Iron Worker is a piece that came from a place of respect, reflection, and a deep connection to the stories of Merthyr Tydfil. The figure at its centre stands alone but carries the weight of a whole era — a tribute to the generations who built the industrial world with their hands, their sweat, and their lives.

The print is a reflection on Merthyr Tydfil’s industrial past — a place I have strong ties to, and a town that once stood at the heart of the world’s iron industry.

While some contemporary Welsh artists have portrayed industrial workers as heroes, I’m drawn to showing them as they often were – people shaped and sometimes broken by the systems they served. There’s dignity in acknowledging struggle rather than romanticizing it.

The History

By the 1820s, Merthyr was producing 40% of all iron in the UK. It wasn’t a town of blacksmiths or toolmakers — it was where the iron itself was made, in vast, roaring furnaces that fed the railways of America and the war machines of Europe.

This linocut was inspired by the iron industry that once defined Merthyr, when it was known as the iron capital of the world. I spent time researching not just the facts, but the human stories that echo through the valleys: the rows of terrace houses, the looming chapels, the soot-covered viaducts, and the communities forged under immense pressure.

The Print

This print focuses on a single ironworker — worn, enduring — surrounded by fragments of the place that made and marked him: the curved viaduct at Cefn Coed y Cymmer, terrace houses, chapel roofs, iron bridge frames.

And in the distance, the Pandy Clock from outside Cyfarthfa Castle, with one face rumoured left blank so the workers couldn’t see the time.

I wanted the print to feel like memory made solid — textured, worn, and weathered. The strong black-and-white contrast is deliberate: it speaks to the stark realities of the past, and the pride that remains. The central figure, battered but unbowed, is drawn from a blend of historical images and imagination — a kind of every-worker, standing for many.

Juxtaposed

Iron Worker was awarded Best Print at the opening night of the Juxtaposed exhibition at Cyfarthfa Castle in 2025. That recognition meant a great deal. To have this piece, which is so rooted in local history, acknowledged by artists, judges, and the community felt like a small way of honouring the people whose stories shaped it.

There’s something powerful about this—Iron Worker will hang in the very home of the ironmasters who would’ve employed the man in the print.

Hwyl fawr/Goodbye,

Dan