Merthyr Tydfil and Rosa’s story
Why does a seventeen year old girl leave her home and family behind in Merthyr Tydfil in the 1940s to start a new life in London, and at a time when the city was under constant threat of air attacks, with people constantly being killed?
This part of my story in Secrets of the Royal Maid is true, it really happened. That was the hard decision my lead character, Rosa Edwards, made to escape a life of poverty.
But the town in south Wales didn’t always face such hardship. It was once a prosperous powerhouse of innovation and industry, and in the early 19th century, the largest iron producing town in the world. The world’s first steam-powered train also set off from Merthyr, needed to transport coal and iron to ports.
But it was thanks to the discovery of its mineral resources that the fortunes of what was once a small farming village were transformed, gaining worldwide recognition for its iron industry that relied on coal. Coal was first used to replace timber-charcoal for iron smelting, enabling huge increases in iron and steel production.
Merthyr played a massive role in the Industrial Revolution and generations of the local workforce were employed down collieries to supply steam coal needed for the iron works to function and to export. Mining communities grew, but the work was dangerous, the conditions tough and health impacts were severe.
After WWI the industry declined sharply. Mines and ironworks closed, leading to unemployment and poverty. Merthyr was hit hard during the Great Depression. Miners were faced with poor working conditions and wage cuts that led to major protests and strikes, culminating in the closure of many pits.
This is this background that set the scene when Rosa Edwards was born in Nantygwenith Street, Georgetown, an area of cramped back- to- back homes, on Christmas Eve, 1926, while her pit miner father, Thomas, was out on strike, his pockets empty, worrying how he could put food on the table. When the chance came for Rosa to leave Merthyr for a new life in London, she took it – and never looked back.
Merthyr has links with celebrities too. Some famous names with roots in the town include fashion designers Laura Ashley and Julian McDonald, singer Paul Weller, boxer Johnny Owen, and, tragically, Timothy Evans, who was wrongly hanged for the murder of his daughter, a crime committed by his downstairs neighbour John Christie.
I was aided in my research by a very knowledgeable historian, Huw Williams, and I am immensely grateful for his support throughout my writing adventure in the Valleys.