The 1841 tithe map and schedules shows Miskin to be
a hamlet located two miles south of Llantrisant beside
the Ely River. It consisted of New Mill farmhouse, a cottage
and barn, and a cottage and smithy, all of which belonged
to New Mill Farm.
Further, if we compare the map with the Ordnance Survey map published in 1875
we see that the tithe map also shows a mill and a cottage on the site of the
present Miskin Arms. The census of 1841 shows a total population of 31 in five
households, including a farmer, miller, shopkeeper, dressmaker shoemaker and
labourer. We also establish that the hamlet was known as ‘New Mill'.
By the 1861 census New Mill had become a village. Its
population had increased to 83 in 17 households. In addition
to the farmer, miller, shoemaker and labourer, we now find
17 iron ore miners. Clearly, the opening of Bute and Mwyndy
iron ore works during the 1850s had had a dramatic impact
on New Mill's development and it continued to do so. Iron
ore mines were worked as open cast quarries during the
industry's early history.
Right: 1874/1876 map of Miskin
However by the late 1860s shafts were being sunk changing
the nature of the workforce from quarrymen and labourers
to skilled miners. Several ironstone mines are shown dotted
around to the north of the village on the 1875 Ordnance
Survey map. A number of miners were recruited from Cornwall,
many of them victims of the collapse of the Cornish copper
mining industry in 1866. The 1871 census shows that over
half of New Mill's iron ore miners had emigrated from that
county increasing the village's population to 144.
