Penwyllt

Penwyllt is a Welsh hamlet located in the upper Swansea Valley, on the southern edge of the Black Mountains.

A former mining village and quicklime production centre, its fortunes rose and fell as a result of the industrial revolution within South Wales.

Background

The Geology of South Wales provides it with the basic raw materials structure to be at the centre of the industrial revolution. The large natural coal fields enclose significant deposits of iron ore and limestone, each basic to the production of materials via production methods.

The best coal in South Wales is found in the eastern sections beneath Rhondda Fawr, where the pressure is highest. The greatest deposits of limestone are found above the western section, around the northern section of Swansea Valley where it borders Breconshire. There were also coal deposits below the lime layer, and the coal which lay underground at Clydach, Ystradgynlais, and Abercrave became more valuable as the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian years led to a huge demand for iron and steel, and giving the area prosperity.

Industrialisation

Penwyllt came into creation as a result of the need for quicklime in the industrial processes in the lower Swansea Valley, taking clay from the hills and turning it into quicklime in lime kilns.

Christie

In 1817, Fforest Fawr (English - Great Forest of Brecon) was enclosed or divided up into fields, and large parts of it became the property of John Christie, a London businessman. Christie had already developed a limestone quarry at Penwyllt, and decided to develop lime kilns there as well. In 1820 he moved to Brecon, and developed the Brecon Forest Tramroad. This network consisted eventually of over 100miles of tracks connecting the farms of Sennybridge and the Fforest Fawr (where Christie wanted to improve the land through application of lime), with the charcoal burning centres and coal extraction below Fforest Fawr, with the lime kiln at Penwyllt and iron works at Ystrydgwnlais, and the Swansea canal dock for other industries down stream. Unfortunately, before he could complete the system, he went bankrupt.

Claypon

The Claypon brothers took over Christie's assets, and quickly 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 create an integrated industry over 100miles of step track.

They quickly sold or abandoned 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 within the parish of Penwyllt:

• Craig-y-nos: two lime kilns created in the railway age, dated 1878
• Pen-y-foel: a bank of four kilns 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
• Twyn-disgwylfa: Built by Joseph Claypon between 1836 and 1842, the bank of seven kilns has been largely destroyed by quarry tipping. Only one draw arch can now be seen
• 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

Latter half of the 18th century

On 29 July, 1862, an Act of Parliament created the Dulais Valley Mineral Railway, to transport goods to the docks at Briton Ferry, Neath built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The population of Penwyllt grew on this increased transport ability to over 500 citizens by the 1881 Census.

After being authorised to extend the railway to Brecon, it changed its name to the Neath and Brecon Railway. The railway agreed to co-operate with the Swansea Vale Railway to create the Swansea Vale and Neath and Brecon Junction Railway linking the railway fully into Neath, as well as the South Wales Railway mainline. An early and unsuccessful purchaser of the new Fairlie locomotive, when in 1863 the railway reached Crynant, coal mining quickly expanded. At Crynant several new mines were opened including the Crynant colliery, Brynteg colliery in 1904, Llwynon colliery in 1905, Dillwyn colliery, and Cefn Coed colliery 1930

The passenger station at Craig-y-nos/Penwyllt was in part funded by opera singer Adelina Patti, who lived at Craig-y-nos Castle. She built a road from the castle to the station, and a seperate waiting room. The railway supplied her in return with her own railway carriage, which she could request to go anywhere within the United Kingdom.

Decline

Penwyllt was created on the back of the industrialisation of the Swansea valley. As the industrialisation 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 at Port Talbot and Llanwern, Penwyllt declined.

By 1870 the seven blast furnace iron works of Ynyscedwyn had only one working furnace. Penwyllt was in decline from the turn of the century, but World War Two created 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 pub closed in 1948, and in October 1962 all passenger services were withdrawn by British Railways from Neath to Brecon railway line. The line north of Craig-y-nos/Penwyllt station closed to Brecon on closure of Brecon station, and by the end of the 1960s the population had fallen to 20 people. The railway line remained open south to Neath until 1977 to serve the quarry, until its closure.

Today

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. The shell of the pub survives, as does the former Craig-y-nos/Penwyllt station.

The only group of former terrace houses now standing are home to the head quarters of the South Wales Caving Club, and the South Wales Mountain Rescue unit

References

• Hughes, Stephen, The Brecon Forest Tramroads, RCAHM in Wales, 1990

External links

• An historic and photographic exploration of Penwyllt by John Ball and Venita Roylance
• 1988 Ariel shot of Penwyllt quarry and railway at Casglu'r Tlysau