Family History

Havard comes from an industrial and farming background in West Wales.

His Grandfather worked at the Morlais Colliery in Llangennech all his working life, first going down the mine at the age of 14. The first pits at Morlais were sunk in 1894 and mining operations ceased in 1981. Morlais was the last pit in the South Wales coalfield to use steam for winding. You can find out more at

http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk

The family ancestors, the Perrott's, were tenant farmers on Mynydd Sylen in West Wales for 200 years. They farmed the land where the largest meeting of the Rebecca Riots took place in the daytime of the 25th August 1843. The "Daughters of Rebecca" campaigned to end unfair taxation and for justice for the rural poor. They were closely allied to the Chartists who campaigned for universal sufferage and civil liberties. You can find out more about the agrarian disturbances of 19th Century West Wales here:

http://www.brobeca.co.uk

On the other side of the family his grandfather Joseph Maengwyn Hughes was a Baptist Minister in industrial Merthyr Tydfil. He died of flu during the 1918-1919 pandemic.