Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:22:28.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Inspecting the ‘extraordinary drain’: emigration and the urban experience in Merthyr Tydfil in the 1860s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2005

BILL JONES
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, CF10 3EU

Abstract

In the 1860s mass emigration from Merthyr Tydfil made a major impact on the town's fortunes and developing public sphere. The ‘extraordinary drain’ occasioned much concern and comment and reconfigured ongoing debates about Merthyr's contemporary condition and future survival. In turn, local power struggles, notions of the town's interests and emerging civic consciousness influenced interpretations of the nature, causes and meanings of the outflow. Emigration and the ‘urban’ thus interacted tellingly to help shape contemporary mentalities.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)