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Penwyllt

Coordinates:51°49′43″N3°39′51″W/ 51.8286°N 3.6642°W/51.8286; -3.6642
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Powell Street, Penwyllt (2005)

Penwyllt(Welsh:"wild headland"[1]) is ahamletlocated in the upperSwansea ValleyinWales.It lies within a part of theBrecon Beacons National Parkin the traditional county ofBrecknockshire;currently administered as part of the unitary authority ofPowys.

A formerquarryingvillage,quicklimeand silica brick production centre, its fortunes rose and fell as a result of the Industrial Revolution inSouth Wales.It is now an importantcavingcentre. It is in the community ofTawe-Uchaf.

Beneath Penwyllt and the surrounding area is the extensivelimestonecavesystem ofOgof Ffynnon Ddu,part of which was the first designated undergroundnational nature reservein the UK. A corresponding area on the surface is also part of the national nature reserve, on the slopes ofCarreg Cadno.

History

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Industrialisation

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Penwyllt developed primarily as a result of the need forquicklimein the industrial processes in the lower Swansea Valley, taking limestone from the quarries and turning it into quicklime inlime kilns.[2]

Subsequently, Penwyllt also supported the Penwyllt Dinas Silica Brick company,[3]which quarried silica sand at Pwll Byfre from which it manufactured refractory bricks, a form offire brick,at the Penwyllt brick works (closed 1937 or 1939). The bricks were destined for use in industrial furnaces. Anarrow-gauge railway,with a rope worked incline,[4]transported silica sand and stones to thebrickworks,which was adjacent to theNeath and Brecon Railway(which on 1 July 1922 became part of theGreat Western Railway).[5]

A detailed account of the history of Penwyllt and its industries was provided by Matthews(1991).[6]

Christie 1819-1822

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In 1819Fforest Fawr( "Great Forest of Brecknock" ) was enclosed or divided up into fields, and large parts of it became the property ofJohn Christie,a Scottish businessman based in London, who had become wealthy through the import of indigo. Christie developed a limestone quarry at Penwyllt, and decided to develop lime kilns there as well. In 1820 he moved toBrecon,and developed theBrecon Forest Tramroad.[7][8]

The tramroad ran from a depot atSennybridgethrough Fforest Fawr by way of the limestone quarries at Penwyllt to the Drim Colliery nearOnllwyn.A branch served the Gwaun Clawdd Colliery on the northern slopes of Mynydd y Drum and was extended to theSwansea Canal.

Christie was declared bankrupt in 1827 and most of his assets, including the tramroad, eventually passed to his principal creditor, Joseph Claypon, of the banking house of Garfit & Claypon inBoston, Lincolnshire.[9]

Claypon 1827-1850

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Claypon took over Christie's assets, and came to the conclusion that shipping lime, coal, iron ore and quicklime south to the larger industrial premises in the southern Swansea Valley was more productive than trying to serve a small rural population of the Usk valley to the north. They quickly sold or leased the farms and developments north of Fforest Fawr and concentrated on expanding the lime kilns at or around Penwyllt. In total there were fifteen lime kilns at Penwyllt:

  • Penwyllt quarry:two lime kilns created in the railway age by "Jeffreys, Powell and Williams", dated 1878[2]
  • Pen-y-foel:a bank of four kilns near the Penwyllt Inn erected in around 1863 to 1867 by, it is thought, the Brecon Coal & Lime Co. There is a loading bank for railway wagons in front of the kilns[10]
  • Twyn-disgwylfa:Built byJoseph Clayponbetween 1836 and 1842, the bank of seven kilns has been largely destroyed by quarry tipping. Only one draw arch can now be seen[11]
  • Twyn-y-ffald:The 1825 and 1827 kilns built by Joseph Claypon have been largely demolished, although the single draw arch can still be seen[12]

Second half of the 19th century

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On 29 July 1862, anAct of Parliamentcreated theDulais Valley Mineral Railway,[13]to transport goods to thedocksatBriton Ferry,Neathbuilt byIsambard Kingdom Brunel.The population of Penwyllt grew on this increased transport ability to over 500 citizens by the1881 Census.

