Valentine’s Day
DAVID DAVIES OF LLANDINAM 1818 – 1890
The man chiefly responsible for the development of the village of Barry into
the largest coal export port in the world.
In last month’s copy of ‘What’s On’ Stephen Jones mentioned the name of David Davies of Llandinam in his article, stating that he was one of the three main coal owners credited with the development which saw Barry grow from a small rural backwater which recorded a population of 500 in ‘the Barry area’ – 85 ‘in the village of Barry’ – in the 1881 Census to a thriving industrial town with a population of 33,760 in 1911. The reason for the extraordinary growth, of course, was the development of the Docks and the railway which carried the coal from the Rhondda Valley to be exported to all parts of the world. By 1913, Barry was the largest coal export port in the world.
As I mentioned, David Davies – together with other Coal Owners such as Archibald Hood, J. O. Riches, John Cory and others – was foremost in the development of the new docks at Barry. But who was David Davies? What do we know about this man who is known as ‘Wales’ first tycoon’?
He was born in the year 1818, in the village of Llandinam, between Llanidloes and Y Drenewydd (Newtown) in mid Wales, the eldest of nine children. He attended the village school at Llandinam, but was mostly self-taught, having left school at the age of 11 to work as a sawyer and farmer alongside his father. At the age of 20 he became the head of the family – responsible for his mother and eight younger siblings when his father died. He was successful from the beginning and in 1848, he took over a larger farm – and yet another one two years later.
During this time he became involved in creating the approaches to a new bridge over the river Hafren – Severn – at Llandinam – and this set him on the road to a career in contracting. In 1855 he built the first section of the Llanidloes and Newtown railway – and he subsequently built a number of other railways including The Vale of Clwyd, Oswestry and Newtown and Machynlleth, Pembroke and Tenby and others.
His railway building activities made David Davies a very wealthy man and in 1864 he took a lease of coal in the Upper Rhondda Valley and sank the Parc and Maendy pits. Later on new collieries were sunk – Dare, Western and Eastern, Garw, and Lady Windsor. In 1887 the output had so increased that he felt it was advisable to set up the Ocean Coal Company Ltd. The Taff Vale railway and the Bute docks at Cardiff were unable to cope with the Ocean traffic and this led Davies to promote a new dock at Barry with a railway connection from the Rhondda.
He was instrumental in the development of the coal mining industry in the Rhondda Valley.
In 1874 David Davies became a Liberal Member of Parliament representing the Cardigan district. He was returned in 1880 and again in 1885 – but in 1886 he fell out with Mr Gladstone over home rule for Ireland and in the following election, he lost his seat. He was also one of the first governors of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, which opened its doors in 1872. Attending the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1865, he addressed the audience – in Welsh – criticising those people who reviled the language – but urged Welsh people to master English because that was the best medium for making money!!
A Calvanistic Methodist by upbringing, David Davies was a rigid Puritan – a teetotaller who adhered strictly to Sunday observance all his life. He became an influential figure in Calvinistic Methodism, which had over 13,000 members in Cardiganshire alone, and funded the building of numerous chapels. He also generously distributed much of his wealth to educational and other good causes – and to needy individuals – never forgetting his own lowly upbringing. He died at his home, Plas Dinam in Llandinam, in 1890 – a mere year after the opening of his great masterpiece, Barry Docks.
He and his wife, Margaret left one son, Edward, who in turn had a son and two daughters. Edward’s son, also called David, became the Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire and Personal Private Secretary to David Lloyd George. He was a fervent internationalist, known as the Father of the Temple of Peace and was elevated to the peerage in 1932. His sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies moved from Plas Dinam to another property in the area – Gregynog Hall – saving the ancient building from falling into decay. They devoted their wealth to fostering the culture of their native Wales. They amassed one of the great art collections of the 20th Century – and in time donated the collection to the National Museum of Wales.
A bronze statue of David Davies, studying the original plans for the new dock development, stands outside the old Dock Offices in Barry. It was designed by sculptor Alfred Gilbert. And the north-south road, the A470, runs past a copy of the same statue which stands on the roadside in the centre his native village of Llandinam.
Ann M. Jones