David Davies (18 December 1818 – 20 July 1890) was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1874 and 1886.

[5] Davies had a number of advantages, including the fact that his railway building enterprises benefited the county and created additional, if temporary, employment opportunities.

However, his defeat was attributed to the strong opposition of landowners, including the overwhelming influence of the Pryse family of Gogerddan at Aberystwyth, and the failure of nonconformists to unite behind his candidature.

Ieuan Gwynedd Jones describes the election as 'a contest between two kinds of wealth, the affluent railway contractor pitting his ready cash and ruthless commercial methods against the sedate and comfortable but strained resources of the rural gentry.

[7] Davies presented himself as a businessman who brought employment to the county and scarcely referred in his speeches to radical policies, including the secret ballot.

His success in 1885 was also underpinned by a particularly effective Liberal Association, organised by H. C. Fryer, an Aberystwyth solicitor, and which set up mechanisms to ensure the registration of voters.

Trains were even organised to convey voters who had migrated to the South Wales coalfield back to their native county to cast their votes.

[14] In 1886, however, Davies broke with Gladstone over home rule for Ireland and at the 1886 general election he stood as a Liberal Unionist candidate, having initially indicated that he would retire from politics.

[16] Eventually Davies was defeated by William Bowen Rowlands, the Gladstonian Liberal candidate, by a mere nine votes, a result which was largely attributed to the influence of nonconformist ministers over their congregations.

This line was unusual in that at neither terminus did it connect with any other railway, and the engines and carriages had to be carried on specially constructed wagons from Oswestry, 36 miles away.

It is reputed that he bought up the entire year's production of sheep fleeces in Ceredigion to lay as a foundation for the railway line on the bog.

The Ocean Merthyr company was formed under his chairmanship in 1867 and a number of new collieries were sunk including Dare (1868), Western and Eastern (1872), Garw (1884), and Lady Windsor (1885).

His father was a sawyer and lived on the south side of the Severn valley in Llandinam so that in winter the house was shaded from the sun because of the enclosing hills.

Once he had started to amass his fortune, he built Broneirion, a grand country mansion on the north side of the river that would enjoy sunshine all year round, which has been maintained and operated as a training facility and accommodation by owners Girlguiding Cymru since the 1940s.

[1] Davies was a keen patron and one of the first governors of the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and in 1875 was elected treasurer, a post which he held till 1887.