![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Picture10.png?resize=500%2C440\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs 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 \u2018Wales\u2019 first tycoon\u2019?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He was instrumental in the development of the coal mining industry in the Rhondda Valley.<\/p>\n
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!!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He and his wife, Margaret left one son, Edward, who in turn had a son and two daughters. Edward\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ann M. Jones<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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\u2019s copy of \u2018What\u2019s On\u2019 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-3CT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13999,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=13999","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":0},"title":"David Davies And Gwyn Griffiths","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th February 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 DAVID DAVIES AND GWYN GRIFFITHS I was very interested to read Ann Jones\u2019article on David Davies of Llandinam which reminded me of a story told to me by the late D. Gwyn Griffiths. Gwyn was a worldwide authority on reclamation who led the way in pioneering methods for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readers Articles of Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Readers Articles of Interest","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=228"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Picture11-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5735,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5735","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":1},"title":"Old Docks Offices In Barry","author":"Alan Williams","date":"2nd April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 If you\u2019ve travelled along Ffordd y Mileniwm from Palmerston to the Barry Waterfront, you will have passed by one of the most iconic buildings in the area. This imposing building looks out over Barry Island - but at one time it faced the busy Barry Docks and housed the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Barry-docks-office-building-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3406,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3406","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":2},"title":"WENVOE RAILWAY TUNNEL","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"WENVOE RAILWAY TUNNEL \u00a0 The Barry Railway Company was built to release the stranglehold of the Taff Vale Railway (from Merthyr Tydfil) and Cardiff Docks on the export of south Wales\u2019 coal. Work commenced in1885. Building with great efficiency Barry docks soon overtook Cardiff in exporting coal. This impressive achievement,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe History Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe History Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=40"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15339,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15339","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":3},"title":"Book Review","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th April 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"BOOK REVIEW \"Barry Railway: Coal\u2019s Last Burst\" This slim volume by erstwhile civil engineer, local historian and author Stephen K Jones has been produced to serve as an overarching summary to bring together several historical strands. These chart the 1880s development and growth of the Barry Railway and Docks to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Woodhams.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14835,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14835","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":4},"title":"A Brief History Of Barry To 1939","author":"Alan Williams","date":"22nd November 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A BRIEF HISTORY OF BARRY TO 1939 We all go to Barry, at least now and again, but how often do we pause to consider how the town of almost 60,000 people today became developed in a relatively short space of time? This chronology has been (mostly) taken from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Picture9.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15582,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15582","url_meta":{"origin":13943,"position":5},"title":"Take Time To Sit And Enjoy","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th May 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"THE VILLAGE GARDENER Take Time To Sit And Enjoy Hope you are all pleased with your gardening efforts so far this year. As June kicks us off into the main flowering season, especially with geums and the first flush of the roses, don\u2019t forget to try and take time to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for June 2025"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for June 2025","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=422"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13943"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13948,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13943\/revisions\/13948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}