Main Content Area
Cholera in Tredegar
There were two major cholera epidemics in Tredegar, in 1832/3 and seventeen years later in 1849/50. A lesser outbreak is recorded in 1866.
Sometime during the outbreak, in 1832/33, a circular was issued proclaiming all graveyards "closed against those who died from cholera", this meant that an alternative burial ground had to be sought for the victims. The location was high on mountainside far from where people lived.
It is unclear if Cefn Golau were the first cholera cemetery in Tredegar. The first victim to be interred was recorded as William Thomas, wheelwright, in 1832. There are no official entries in the Bedwellty Parish Records of victims of cholera, probably because of the instruction to close graveyards to them. However, on the inside of the record book was stuck a list of those who died in the 1832 outbreak and William Thomas is the first name on the list. No comprehensive record has been discovered of those who died in the 1849 outbreak. Dates on the Cefn Golau headstones are often difficult to read, but at least five date to the outbreak of 1832-33.
It is estimated that there are 235 graves in Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery. There are no records to indicate how many people lost their lives to cholera in the outbreak, but it could reasonably be estimated as one twentieth of the total population. In 1832, Tredegar had a population of approximately 7,000 which was growing fast due to the flourishing Tredegar Ironworks.
Medical people had little knowledge of cholera, how it spread or how to eradicate it. Cholera is referred to as the “King of Terrors” by Evan Powell in his History of Tredegar. It appeared to establish itself at seaports and spread inland through the lowlands and manifest itself in areas of high population where people were weakened by malnutrition and lived in poor housing. In Tredegar there are accounts of whole families being wiped out in three days.
In local industry was linked to the ironworks. Houses provided by the works at extremely low cost were often little more than back to back hovels, consisting of two up and two down properties. Families of ten or more often occupied the cramped rooms with dirt floors that were continually damp. There were no toilets, only earth closets or buckets that were emptied into the street gullies, where germs and bacteria bred uchecked. This foul water, one source of cholera, often flooded when it rained and ran into houses. Polluted water supplies and infected water containers also spread the disease.
Conditions had changed little by the time of the second outbreak in 1849. The bulk of the Cefn Golau victims died in this second epidemic. When funeral processions bearing vistims of the outbreak passed through the streets of Tredegar, people retreated indoors, closing doors and windows for fear of infection. People took to resorting to camphor or eucalyptus to ward of the disease; other clutched bibles or crucifixes. Churches and chapels were packed with anxious congregations, praying for their eternal souls.
Cholera in Tredegar
There were two major cholera epidemics in Tredegar, in 1832/3 and seventeen years later in 1849/50. A lesser outbreak is recorded in 1866.
Sometime during the outbreak, in 1832/33, a circular was issued proclaiming all graveyards "closed against those who died from cholera", this meant that an alternative burial ground had to be sought for the victims. The location was high on mountainside far from where people lived.
It is unclear if Cefn Golau were the first cholera cemetery in Tredegar. The first victim to be interred was recorded as William Thomas, wheelwright, in 1832. There are no official entries in the Bedwellty Parish Records of victims of cholera, probably because of the instruction to close graveyards to them. However, on the inside of the record book was stuck a list of those who died in the 1832 outbreak and William Thomas is the first name on the list. No comprehensive record has been discovered of those who died in the 1849 outbreak. Dates on the Cefn Golau headstones are often difficult to read, but at least five date to the outbreak of 1832-33.
It is estimated that there are 235 graves in Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery. There are no records to indicate how many people lost their lives to cholera in the outbreak, but it could reasonably be estimated as one twentieth of the total population. In 1832, Tredegar had a population of approximately 7,000 which was growing fast due to the flourishing Tredegar Ironworks.
Medical people had little knowledge of cholera, how it spread or how to eradicate it. Cholera is referred to as the “King of Terrors” by Evan Powell in his History of Tredegar. It appeared to establish itself at seaports and spread inland through the lowlands and manifest itself in areas of high population where people were weakened by malnutrition and lived in poor housing. In Tredegar there are accounts of whole families being wiped out in three days.
In local industry was linked to the ironworks. Houses provided by the works at extremely low cost were often little more than back to back hovels, consisting of two up and two down properties. Families of ten or more often occupied the cramped rooms with dirt floors that were continually damp. There were no toilets, only earth closets or buckets that were emptied into the street gullies, where germs and bacteria bred uchecked. This foul water, one source of cholera, often flooded when it rained and ran into houses. Polluted water supplies and infected water containers also spread the disease.
Conditions had changed little by the time of the second outbreak in 1849. The bulk of the Cefn Golau victims died in this second epidemic. When funeral processions bearing vistims of the outbreak passed through the streets of Tredegar, people retreated indoors, closing doors and windows for fear of infection. People took to resorting to camphor or eucalyptus to ward of the disease; other clutched bibles or crucifixes. Churches and chapels were packed with anxious congregations, praying for their eternal souls.
