Galles: regione e territorio

The main part of my dissertation will concentrate on the development of different features in the town plan so that the growth of each town can be described and analysed.
Nearly three million people live in Wales today, and more than two-thirds of them are to be found in the South East of the country. During the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of people flooded into the valleys seeking a better life through employment in the iron works, coal mines and ancillary trades and industries. In the space of a few hundred years the economy of the locality was turned on its head, as dependence on agriculture was replaced by industrialization. This began in the 16th century when coal-fuelled iron furnaces were built near ore deposits and, much more importantly, close to plentiful supplies of timber, and water to drive waterwheels. As the demand for coal increased in the last quarter of the 19th century so pits were sunk and communities developed in the small valleys leading off the main Rhondda valleys. This was the land where “King Coal” reigned supreme. These industrial areas were places where life ran to extremes and the environments created were, in some cases, astonishing for their rapid growth. The upper reaches of Rhondda Fawr were described in 1847 as having “glorious hills…the emerald greenness of the meadows below were most refreshing…The air aromatic with wild flowers and mountain plants. A Sabbath stillness reigns.” Within 50 years all had changed, and the twin valleys of Rhondda had become part of the most important mining area in the world. Thousands of people poured from all parts of Britain and sometimes further afield; a street in Dowlais is named “Alphonso Row” following its early immigrants from Spain. They were crammed into ranks of stone and slate, and in some parts of the narrow valleys the concentration exceeded 6,000 per square mile. At the head of Rhondda Fawr the houses followed the general pattern of development , spreading along the floor of the valley in long straggling lines. Between 1881 and 1914 over 10,000 houses were built in the valleys and a series of communities grew up around the various iron works. A Ministry of Health report published in 1920 stated that “the overcrowding is excessive, in one small room there are five beds. There is no drainage whatever, and no privy; nor indeed, the right to the use of a privy to any of these houses”. Merthyr Tydfil was described as a “miserable straggling village” in the 1760s. By 1860, it was the principal town of Wales and the “iron making capital of the world”. The first iron furnace was in use in 1765 and the next hundred years saw the creation of a totally industrial landscape, but poor sanitation and polluted water supplies created appalling conditions.
However, industrialization and exploitation of mineral resources improved the fortunes of many gentry families. It has been estimated that the Marquises of Bute owned land on which 25 per cent of the population of Wales lived during the second half of the 19th century. They also owned coal mines and railways, and built the first dock in Cardiff in 1839. The 3rd Marquis was deeply devoted to the Middle Ages and he used his wealth and the services of the like-minded William Burgess to make real the dream that is Cardiff Castle, an impressive Norman castle, built in 1099, which stands on the site of an old Roman fort.
Wales has two official languages, English and Welsh. Welsh is one of the oldest spoken languages, with its roots in early Celtic Europe. The first written evidence of Welsh appears in a Latin copy of the Gospels dating from c.700. In recent years, there has been a revived interest in the language and many English-only speaking parents now send their children to schools to be taught through the medium of the Welsh language. Either English or Welsh may be used in the courts and for government business. Some newspapers are printed either partly or entirely in Welsh, and radio and television programmes are broadcast in both languages.