In 1637, William Mathew presented the bell to St. John's Church and three members of the family served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan.

Bailey recognised the potential of the rich coal seams of the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys and bought up land in these areas in the 1830s.

Amongst the lands he acquired was the Aberaman estate, which he bought from the executors of Anthony Bacon II, together with its mansion, by indenture dated 17 February 1837.

[5] By 1845, Crawshay Bailey had, in partnership with Josiah John Guest, built the Aberdare Railway and, around this time, the Aberaman Ironworks and a number of collieries associated with it were opened.

[6] He disposed of the entire Aberaman estate including its collieries, ironworks, brickworks and private railway, to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Co. by indenture dated 2 February 1867 for the sum of £123,500.

Davis was a self-made man whose family firm later became one of the most important in the South Wales coal trade, with interests in both the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys.

During the early years of the twentieth century the area known as Godreaman became built up, meaning that there was unbroken development between Aberaman and neighbouring Cwmaman, which was a settlement dependent almost wholly on the coal industry.

[2] Two contemporary accounts give a vivid description of the conditions prevailing in Aberdare as the area struggled to cope with the population explosion.

[2] In 1909 the first Mines Rescue Station in South Wales was opened at the Aberaman Colliery and at this time over a thousand men were employed there.

At the start of the twentieth century the vast majority of the inhabitants of Aberaman, many of whom were migrants from rural Welsh counties, were Welsh-speaking.

Nonconformist chapels in Aberaman included Gwawr (Baptist), Saron (Independent) and Libanus (Calvinistic Methodist), all of which dated from the growth of the village in the late 1840s.

[2] Until that point the chapels had been dominant in public life and the development of a secular hall, in hindsight, could be seen as the beginning of their long decline.

Many years elapsed before sufficient funds were raised to begin the building work and the ceremony to lay the foundation stone was held on 2 October 1907, on the site previously occupied by the Aberaman Reading Institute.