Merthyr Tydfil, also spelled Merthyr Tudful, industrial town and county borough, southern Wales. It is named after a 5th-century Welsh Christian princess (Tydfil the Martyr) who was slain there. The county borough includes both sides of the deep valley of the River Taff and the surrounding steep hills. The town of Merthyr Tydfil is at the centre of the county borough, which extends in the north into Brecon Beacons National Park. Most of the county borough, including the town of Merthyr Tydfil, lies within the historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), but it includes an area in the north that belongs to the historic county of Brecknockshire (Sir Frycheiniog).
Four large ironworks built after 1757 formed the basis for the town’s modern growth. In 1804 Richard Trevithick built the world’s first steam locomotive in Merthyr Tydfil. The ironworks were supplemented by coal mining, especially after 1841, when railways superseded the late 18th-century Glamorganshire Canal as the principal means of transportation to Cardiff. By 1850 the Dowlais ironworks were the largest in the world. After 1918 the area’s coal mining gradually ceased, and the last surviving local steelworks, at Dowlais, closed.
The town’s industrial revival dates from World War II, and Merthyr Tydfil now produces a wide range of manufactures, most notably Hoover washing machines. It is an important retail centre and offers regional services. A public park occupies the grounds of a former ironmaster’s mansion, Cyfarthfa Castle (1825), which now houses a museum.
Archaeological finds in the area include 1st-century-ce pottery, now part of the collection of the National Museum of Wales. The county borough includes several mining communities that developed during the 18th and 19th centuries along with the town of Merthyr Tydfil. Aberfan, in the south, was the site of a major disaster in 1966, when a rain-soaked slag heap avalanched upon the mining village, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. Extensive land reclamation programs have eliminated slag heaps and other eyesores in the valley to attract tourism and other economic development. The town of Merthyr Tydfil lies at a crossroads of the regional highway network. Area county borough, 43 square miles (111 square km). Pop. (2001) town, 30,483; county borough, 55,981; (2011) town, 43,820; county borough, 58,802.