Aberaman is a village near Aberdare in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. It was heavily dependent on the coal industry and the population, as a result, grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Most of the industry has now disappeared and a substantial proportion of the working population travel to work in Cardiff and the M4 corridor. Many residents also work in the nearby towns of Aberdare and Pontypridd.

Located to the south of Aberdare, the area that would become Aberaman was predominantly agricultural land until the early nineteenth century. From at least 1524 Aberaman was the home of the Mathew family, who owned land throughout Glamorgan and who came to prominence in the seventeenth century. In 1637, William Mathew presented the bell to St. John's Church and three members of the family served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan. In 1788 the Aberaman Estate passed to three sisters, Eleanor, Rebecca and Maria Eleanora. Eleanor Mathew is remembered as a great philanthropist who endowed the almshouses of Aberdare to accommodate four poor persons.

The family seat was at Aberaman Isha, later known as Aberaman House (which is still extant but much altered). The last of the Mathew family, Edward Mathew, died in 1788 and the estate was broken up after two centuries and divided between his three daughters and their husbands.

In 1806, Anthony Bushby Bacon, an illegitimate son of Anthony Bacon, a prominent iron master at Merthyr Tydfil, bought Aberaman House. He shared the Hirwaun ironworks with his brother but proceeded to sell his share to his brother and with the proceeds from the sale, he purchased the Matthews estate at Aberaman, including Aberaman House. Bacon, also known as Anthony Bacon II, did not aspire to be an iron master like his father and, in 1814, sold the entire Cyfarthfa estate, which he alone had inherited, to Richard Crawshay. For the rest of his life he used the Aberaman estate as a summer residence. He died there on 11 August 1827.

After his death, it passed to Crawshay Bailey, who owned the ironworks at Nantyglo and Beaufort. Bailey recognised the potential of the rich coal seams of the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys and bought up land in these areas in the 1830s. Amongst the lands he acquired was the Aberaman estate, which he bought from the executors of Anthony Bacon II, together with its mansion, by indenture dated 17 February 1837. It was several years before he began speculating for coal. By 1845, Crawshay Bailey had, in partnership with Josiah John Guest, built the Aberdare Railway and, around this time, 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 (see below) 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. Bailey retired to Abergavenny.

Around 1843, the valuable steam-coal seams on the Blaengwawr estate began to be exploited by David Davis, Blaengwawr. Davis was a self-made man whose family firm later became one of the most important in the South Wales coal trade, with interests in both the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Aberaman continued to grow southwards. During the early years of the twentieth century the area known as Godreaman became built up, meaning that there was unbroken development between Aberaman and neighbouring Cwmaman, which was a settlement dependent almost wholly on the coal industry. By this time, Lewis Street at the heart of Aberaman village had developed into a small urban and commercial core around the Aberaman Hall and Institute (see below).

It can be seen that the industrial developments of the mid-1840s were the catalyst for the growth of Aberaman as an industrial settlement. The earliest housing in the 1840s took the form of a ribbon development southwards from Aberdare along Cardiff Road. In the 1850s, the settlement grew out from Cardiff Road as, amongst others, Curre Street, Holford Street, Gwawr Street and Lewis Street were built. There were also settlements near the collieries, including Incline Row and Bell Place near Aberaman Colliery, and Blaengwawr Row and Blaengwawr Cottages adjacent to Blaengwawr Colliery.