OAKDALE VILLAGE - History of the village

PENMAEN " Is an extensive hamlet in the parish of Mynyddysllwyn, including a portion of Crumlin, Cross Penmaen and Newbridge. Collieries are worked here. It contains 355 houses and 1782 inhabitants. The Western Valleys line has a station at Newbridge. The distict is celebrated for lovely scenery."
PONTLLANFRAITH " Is a small hamlet near Tredegar junction, on the Taff Vale Extension Railway, about 2.5 miles from Newbridge. It is composed of a few houses, chiefly occupied by people employed in the neighbouring works."

Taken from the GAZETTEER OF MONMOUTHSHIRE by J.H CLARK Published 1869

The Beginning

IT was over thirty years after J.H.CLARK wrote the above lines that plans for the village of OAKDALE were first drawn up.
Mines in the Welsh valleys were already producing massive amounts of coal which was being exported all over the world, but the need for coal was growing both in America and Europe, and local business men were looking for new opportunities to fill the demand.
Among these were a group known as the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, made up of wealthy industrialists from the Maclaren, Markham, Pochin, Whitworth and Wyllie families.
They decided to create a group of collieries in the Sirhowy Valley, which explorations had told them contained rich seams of " black gold." One of these was at the small rural hamlet of Rhiw Syr Dafydd.
In 1906 work began clearing the site for the new colliery, and concurrent with its building, a village to house the families of the men who were to work there.
The sinking of the pit started in 1907, Waterloo shaft followed in 1911 and the building of the village commenced soon after.
The concept of the village of Oakdale was nothing short of revolutionary.
The brainchild of then manager of the TIC company, Mr A S Tallis, Oakdale was to be different from existing pit villages.
Not for Oakdale the usual rows of mean houses clinging to the side of the valley overlooking the pit. This village was to be built away from the mine among green fields. The houses would be modern, with hot and cold running water, large cooking ranges, electric light, and - perhaps most revolutionary of all - bathrooms. Every house was to have a front and back garden, so that no front door would open directly on to the street as in other valley towns and villages.
These ideas were in themselves original enough. But the concentric design of the village that was conceived by Mr Tallis' brother-in-law, Mr F R Webb, was even more radical. It was laid down with a central road (Central Avenue) and transverse roads conforming to a horseshoe shape, with linking "spoke" roads, making any road in the village easily accessible from any other.

As the village looks now via satellite image
And so work began, the first houses being built to house the colliery officials in West View.
The new village grew very quickly, along with the growing demand for coal. Workers from Pontypool, Abertillery and Tredegar, together with others from as far afield as Gloucestershire and Somerset flocked to this " model village " with its high standard housing.

A School, a Post Office, a Hospital and a Hotel
A school had already been built around 1907/8 (attendance started in 1909) for the children of Penmaen and Rhiw so the incomers' offspring were catered for, with an extension being built to cope with the extra demand.
Commercial building, including a Post Office, a clothing store and a butcher's shop soon followed.
By 1913, the majority of the houses having been built, attention turned to the provision of two welcome additions to the village's amenities - the hospital, which was completed in 1915 and, at about the same time, a hotel.
The social life of the village in these early years mostly took place at "The Huts". These were a row of huts that had been built in a field near the Rhiw hill to house the men who sank the pit shafts. Among the varied functions to be found there were social events, St John Ambulance, whist drives, Women's Institute and a library. Later on there was billiards and a daily delivery of newspapers.
This building was to be superseded by one that was to become the most important place in the life of the village - Oakdale Miners' Library and Institute. (This will be the subject of a separate page.)
With the influence of chapels and churches in Wales at a peak it now became necessary to establish religious facilities. The only existing churches were the Established church at Cwrt-y-Bella and the non-conformist chapel at Penmaen, which held services in Welsh. Non-conformists who were unable to speak Welsh therefore had to meet wherever they could, in the school, private houses and even in a carpenter's shed!
So the foundations of the Primitive Methodist Chapel were laid in 1914 followed by the Baptists and the Presbytarians in 1916. The Anglican Church, which was for many years a rough timber and corrugated structure transported from Woodfieldside, was erected at the bottom of Central Avenue in 1921, and a Roman Catholic church at the end of Bryn Howard Terrace in 1926. These churches together were to play an important part in both the spiritual and social life of the village.
The War Years

The First World War probably had less of an effect on Oakdale than perhaps it did on similar sized villages outside the coalfield. Indeed, it could be argued that it made the village even more prosperous as demand for coal increased and, although it sadly claimed the lives of 26 villagers, building carried on with the construction of at least four new shops near the Post Office. By the 1920s the Square, too, had its full complement of shops.
Throughout 1915 talks had been going on between interested parties regarding the proposed new Institute. Agreement was reached and the foundation stone laid on 3 July 1916 with the official opening taking place on 10 September 1917.
Until 1920 Oakdale Colliery prospered. Wages of its workers were admittedly low, and life could be hard but Oakdale was thriving and its people were kind and welcoming, even if they weren't exactly well off. But 1920 brought the first intimation that all was not well on the economic front as the first cold winds of depression started to blow through the south Wales valleys.
Coming next - THE KING VISITS OAKDALE

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