Ton Pentre - Early and Industrial History

Early and Industrial History

One of the earliest recorded settlements in Ton Pentre is an Iron Age hillfort located at Maindy Camp. Although initially believed to have been from the Bronze Age period, the camp was misidentified due to items from a Bronze Age cairn that were found inside the camp perimeter.

The area on which Ton Pentre now stands was originally the site of a cluster of platform houses or hafodi; small farming buildings, occupied only during the summer months. The site was later settled by a farm and a few cottages, known as 'Y Ton' ('meadow') the site was owned by absentee landlord Crawshay Bailey. To distinguish the area from nearby Tonypandy, it became known as Ton Pentre.

When it became viable to mine anthracite coal in deep shaft pits in the mid-19th century, many pits were sunk in the Rhondda valley, one of which was located in Ton Pentre - The Maindy Colliery. It was the individual collieries that were at the heart of the separate 'villages' that emerged on the valley floor as they were the major employers in the area. At the height of the coal mining industry Ton Pentre was home to a few thousand people living in high density terraced houses that spanned the whole valley.