to capitalise on further assets in the form of sinking new collieries and building new blast furnaces. He also promoted railways between Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, via Monmouth and Usk to Pontypool. Soon after the Aberdare Railway was built, the Aberaman Ironworks and a number of collieries associated with it were opened. Bailey remained the owner of the Aberaman Estate but despite the profitability of his colliery activities, the depression in the iron trade meant that the enterprise did not prove as successful as Bailey had hoped so he decided to sell the Aberaman estate and return to Monmouthshire. He disposed of the entire Aberaman estate including its collieries, ironworks, brickworks and private railway, to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Co. by indenture dated 2 February 1867 for the sum of £123,500. He was anti trade union and opposed to his workers organising themselves along these lines. Political career He had already been appointed High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1837 and also held the same office in Monmouthshire in 1850. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouth Boroughs from 1852 to 1868 and was elected in five successive parliamentary elections. Later life By 1867 he owned iron works, blast furnaces, coalmines, tramways, railways and brickworks. He retired in this year, selling off all his assets over the next three years. Before 1851 he had retired to Llanfoist near Abergavenny, where he lived in Llanfoist House. Llanfoist Primary School had a house named after him. He died in 1872, aged 83, after at least seventy years in industry. His only son, and heir, Crawshay Bailey, Junior (born 1841), inherited. John Griffith, rector of Merthyr, said of Crawshay Bailey: Popular culture Crawshay Bailey was the original subject of the song now usually corrupted to Cosher Bailey Crawshay Bailey had an Engine It was always needin' mendin' And dependin' on its power It could do four miles an hour Did you ever saw Did you ever saw Did you ever saw Such a funny thing before? (and so on—many, many verses in different versions) Crawshay Bailey is also mentioned by name in the song "Ironmasters" on The Men They Couldn't Hang album Night of a Thousand Candles. Sources References External links 1789 births 1872 deaths 19th-century Welsh businesspeople Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 High