After being authorised to extend the railway toBrecon,it changed its name to theNeath and Brecon Railway.The railway company agreed to co-operate with theSwansea Vale Railwayto create theSwansea Vale and Neath and Brecon Junction Railwaylinking the railway fully intoNeath,as well as theSouth Wales Railwaymainline. An early and unsuccessful purchaser of the newFairlie locomotive,when in 1863 the railway reachedCrynant,coal mining quickly expanded.[14]

Craig-y-nos railway stationat Penwyllt was in part funded byoperasingerAdelina Patti,who lived at and extended the nearbyCraig-y-Nos Castle[1].She built a road from the castle to the station and had a separate waiting room built. The railway supplied her in return with her ownrailroad car,which she could request to go anywhere within theUnited Kingdom.

Decline 1870

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As industrial activity declined with reducing economic stocks of coal, iron ore and limestone and the development of new technologies on a larger scale on the coast of South Wales, particularly atPort TalbotandLlanwern,Penwyllt declined.

By 1870 the sevenblast furnaceironworksofYnyscedwynhad only one working furnace.

20th century

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World War IIcreated the final closure, as the need to scale production upwards for the larger coastal meant the heavily manual process of Penwyllt quarry was uneconomic compared to other British and foreign facilities which could bulk ship by sea. The Penwyllt Inn,[15]or 'Stump' as it was often known, closed in 1948, and in October 1962 all passenger services were withdrawn byBritish RailfromNeath and Brecon Railwayline. The line north of the station closed to Brecon, and by the end of the 1960s the population had fallen to 20 people. The railway line south to Neath remained open until 1977 to serve the quarry until it ceased major production and effectively closed.[16]

Many of the former industrial buildings, commercial properties and houses of Penwyllt were demolished in the early 1980s, being both beyond economic repair and unneeded.

21st century

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The former pub survives as private accommodation for cavers. The former Craig-y-nos station survives in reasonable repair as a private holiday cottage. Patti Row, a historic block ofback-to-back housesdating from the days of theBrecon Forest Tramroad,[17]survives in a derelict state. The only group ofterraced housesstill occupied are in Powell Street and form the headquarters of the South Wales Caving Club,[18]and the South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team[19]SWCC Cottage[20]

The quarry, though not the railway, re-opened in 2007 to provide limestone for the works associated with a new gas pipeline being laid through South Wales. In 2008 it was again dormant. In 2009 it was operational but at a relatively low level of activity.

In 2006, theTorchwoodepisodeCountrycidewas filmed in Penwyllt to stand in for the fictional village of Brynblaidd in theBrecon Beacons,where the titular team faces a group of cannibals.[21]

References

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  1. ^Cardiff Naturalists' Society
  2. ^abPenwyllt - Craig-y-nos kilns
  3. ^Images of Wales
  4. ^The Colliery Guardian, Vol 85 pp1325-6, 19 June 1903
  5. ^Barrie, D.S.M., A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol. 12 South Wales. David & Charles, 1980.ISBN0-7153-7970-4
  6. ^Matthews, Helen, (1991), "Penwyllt Village, Growth, Development and Decline", Local History Dissertation, University College of Swansea (25MB pdf file)
  7. ^P R Reynolds,The Brecon Forest Tramroad(Swansea, 1979)
  8. ^Stephen Hughes,The Brecon Forest Tramroads: the archaeology of an early railway system,(Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, 1990)
  9. ^Victorian Ystradgynlais - The Brecon Forest Tramroad
  10. ^Penwyllt, Pen-y-foel kilns
  11. ^Penwyllt - Twyn-disgwylfa kilns
  12. ^Penwyllt - Twyn-y-ffald kiln
  13. ^"West Glamorgan Archive Service - Royal Institution papers: Acts of Parliament".Archived fromthe originalon 27 September 2007.
  14. ^"Neath Port Talbot Museum Service - All For Coal".Archived fromthe originalon 27 April 2007.Retrieved17 April2007.
  15. ^Images of Wales
  16. ^cyn.JPG:: Craig y Nos Station at Penwyllt looking north on 14 April 2006. The Neath & Brecon line to this point lingered on to serve the adjacent quarry until 1977 (officially closed 1981)[permanent dead link]
  17. ^Hughes, Stephen, The Brecon Forest Tramroads, RCAHM in Wales, 1990,ISBN1-871184-05-3
  18. ^South Wales Caving Club
  19. ^South & Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team
  20. ^SWCC Cottage
  21. ^"Penwyllt Inn - a location from Countrycide(TW)".
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51°49′43″N3°39′51″W/ 51.8286°N 3.6642°W/51.8286; -3.6642

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