The cause of this dramatic expansion of population was industrialisation of course, developing on the massive local deposits of coal. Even in 1720, Bowen speaks of "many Coal Pits" but clearly these must have been very small and represented a tiny fraction of the coal production capacity that was to be achieved here in the 19^th century; as he concludes, "The Chief Commodities" were "Corn and Cattle"; the corn and cattle that represented the livelihood of the Davies and Powell ancestors, almost all of whom were farmers. As we trace their progress through the 18^th and 19^th centuries it becomes apparent that this livelihood was continually under threat as they became encircled by mining, iron-production and associated industries, and as railway and road construction and urban sprawl reduced the size and suitability of their land for farming. As the green Rhondda Valley , home to several generations of Davies family farmers, became increasingly black, they were obliged to seek new pastures, first in the Ogmore valley, then later, on the coastal plain around Bridgend. In parallel, the Powell family farmers were facing similar encroachment in the rural parishes around Neath, and in the course of three generations, as they sidestepped the burgeoning industry and urban expansion of Neath, Port Talbot and Margam, had also arrived in the same area, to the South and West of Bridgend. Our journey into the past will take us through a number of parishes, some of which no longer exist; some that have changed name or shape or merged with others.