Abercarn

History

Welsh historian John Lloyd (1906) documented that in 1783 Joshua Glover and Samuel Glover (his son) of Birmingham, Warwick were operating 'an important business there'. In that year, they signed a contract with Anthony Bacon, Senior, of Cyfarthfa Ironworks to supply Abercarne [sic] Iron Works with 800 tons of pig iron a year. Lloyd (1906) also documented that by 1808 only one member of the Glover family survived, 'Mr Glover'. In that year Ironmaster Richard Crawshay, who had taken over the Cyfarthfa Ironworks following the death of Bacon, bought the freehold of the Abercarn estate from him. Fraser (1962) documented: When the sale was completed, Crawshay immediately gave it to his son-in-law, Benjamin Hall, where he and his wife, Charlotte, Crawshay's second daughter, and their five-year-old son Benjamin came to live. The estate included two properties which were close to the river, a manor-house beside it (which, according to became a doctor's house) and a small Georgian house on the wooded hill above it (which, also according to , gave 'its name to the Council Housing Estate by which it is surrounded.'). Fraser (1962) documented about Hall's son in the estate: 'Here young Benjamin developed the brilliant markmanship, for which he was afterwards noted. Here, too, he became an accomplished horseman and whip, and learned to be a skilful angler, for there was salmon and trout fishing in the Ebbw, the Afon Gwyddon, the Afon Carn, and other tributory streams. Hall attended a preparatory school (location unknown) and, at the age of 11, in Westminster School, London, in which life was 'unbelievably rough'. The pupils slept and worked in a long room which were heated by three open fires, which is where the distinction between juniors and seniors came into play - the…