In 1750, the population of Wales was a mere 500,000 people. To put this into context, today, in London alone, there are 300,000 inhabitants who were born in Wales. In the mid-18th century, most employment in Wales was agriculturally based, with the majority of the workforce occupied in growing food and tending animals among the green valleys and high mountains of the Welsh landscape.

As the Industrial Revolution spread across Britain, iron manufacturers sought the best coal, and in large quantities, to fuel their steam-powered boilers. Although coal had been discovered in Wales as far back as the Roman period, it was only from the end of the 18th century that collieries began to appear across the counties of Glamorganshire, Flintshire and Monmouthshire.

Migration out of Wales is oft-discussed, but less explored perhaps is the movement into the country. During the early 19th century, thousands of immigrants arrived keen to work in the busy mines. Between 1801 and 1901, Monmouthshire’s population, for example, increased from 45,000 to 450,000. The incomers arrived from the English Midlands, Scotland and Ireland. As a result, the native Welsh language fell out of use in this area of south Wales. The language column in the 1891 census, asking whether individuals speak English, Welsh or Both, is a useful indicator of a more recent immigrant.

The Welsh soil was rich not merely in coal, but also in lead, silver and slate. Lead and silver mining became prominent in Flintshire and Cardiganshire, and copper mining and smelting developed in Neath and Swansea. It is important to note that both men and women worked in these. Although general histories have neglected the contribution of women to Welsh industry in the 18th-20th centuries, recent research has highlighted that women’s work included manufacture and administration.

Like coal, lead and gold, slate had been mined by the Romans. From the 18th century, slate quarried in Wales was sought by the developing cities of Liverpool and Manchester, as well as the growing towns of Scotland, north east England and even as far as Germany, India and Australia. As slate mining developed, particularly in Snowdonia, more industrialists built terraced houses roofed with slate for their workers. The product was so popular (and cheap) in Wales that entire houses were built of it. By the late 19th century, four fifths of Britain’s slate originated in the quarries of Wales, with most coming from Caernarfonshire.

In the 1760s, slave-owner Richard Pennant, MP for Petersfield (later Liverpool) and subsequently Baron Penrhyn, invested some of the proceeds from his Jamaican slave plantations into a small slate quarry in Caernarfonshire. He developed the quarry, building transport links to London, Liverpool, Bristol and Ireland. Eventually, his quarry became the largest in the world. It is still functioning today.

Wales continues to be celebrated for its high quality lamb meat. Sheep abounded the hillsides in the 18th century, contributing to a thriving woollen market. Despite scientific developments and the introduction of a factory system in England, Welsh weavers held strong to older methods of woolcraft. Carding and spinning factories were only introduced in Wales in the 19th century and the power loom in 1850. Workers there produced flannel shirts, blankets, tweeds and yarn. Although craftwork was not the chief focus of the Welsh economy, small businesspeople, like saddlers, carpenters and shoemakers were necessary to local communities and can be identified through the census and local directories.

As industrialisation developed still further, the new economy opened up work opportunities for many within Wales. The darker side of this heavy industrialisation was a reduced quality of life for many. Although wages were earned all year round, miners, in particular, lived in overcrowded, insanitary conditions. Families fell victim to diseases such as cholera that spread easily in confined communities.

Others, however, sought work further afield. Welsh emigrants throughout the 19th century continued to travel overseas to destinations as far from home as America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Patagonia and South Africa. Besides workers, religious preachers also travelled from Wales, helping to set up or continue the work of the chapel in areas of Welsh settlement. Chain migration – where one member of the family went ahead, setting up a job and home before sending for another relative – was common.

Even though thousands migrated away from Wales, many returned. This is often explained by the nostalgic concept of hiraeth – the longing for Wales and the life there. This applied to those who migrated overseas as well those who travelled to further parts of Britain.

Welsh migration to London for those seeking work or different opportunities has a long history. It is believed that at least 7% of London’s population in the early 1600s originated in Wales. London remained the major recipient of Welsh migration to England throughout the 19th century. In 1851, the only other English city with a Welsh population over 10,000 was the thriving port city of Liverpool.

When they moved to new areas, both in the UK and overseas, life for the Welsh often focused around the chapel. This was not just a place for religious worship, but also of education, the continuance of the Welsh language, welfare, and community activities. Migrants would use the chapels as a form of reception centre, and from there could be arranged accommodation and employment with other Welsh families. Often work was pre-arranged through communication with chapels in Liverpool and back home in Wales. Bachelors and spinsters would meet their future spouses there. Outside of the chapels, cultural institutions developed, such as the London Welsh Centre and the London Welsh Choir.

The Welsh dominated certain aspects of the capital’s economy, particularly the dairy industry. Seasonal work was also common, with women in particular travelling to London to work in the market gardens. Domestic service was a typical source of female employment.

Migration rose still higher in the 20th century, notably as the economic depression of the 1920s and ’30s hit the coalfields of Wales, having a knock-on effect throughout other industries across the nation. Liverpool, too, was hit hard by the depression but parts of London and Birmingham offered plenty of work and Welsh migrants moved there in increasing numbers.

The pull of hiraeth remained, however. When searching for the deaths or burial places of Welsh family who migrated away from the homeland, genealogists should remember to check the place to which they so often returned. Even when a Welsh emigrant died away from home, you may find that one or more of their children spent their final years in Wales. Many of these children were not even born in the country, but were raised to consider themselves Welsh, and to the end felt that hiraeth for the land of their forefathers.

In the print edition
Read about the South Wales copper industry in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, available online at discoveryourancestors.co.uk