William Crawshay II

Who was William Crawshay II?

William Crawshay II was the son of William Crawshay I, the owner of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales.

William Crawshay II became an ironmaster when he took over the business from his father. He was known as the 'Iron King'. He was responsible for the building of Cyfarthfa Castle in the 1820s. In 1847, he retired to Caversham Park in Oxfordshire, where he died 20 years later. After a fire in 1850, Caversham Park was rebuilt by Crawshay to a design by Horace Jones who much later also designed London's Tower Bridge.

His son, Robert Thompson Crawshay, carried on the South Wales business.