Living conditions were defined in the Afan Valley during the Industrial Revolution by hastily erected houses, bad living conditions and almost no sanitation. Most dwellings lacked adequate ventilation, and had no plumbing or internal lighting which initially was only a paraffin lamp - or candles.

The Ordnance Survey Map of 1871 shows that the Nantybar houses which were then known as the Afon Vale cottages were served by three wells, situated a few hundred yards from the houses and reached by a footpath.

The houses were built as three storey buildings very different to the 'back to back' system employed at a later date in the valley. The Ordnance Survey Map also indicates outhouses which could possibly have been privies' or toilets.

In an attempt to illustrate how these momentous times had affected the family, an example of the people who ultimately lived at Nantybar are the Whitelock family. They had moved originally to Fforchdwm at a much earlier date. It is necessary to return to the census of 1852 which stated that the family comprised of Christopher Whitelock - Head of the househould aged 38, occupation collier. Mary, his wife was then aged 44.

Their family comprised of six children, Mary Jane 17, and Anne 15 who were both mentioned by the census as 'labouring on the farm' (Fforchdwm). The other three children of the family were Anne 9, John 7, and Betty who was 5 at the time. John who was only 7 years old was listed as a collier and worked at the Fforchdwm Level, probably alongside his father.

Child labour was a huge feature of the Industrial Revolution and they were used as cheap labour. Also occupying this large household were two lodgers named David Issot 24, and Frances Charles, 28 who both worked on the farm as labourers.

The composition of this crowded household reflects the large amount of work carried out by wives and mothers who looked after their ever increasing families, and also the huge amount of migrant labour who flocked to the valley to worked in the newly formed coal and iron industries there, from all parts of the country.

Almost 50 years passed until any form of centralised control was taken over the hygiene and living conditions of the workforce. There are examples of pigs and other animals being kept adjacent to the housing; central gutters in the streets which took away rubbish sewage and human excrement; badly controlled local slaughter houses, and communal water spouts, known locally as sprouts, all of which helped to spread disease.

This happened not only in the Afan Valley but all over Britain where similar migrations had taken place. Eventually legislation and the organisation to implement such rules were set in place. The Glyncorrwg Urban District Council was inaugurated during 1894.

Beryl Richards