In the middle of the nineteenth century, the town of Aberdare and the surrounding Aberdare Valley was the scene of great change, both in the rapid expansion of heavy industry and in the lives of the people who lived and worked in the valley.
The speed of industrial change was matched only by a growing social awareness. This was fuelled both by Thomas Webster Rammel’s 1854 report on living conditions within the Parish of Aberdare and the spread of religious non-conformity.
1854 was to see both the establishment of the first Board of Health for the Parish of Aberdare, an organization charged with improving living conditions for the population of the parish, and the opening of the first press within the town. Both these events were to play significant parts in the future development of the town.
The press established in 1854 and those that were to follow meant Aberdare would play a major part in the social and cultural history of Wales and the Welsh language up until the 1930’s.