising

  encourage workers to 'buy on loan' - increasing debt
• poverty crimes


  pickpockets - child = rodnies

  theft of clothes, food, coal = 70% of crime
• leisure crimes


  brawling - female = 'Brecon Jane' Powell

  drunkeness

  disorderly behaviour
• ironworks crime


  theft of company property

  anger towards the ironmaster
• chinas criminal underworld


  celestial empire run by powerful criminal - emperor, empress

  emperor John jones + dai'r cantwr leading roles in Rebecca riots

  became a hiding place for criminals escaping the law
• prostitution


  60 in china

  minded/protected by 'bullies'

  Peggy two constables

  petty theft
• policing in china


  glamorgan county constabulary 1841 - 12 officers assigned to merthyr + dowlais

  self policing + community punishment: ceffyl pren

  local riots, local militia called in

  13 officers to police population of 46000
• merthyr rising 1831


  long term causes = wage cuts, unemployment, debt

  short term causes = crawshay cuts to wages + lay off workers

  crowd of 7,000 - castle inn

  24 protestors dead, 70 wounded, 16 soldiers wounded

  soldiers from brecon barracks

  imprison, 4 transport, 1 execution (Richard lewis)
• establishing a police force

  Thomas jamieson - appointed chief police officer, short lived ends 1834

  1st station opens 1844

  1st merthyr borough force opens 1908

  library + temperance associations to distract from crime

  move to CDF - steelworks, richer pickings
• iron industry revolves around 4 major ironworks


  penydarren - homfray family

  plymouth - hill family

  cyfartha - crawshay family, near china 'little hell'

  dowlais - John guest, biggest, employs 7,300
• living conditions


  overcrowded + unhealthy - no planning laws

  contaminated water

  3rd highest mortality rate in UK

  open sewers

  4 cholera outbreaks 1832-1866: 1849 - 1500 dead
• types of housing in china

  skilled workers had terraced houses: 2/3 bed, outside toilet

  courts: houses built around a square, shared toilet

  cellar dwellings: basement of 3 story buildings, 1 room 1 family, dark + damp, windowless, where the poorest lived
• criminals in the celestial empire

  may 1846-47 >50 criminals of the empire apprehended

  emperor + empress Benjamin richards + anne Evans found guilty various crimes - transported

  1834 anne harman accused of being unfaithful - ceffyl pren
• crime after Jamieson's dismissal 


  stocks + ceffyl pren still used

  1831 rising + chartism - Newport rising 1839