DOWLAIS, a chapelry in Merthyr-Tydvil parish, Glamorgan; on the Merthyr-Tydvil and Abergavenny railway, 2¼ miles NE of Merthyr-Tydvil. It contains Heolwermood and Garth; and has a post office‡ under Merthyr-Tydvil. Rated property, £22, 000. Pop., 15, 590. Houses, 2, 980. The property is much sub-divided. Dowlais House belonged formerly to Sir John Guest, Bart.; and is now the residence of G. Clarke, Esq. A vast iron establishment is here, including seventeen furnaces, and huge rolling-mills and forges. Great improvement was made in the sanitary and social condition of the work people by Sir John Guest; and a neat building was erected to his memory, and serves as a library and institution. The chapelry was constituted in 1837. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Llandaff. Value, £150.* Patron, the Marquis of Bute.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))