GELLIGAER The Prestige Series Gelligaer Michael Yelton Michael Yelton 128 PIKES LANE GLOSSOP DERBYSHIRE SK13 8EH (01457 861508 E-MAIL [email protected] INTERNET www.venturepublications.co.uk ISBN 978 190530 4448 Number thirty-nine in The Prestige Series from Venture Publications Limited 128 page template 128 page template The Prestige Series Gelligaer Michael Yelton This free edition is provided by MDS Book Sales during the coronavirus lockdown. There’s no charge and it may be distributed as you wish. If you’d like to make a donation to our charity of choice - The Christie, Europe’s largest specialist cancer centre - there’s a link here. Dedicated to Joseph Alexander Yelton. © 2011 Venture Publications Ltd ISBN 9781905304448 All rights reserved. Except for normal review purposes no part of this book maybe reproduced or utilised in any form by any means, electrical or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of Venture Publications Ltd, Glossop, Derbyshire, SK13 8EH. CONTENTS Introduction 3 History Of The Undertaking 1928-45 5 History Of The Undertaking 1945-74 21 Fleet List 43 Ticket Selection 72 Acknowledgements All black and white photographs in the book are from the camera or collection of Roy Marshall to whom we record our thanks. We are grateful to David and Mary Shaw for their meticulous proof-reading of the text. Michael Yelton June 2011 Cover pictures Front Cover: Longwell Green-bodied AEC Reliance No.16, new in 1957, in the distinctive post war red, green and grey livery at Cilfynydd Common on the ex-CMS service from Pontypridd to Bedlinog. (R Marshall) Title page: Number 11, later 1, (KNY 453) in its original condition with an outswept skirt and much beading. It was the first of four Duple-bodied AEC Regals delivered in 1950. (G Lumb) Inside Front Cover Upper: Ex-demonstrator, STB 957C, a Leyland Panther with Willowbrook body is shown on the route to Rhymney Bridge from Gelligaer. It was bought by Gelligaer in 1967 (G Lumb) Inside Front Cover Lower: Longwell Green-bodied Leyland PD2 of 1959, in revised livery, is at Bargoed. Number 21 is on the route to Newport via Caerphilly. (G Lumb) Inside Rear Cover Upper: Leyland PS1 with Duple body was No. 1 in the fleet at the time this photograph was taken at the depot. It was one of four similar vehicles delivered in 1951. (G Lumb) Inside Rear Cover Lower: Number 18, an AEC Regent III with lowbridge Bruce bodywork of 1949 is shown outside the Gelligaer depot. (G Lumb) Rear Cover: By 1954 many operators were taking delivery of underfloor-engined vehicles but Gelligaer took delivery of a pair of AEC Regal IIIs with bodywork by Longwell Green. Number 2, which is shown at Ystrad Mynach, remained in service until 1967. (G Lumb) 2 Introduction Bargoed Hill which led up from the town to Aberbargoed in Bedwellty UD, terraces along The Gelligaer Urban District Council transport the sides of the hills, and many mines. Bargoed undertaking was small, somewhat idiosyncratic in itself is an archetypical Valleys town which many respects, and also little known outside its prospered when the mines were active and was immediate area. In some ways it had an identity built up around them. It did not exist until the mid problem, as Gelligaer itself is only a village, Nineteenth Century, but between 1901 and 1922 although one with a considerable history, and the population grew from about 4500 to 12500 as the main settlement within the borders of the Bargoed pit, owned by Powell Duffryn, produced Urban District, which was established in 1908, vast quantities of coal: on 23rd April 1909 a ten was Bargoed (in Welsh Bargod), which remained hour shift saw a record of over 4020 tons hewn throughout the centre of bus operations, although out of the ground. A vast slag heap, at one time the administrative offices were further south, said to be the largest in the world, grew around in Park Road, Hengoed. Even Roy Marshall, a the mine. However the golden years of the South lifelong bus enthusiast who in 1966 was to become Wales coal industry were over by the early 1920s general manager of the transport undertaking, and thereafter there was a steady but pronounced was confused on his first visit to the area in 1949 depopulation of the area, as there was in many and travelled to Gelligaer village before finding other localities around. The population of the that Bargoed was a more interesting place for Urban District was 28800 in 1908, 40100 in 1914, spotting. and 48200 in 1926. It then fell to 41000 in 1931, Gelligaer had previously been part of the Gellygaer a period which coincided with the introduction of and Rhigos Rural District, established in 1894, the Council’s transport services, and by 1951 had which was itself an odd authority as it comprised decreased to 36100, after which it stabilised. two