History of Aberdare Market
The Early Days
The first market hall in Aberdare opened in 1831 in the High Street. With the rapid development of the town in the mid-19th century, and a flurry of house building to support the new industrial period, it was soon too small to support the needs of the increasing population.
A group of local businessmen got together to establish a larger market and created the Aberdare Market Company in 1852 and were granted the rights to hold markets and fairs in the town. They set about building a new market hall and a row of slaughterhouses with a cattle market which were completed in 1853.
The market developed very quickly. In 1861 the Market Hall was the home of the first ever National Eisteddfod of Wales; a heritage blue plaque on the exterior wall commemorates the importance of the occasion.
As the town continued to expand, in 1880 permission was granted to enlarge the market hall, relocate the slaughterhouses away from the town centre and to erect a Town Hall with public offices. A new company called the Aberdare Markets and Town Hall Company was incorporated in 1881 which took over the original Aberdare Market Company. This established Aberdare as a key market town in the South Wales Valleys and market trading has continued ever since on the same site.
In 1902 a fire destroyed most of the market hall and resulted in the rebuilding of the hall in 1903 to the substantial Victorian structure you see today.
In 1915 the first leader of the Labour Party, Keir Hardie MP gave his final public speech in the Market Hall before his death later that year. Instrumental in forming the labour party he became one of their first two MPs when elected for the joint constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare in 1900.
Recent Times
The market continued to operate throughout the 20th century, but by the early 1970’s the buildings which had originally housed the slaughterhouse and cattle market, and had afterwards operated as independent shops, had fallen into complete disrepair and the Town Hall was being used as a pub. By this time the company had been owned by several different business consortiums based in Swansea, Coventry and London all of whom had little interest in the buildings, or the heritage, or indeed Aberdare itself and a lack of investment and maintenance had been evident for many years.
In 1977 the Aberdare Markets and Town Hall company was put up for sale. Two Aberdare brothers, Ron and Ray Webb, who had started their local retail business as stall holders in the market in 1952 and still retained a stall in the market hall, attempted to form a consortium of local businessmen to buy the company and re-invigorate it, mirroring the formation of the original company some 125 years earlier. When potential members of the consortium started to withdraw, due to concerns about the investment required, the two brothers decided to go it alone and sold up their existing business assets to help raise the capital. In 1978 they were successful in buying the company outright, beating off a challenge from a consortium from Manchester.
Since the purchase investment and development of the market complex has been undertaken on a continuous basis. Each decade has seen a significant redevelopment: in the 1980’s the original slaughterhouse buildings in Market St were extensively redeveloped to create 9 individual shop units sympathetically restored using original stone and slate roofing; in the 1990’s the pub that had fallen into a poor state and reputation (called the Cowbridge Arms) was totally refurbished and re-opened under new tenancy as The Market Tavern; in the same decade the row of run-down buildings along Duke Street, facing the bus station, were totally re-built and refurbished; and between 2000 and 2010 the brand-new Market Arcade shopping centre was built from the ground up.
Throughout the period the main Market Hall has been continuously maintained and improved, whilst being ever aware of retaining its Victorian charm and the identity of the individual independent traders who occupy the market stalls. In total approximately £3m has been invested since the purchase of the company.
Both brothers passed away in recent years, but ownership of the company remains in their family with the next generation who continue to invest and develop the market complex to benefit Aberdare as a whole. As we emerge from the Covid pandemic and the drastic effect of the lockdowns they hope that renewed interest in small independent retailers and a strong desire to shop locally, aligned with a new town centre redevelopment and investment programme will be forthcoming. Re-branding as the Aberdare Market Quarter and launch of this new website is the start of the next journey. The family have always maintained that it is “Aberdare’s Market”, and they are just the current custodians at this point in time.