Hopkinstown

infobox UK place
latitude=51.605426
longitude=-3.358087
country = Wales
static_

static_image_caption=Saint David's Church, Hopkinstown
welsh_name=
constituency_welsh_assembly=Pontypridd,
South Wales Central Electoral Region
map_type=
official_name= Hopkinstown
population=
unitary_wales= Rhondda Cynon Taff
lieutenancy_wales= Taff Ely
constituency_westminster= Pontypridd
post_town= PONTYPRIDD
postcode_district = CF37
postcode_area= CF
dial_code= 01443 40
os_grid_reference= ST060904
OldMapsYear= 1885
OldMapsEasting= 306045
OldMapsNorthing= 190495
OldMapsCounty=

Hopkinstown is a small village to the west of Pontypridd in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales situated on the the River Rhondda. Hopkinstown is a former coal mining industrial community and is a district in the town of Pontypridd.

Early and industrial history

The area where Hopkinstown is located was, as late as 1842, an undeveloped woodland known as the Ty Mawr Estate. Owned by Evan Hopkin, the area developed quickly soon after, until around 1950 it was beginning to develop into an urbanised development following the sinking of two collieries, Ty Mawr and Gyfeillion pits. Along with buildings to house the miners, Hopkinstown quickly aquired a chemical works, iron foundry and coke ovens. The original village was a single row of houses along the Rhondda Road which followed the River Rhondda, but it wasn't until the 1871 census that the name Hopkin's Town was used to describe the area. By 1891 the village had a population of over 1,500 and several streets of terraced houses had been built.

Hopkinstown would see eight shafts sunk during the industrial period. John Calvert, an engineer from Yorkshire, who had already sunk the Newbridge Colliery, and in 1848 his money allowed the construction of the Gyfeillon Colliery, it would change hands to the Great Western Railway company, before reverting back to Calvert before he sold into to the Great Western Colliery Company. The company would sink six shafts in total and the pit would be known as the Great Western Colliery.

Two other mines in the area, not owned by the Great Western, were the Typica Pit at Troed-rhiw-trwyn, which was only open for five years between 1875 and 1879, and the Lan Colliery, the only pit in Hopkinstown south of the River Rhondda. In 1889 it was owned by William Davies of Pontypridd, employing only seven miners; the mine closed in September 1907. [Rhondda Collieries, Volume 1, Number 4 in the Coalfield Series; John Cornwell. D.Brown and Sons Ltd, Cowbridge (1987) pg. 8 ISBN 0905926822]

Although no major mining disasters appear to have occurred in the town, in 1911 Hopkinstown was the site of a major rail accident in which 11 people died. ["The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales". John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg730 ISBN 9780708319536] On January 23, a carriage carrying passengers collided into a stationary coal wagon on the Taff Vale Railway line.

Notable residents

* Elaine Morgan (b. 1920), script-writer, populariser of science and feminist writer

External links

* [http://webapps.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/heritagetrail/taff/hopkinstown/hopkinstown.htm Rhondda Cynon Taff Library Service] Heritage Trail, Hopkinstown

References