Casgliadau Arlein

Medal, partly mis-shapen and with three round holes. With an illustration of a fountain on obverse and inscription on reverse: IN COMMEMORATION OF THE UNVEILING OF THE PUBLIC FOUNTAIN PONTYPRIDD THE GIFT OF ALFRED THOMAS M.P. OCT 3rd 1895.

In the Rhondda until 1894, there were no main sewers for an urban population of almost 100,000. Instead, waste of every description found its way to the river at the bottom of the valley. It took the deaths of thousands of people living in these conditions for change to happen and for someone to take responsibility for the living conditions of the poor. In Merthyr in 1849, a Government Health Inspector reported:‘The crowning evil under which the inhabitants of Merthyr Tydfil labour as regards their social and sanitary conditions is the utter want of the provision for the supply of water. ‘