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    David Davies

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    David Davies was born in 1818 in Wales and worked as a sawyer and laborer after leaving school at age 11. He made his fortune organizing labor gangs to work on railway construction projects across Wales. He invested in coal mining operations in the Rhondda Valley in the 1850s, where after 15 months of digging with no success, his loyal workers continued without pay and eventually struck a rich coal seam. Davies' successful mining ventures led him to establish the Ocean Coal Company, which grew to employ over 5,000 men. As the railroads and ports could not handle the traffic from his mines, Davies built his own large dock at Barry, cementing his status as Wales' first millionaire through his entrepreneurship

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    David Davies

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    api-285074989
    162 views10 pages
    David Davies was born in 1818 in Wales and worked as a sawyer and laborer after leaving school at age 11. He made his fortune organizing labor gangs to work on railway construction projects across Wales. He invested in coal mining operations in the Rhondda Valley in the 1850s, where after 15 months of digging with no success, his loyal workers continued without pay and eventually struck a rich coal seam. Davies' successful mining ventures led him to establish the Ocean Coal Company, which grew to employ over 5,000 men. As the railroads and ports could not handle the traffic from his mines, Davies built his own large dock at Barry, cementing his status as Wales' first millionaire through his entrepreneurship

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    David Davies was born in 1818 in Wales and worked as a sawyer and laborer after leaving school at age 11. He made his fortune organizing labor gangs to work on railway construction projects across Wales. He invested in coal mining operations in the Rhondda Valley in the 1850s, where after 15 months of digging with no success, his loyal workers continued without pay and eventually struck a rich coal seam. Davies' successful mining ventures led him to establish the Ocean Coal Company, which grew to employ over 5,000 men. As the railroads and ports could not handle the traffic from his mines, Davies built his own large dock at Barry, cementing his status as Wales' first millionaire through his entrepreneurship

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    162 views10 pages

    David Davies

    Uploaded by

    api-285074989
    David Davies was born in 1818 in Wales and worked as a sawyer and laborer after leaving school at age 11. He made his fortune organizing labor gangs to work on railway construction projects across Wales. He invested in coal mining operations in the Rhondda Valley in the 1850s, where after 15 months of digging with no success, his loyal workers continued without pay and eventually struck a rich coal seam. Davies' successful mining ventures led him to establish the Ocean Coal Company, which grew to employ over 5,000 men. As the railroads and ports could not handle the traffic from his mines, Davies built his own large dock at Barry, cementing his status as Wales' first millionaire through his entrepreneurship

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    DAVID DAVIES

    Wales' first millionaire

    The story ofDavid Davies of


    Llandinam, the man can justifiably
    claim to be Wales' first
    millionaire.
    His life is a real tale of "rags to
    riches."

    Davies was born the eldest of nine children in


    December 1818 at Llandinam,
    Montgomeryshire

    He left school at 11 and worked on the


    land for 20 years as a sawyer.

    Soon he began making money from


    organising labour gangs on the new
    railway lines that were being built across
    Wales

    He played a major part if the construction of the


    Newtown to Aberystwyth railway before turning his
    attention to the rapidly expanding coal industry

    By the 1850s he might have become an important and wealthy man but
    Davies never lost touch with his roots. In his book Davies The Ocean,
    Herbert Williams wrote:
    "He was still the old Davy, ready to roll up his sleeves and turn to with the
    lads. One morning he saw them struggling to roll heavy stones into trucks in
    a quarry and with a cry of 'Sweet boys, up with them!' helped them
    shoulder the stones into place.
    His effort was all the more impressive in that he was on his way to London
    on business and wearing a dark suit which was so covered in dust that he
    had to go home to change before making the journey."

    Davies became interested in the coal industry. He quickly


    recognised the potential of mining in the upper Rhondda
    Valley and joined a small group of investors who bought a
    lease on land near Treorchy.
    His workers dug for 15 months without a sign of coal. With
    his money running out, Davies called a halt to the work. There
    was no money for the miners wages. Yet in a remarkable
    display of loyalty and faith in Davies, the men kept going as
    they believed that they were close to hitting a seam. They
    promised to work one more week without wages.
    .
    During that week, they struck one of the worlds finest coal
    seams - they had finally struck

    black gold.

    Dare Colliery

    Further mines followed, including the Garw and the Lady Windsor.
    So successful was the enterprise that in 1887 the Ocean Coal
    Company Ltd was established, and became one of the most
    enterprising coal companies in Wales.
    His workforce rose dramatically from a few hundred to more than 5,000
    men.
    As the Taff Vale Railway Company and Cardiff Docks were unable to
    cope with the traffic from Ocean Collieries, Davies promptly built
    himself a new dock at Barry. This cost him 2 million .
    It was considered to be one of the best industrial ports of its time.

    He had made an incredible journey, from humble labourer to the


    richest man in Wales. David Davies symbolises the energetic, hard
    working and imaginative Victorian entrepreneur, a self made man who
    knew exactly where he was going and, more importantly, precisely
    how he was going to get there.

    Your task is to research the


    David Davies contribution to
    coal society.

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