By 10.30pm that evening, the one working pit of the Cambrian Combine, Llwynypia, was surrounded by striking miners, inside was Leonard Llewellyn, and around sixty officials and draughtsmen of the colliery keeping the machinery of the pit working and the mine free from water. Rumours outside had it that Llewellyn had imported stokers from Cardiff who were acting as 'blackleg' labour. In addition to the workers manning the colliery, the premises also contained Captain Lindsay and over one hundred policemen. This concentration of manpower at Glamorgan Colliery is a testament to the importance of the site to both sides of the dispute, containing as it did the electric generator and pumping station that kept the mines free from water. It was at this power station that the strikers had their first brush with the law, and the events that were subsequently known as the Tonypandy Riots really began. Although the crowd, by now numbering in the thousands on the most part listened to their leader, Will John, and his appeal for calm. A small percentage of the crowd lining the embankment above the power station began stoning the building below and some of the wooden fencing surrounding the colliery was pulled down. Serious disorder ensued with the police and strikers involved in hand-to-hand fighting, finally the police after repeated baton charges succeeded in driving the crowd away from the colliery site towards Tonypandy just after midnight. At Tonypandy square, between 1.00am and 2.00am, fifty constables from Cardiff used truncheons to further disperse the crowds that had subsequently gathered there.
At 1.00am on the morning of 8 November, Captain Lindsay, fearing the scale of the disorder and the possibility of losing control of the situation, telegraphed for army reinforcements. Tidworth barracks replied saying that contingents of cavalry and infantry would arrive at Tonypandy at 9.00am that morning. When they didn't arrive, he telegraphed Winston Churchill, the then Home Secretary and stated:
'All the Cambrian collieries menaced last night. The Llwynypia Colliery savagely attacked by large crowds of strikers causing many casualties on both sides. Am expecting two companies of infantry and 200 cavalry today.' Unbeknownst to him however, Churchill on finding out about the unapproved troop movements had already stopped the reinforcements at Swindon, fearing some said a repeat of the incidents of 'Bloody Sunday, when in 1887 at Trafalgar Square, troops with fixed bayonets faced rioters. He sent a telegram to Lindsay stating, 'infantry should not be used until all other methods have failed'. Instead of the military, he sent 70 mounted and 200 other constables of the Metropolitan Police Force as reinforcements to the authorities already in the area. Cavalry were also offered, to be sent into the district as a precautionary measure under the control of General MacReady. Lindsay, on hearing of the contingent of Metropolitan Police being sent to his aid, refused the use of the cavalry saying the police reinforcements should be sufficient, as such the cavalry were halted at Cardiff.
On Tuesday 8 November, the workmen on strike were paid-off by the companies of the Cambrian Combine and proceeded to the Tonypandy Athletic Ground for a mass meeting. The local stipendiary magistrate Lleufer Thomas spoke to the men and read out a message from the Home Secretary who maintained his intent to hold back the soldiers and send only police in to maintain the peace. The tone was conciliatory and was well received by the strikers, promising as it did to arrange meetings with the Board of Trade to resolve the dispute. The miners then formed an orderly procession and proceeded once again to the Glamorgan Colliery, arriving at about 4.00pm. Within the hour however, what was described as 'serious rioting' had once again occurred. Mounted police attempted to disperse the strikers and hand to hand combat between strikers and the police took place lasting over two hours. Finally, the police managed to split the strikers into separate groups, some being driven up the valley towards Llwynypia and others down the valley towards Tonypandy. Hundreds of police and rioters were left injured. It was what happened next that has gone down in history as the Tonypandy Riots. Strikers on being driven to Tonypandy proceeded to smash the shop windows of the town, and also those of a number of private dwellings. Contemporary reports state that of all the shopping district only two shops retained their windows and were not looted by the rioters, one a jewellers which had roller shutters, and the other a chemist owned by a former Welsh rugby international. The five constables on duty in Tonypandy at the time, together with a dozen reinforcements from the Colliery, finally managed to clear the streets. Due to the seriousness of this continued rioting, Churchill telegrammed General MacReady stating, 'As the situation appears to have become more serious you should if the Chief Constable or Local Authority desire it move all the cavalry into the district without delay'.
Churchill also spoke to Lindsay and MacReady and agreed to send another contingent of 200 Metropolitan policemen leaving London on Wednesday 9 November at 3.00am. However, by the time that 150 police arrived at Tonypandy Square at 11.00pm on Tuesday 8 November, the disturbances were over. Although no authentic record exists of casualties of these disturbances, as many of the miners would have refused treatment in fear of being prosecuted for their part in the riots, nearly 80 policemen were injured and over 500 other persons, one Samuel Rhys later dying of his injuries.
Controversy has dogged the history of the Tonypandy Riots with many on the miners’ side blaming the press, who were seen as being sympathetic to the owners’ cause, for exaggerating the extent and numbers involved. Indeed, Keir Hardy in a parliamentary debate following the riots claimed that the 'window smashing' was the work of less than a hundred, of the thousands of striking miners. He also ascertained that had the police not all been guarding the mine owners' property the disturbance would very quickly have been stamped out.
In the days that followed the riot, local shopkeepers took to closing early in case of a repetition of the troubles of that night, and troops in the shape of the 18th Hussars arrived to take up station at the Llwynypia Colliery. Despite the numbers involved, only thirteen miners from Gilfach Goch were prosecuted for their part in the events of the 7th and 8th of November 1910. Their trial was held on 14 December, for 'intimidating a colliery official,' at Pontypridd. Fearing a repeat of the rioting, the authorities had reinforced the town with 400 policemen, two troops of infantry and a squadron of the 18th Hussars. For the six days of the trial up to 10,000 men, including drum and fife bands, marched in procession from the Valley to Pontypridd in support of their colleagues in the dock. Being prevented from entering the town they held mass meetings at the Rocking stone on the Common. On the final day of the trial only 600 men marched to Pontypridd for the verdicts and sentencing. Many staying away to avoid the possibility of being caught up in mass rioting and fighting with the authorities. Of the accused, some were sent to Cardiff Prison via a special train for periods ranging from two to six weeks, whilst the others were either fined or discharged.
Although this marked the end of the 'Tonypandy Riots' sporadic violent skirmishes erupted throughout the remaining period of the strike. Thus, in April 1911, The Rhondda Leader reported 'Blaenclydach Terror' and relates a number of incidents of strikers intimidating 'blacklegs', stoning the police, and the looting of a number of shops as well as the burning down of a local slaughterhouse. The strike finally ended in August 1911, with the workers forced to accept the 2s.1.3d. negotiated by William Abraham MP prior to the strike beginning. The workers returned to work on the first Monday in September. This has been only a brief outline of the events surrounding what has become known as 'The Tonypandy Riots', for a more detailed description of these events, recommended reading is 'The Tonypandy Riots' by G. Evans and D. Maddox, and 'South Wales Miners, A History of the South Wales Miners’ Dederation 1898-1914' by R. Page Arnot.