In 1827 Wayne established iron-works of his own at the Gadlys, Aberdare, in conjunction with George Rowland Morgan and Edward Morgan Williams, the latter of whom retired in 1829. For a time Wayne retained the management of the company in his own hands, while his sons were engaged elsewhere. The works were quite small compared with those at Aber-nant, Llwydcoed, etc., but they were compact, consisting of only one blast furnace for a considerable time, with the necessary adjuncts. In 1828, the company sent 444 tons of iron by canal down to Cardiff, and this was increased to 1291 tons in 1836, though the works had been put up for sale the previous year in London. It was about this time, on account of the father's increasing age, that the sons came to assist him in the management. A writer in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 12 Mar. 1853, commenting on the death of Matthew Wayne, claimed that ‘Wayne was the first man that ever sent coal to Cardiff from the Aberdare basin, being thus the first to open that traffic from which this port (Cardiff). … the T.V.R. and the parish of Aberdare have received an impetus which is quite unparalleled in the history of the coal trade. To him, more than to anybody else, Aberdare owes unquestionably its present prosperity, as he it was who first found out and brought to the notice of the public, the valuable properties of its steam coal …’ Yet this claim to be the pioneer of the steam coal trade in the Aberdare Valley is generally attributed to his son, Thomas Wayne (below), who is said to have urged his father and his elder brother to sink for the celebrated four foot seam of coal, as had been done by Lucy Thomas (q.v.) of Waun-wyllt, Merthyr. With the David family of Abernant-y-groes, Cwm-bach, Matthew, with his two sons, Thomas and William Watkin Wayne, formed the Wayne's Merthyr-Aberdare Steam Coal Company, and commenced sinking the colliery in June 1837. By Dec. of the same year, having sunk a distance of forty-nine yards, they had reached the coal, and despatched and exhibited a quantity in London on 13 Dec. From now on, father and sons were busily employed with the iron-works at Gadlys, with their associated coal-pits (Pwll Newydd, and the Graig Colliery), and the new colliery at Cwm-bach. For example, in 1839 they sent, by the canal, 1,081 tons of iron, and 3,373 tons of coal; in 1845, they raised 38,000 tons of coal from Cwm-bach, and in the following year, 48,000 tons. By this time they were able to despatch iron and coal by rail as well as by canal to Cardiff. By 1850, there were four blast furnaces at Gadlys, and that same year they established the Gadlys Tin Works.

Matthew Wayne d. 7 March 1853, aged 73. He left four sons to carry on the works, together with a daughter and a sister. The sons were: