Anthony Bacon
Anthony Bacon arrived in Merthyr Tydfil in 1763. He was a wealthy London merchant who had acquired a knowledge of iron smelting in his native Cumberland. He made a careful survey of the district, and then decided to obtain a stretch of land along the right bank of the river Taff. In 1765 he leased a portion measuring eight miles by five miles, and agreed to pay the sum of £100 a year. Being a shrewd business man, he was more far sighted than the other early iron masters for he saw that it was necessary to have a better road to join the village to Cardiff. Only by so doing could the iron be sent to the seaport more easily and cheaply. The work of constructing the road soon began and by 1767 it was opened for traffic.
Bacon paid particular attention to the production of iron of a very high quality. So good was it that he obtained the contract for supplying some of the cannon used by the British forces in the American War of Independence.
Two men who were destined to become prominent local iron-masters were brought to the district by Anthony Bacon. These were Samuel Homfray and Richard Hill. The efficiency of these managers and the skill of the workforce made Cyfartha and Plymouth famous, and enabled Bacon to amass a large fortune. He retired from the district in 1784, and on his death in 1786, he left the works to his sons, who took no interest in the industry. The Plymouth and Cyfartha undertakings were sold to Richard Hill and Richard Crawshay respectively, and then entered upon a period of even greater prosperity.