parcels which were much separated by other The closure of Bargoed pit in June 1977, districts including the town of Merthyr Tydfil. Also shortly after the end of the period of independent since Gelligaer was then growing rapidly, while transport operation by Gelligaer had ended, Rhigos remained agricultural, it was sensible to began a long and steep period of general decline split the two. for the town, which has only recently begun to The new Urban District comprised the old reverse as commuting to Cardiff from the area civil parish of Gelligaer, namely Bargoed and becomes more established. However during the the surrounding settlements, Hengoed, which time when the local buses were in operation, lay immediately to the south of Bargoed, part of Bargoed was a considerable shopping centre, the important junction town of Ystrad Mynach, with a large department store known as the which was immediately south again and the Emporium, complete with its own substantial remaining section of which was in Caerphilly, clock tower. and the outlying village of Bedlinog, which The centre of the town, and indeed the centre lay some distance to the west of Bargoed and of the operations of Gelligaer UDC, was the had some considerable affinity with Merthyr. steeply graded Hanbury (formerly Trafalgar) Gellygaer (the spelling of which was corrected Square, on the main street. It is in fact a triangle to the more linguistically correct Gelligaer in late rather than a square and navigating the sharp 1952) was in the County of Glamorgan, but lay turn at the furthest point from the main street and on the border with Monmouthshire, which was coping with the gradients amid the traffic called there formed by the Rhymney River. The next for a high degree of skill on the part of the drivers. district to the north was Rhymney, which was It was so configured in order that when the rain actually in Monmouthshire, as were Bedwellty poured down, as it often does in that region, it and Mynyddislwyn, which lay on the opposite would run off the steeply graded sides of the bank from Bargoed. The settlement of Pengam, triangle and down the flattish main road, rather between Bargoed and Hengoed, was actually than flooding the shops opposite: however this partly in each of the two counties. meant that buses, especially when they became The environment was typical of the South longer and lower, sometimes had real problems Wales valleys: steep roads, including the notorious negotiating the exit from the terminal stands. 3 There was considerable traffic as well to and form down from there to Pontlottyn, involved very from Ystrad Mynach, where there was a hospital, considerable strains on the vehicles, accentuated a railway station, and educational establishments, in bad weather. all of which brought passengers in. When the The commencement of operation by Gelligaer system developed to its full extent, there were was a protracted business. As set out in detail in four separate routes between Bargoed and Ystrad the following chapter, although the necessary Act Mynach, one of which went through the small but of Parliament was obtained in 1920, there were historically significant village of Gelligaer itself, thereafter frequent delays and turns in policy, which has a castle and a notable church. The other mostly as a result of financial pressures and fears, large pit in the district was Penallta, between and it was not until 1928 that services actually Ystrad Mynach and Gelligaer, which was also on started. that route and was sunk in 1905. Bedlinog was The end was much less prolonged. Under the somewhat isolated by its position, and it too had Local Government Act 1972, which took effect its own colliery, Taff Merthyr, which was not dug on 1st April 1974, the Urban District of Gelligaer until after the First World War and was a model ceased to exist. The original intention had been that for many constructed thereafter. At Deri, above the area be transferred into Monmouthshire, which Bargoed, was the Groesfaen pit, which was taken became Gwent. However, in the event most of the over by Powell Duffryn in 1920, in which year district was transferred from the historic county of they sank their last substantial mine in the area, Glamorgan to the new county of Mid-Glamorgan, Ogilvie, also near Deri. and incorporated into the new Rhymney Valley There were a number of railways in the District Council, which also included most of the area, although as with so many other parts of former Caerphilly Urban District from Glamorgan South Wales they had been constructed with the and also Bedwas & Machen and Rhymney Urban primary purpose of transporting coal to the docks Districts and part of Bedwellty, all of which had at Cardiff, Newport and Barry, and passenger previously been in Monmouthshire.