Crawshay’s castle and ironworks must also stand proxy today for Merthyr Tydfil’s other vanished ironworks and their masters – the Guests at Dowlais, the Homfrays at Penydarren and Anthony Bacon at the Plymouth works. Together, and with important other iron works in neighbouring valleys, they propelled Wales and Britain into an emerging global industrial economy.
History
“The past – an instrument with which a present can build a future”
Merthyr Tydfil is a town that has written itself into the history of Wales and the world – a place of pioneering technological, industrial, political, social and environmental change. Its history is so rich that it deserves a modern re-telling in all its variety. Its themes and stories speak to the present and hold lessons for the future. A history that can inspire a community’s re-invention.
At Merthyr Tydfil’s heart are the dramatic relics of furnaces built a quarter of a millennium ago, together with Cyfarthfa Castle and its 160-acre park – the latter an unsung jewel in its crown – built for the ironmaster William Crawshay II in 1825. In 2025 it celebrates its bicentenary.
At their zenith the ironworks of Merthyr Tydfil – Cyfarthfa, Dowlais, Plymouth and Penydarren – constituted the greatest concentration of iron production in world. The communities of people working here provided cannon for Nelson’s navy as well as the new railways across Europe. Their workmen also provided skills that launched other ironworks in Russia, France and America.
We aim to celebrate Cyfarthfa by creating here not cosmetic improvement but rather a new national institution – a modern museum and gallery commemorating the past, addressing the present and looking to the future – all set in an expansive, high-quality parkland.
It will be about celebrating our history and heritage and our art. It will be about healing the natural environment, expanding the offer of the park. It will be about creativity, community engagement and social renewal. And in everything it does it will aspire to be an international exemplar.
Image: 'Cyfarthfa Steelworks at Dusk' by Thomas Prytherch and part of the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art galleries collection.
Cyfarthfa today
Cyfarthfa Castle is a Grade I listed building. It was built in two parts: the original castle in 1825 and, almost a century later, school buildings built for Cyfarthfa High School following the transfer of ownership from the Crawshay family to the Council.
The school left the building in 2014 and this part has lain empty ever since. The elements have taken their toll. Urgent interventions are needed.
The ground floor of the 1825 section of the castle houses the current museum and gallery conveying the industrial history of Merthyr and displaying an art collection of more than 300 works by a wide range of artists. Cyfarthfa can become one of the great galleries of Wales.
