Mid-Wales; This for Industrial Archaeology in Aberystwyth
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.19 1.4d'7 4 This booklet has been produced in order to draw GA Guide to the the attention of visitors to the remains of buildings or structures which can be classified as 'industrial archaeology' This classification is not clearly `INDUSTRIAL defined and includes not only those of the dominant lead mining industry for its ancillary GARCHAEOLOGY industries, but transport, bridges, the varied uses of water power, forestry and agriculture and the research establishments associated with them. of Mid Wales Preference is given to sites which are either accessible to the public, or which can be seen The centre two pages of this booklet are in the and understood from a public road; a few of them form of a map with every site mentioned in the are run as commercial enterprises. Some are text shown. This, together with the National clearly on common land, others on unfenced Grid reference, will enable sites to be identified, land whose ownership is difficult to establish, but, even though, especially in the case of lead mines, in all cases, the land and its usage should be they are not on a metalled road. respected. When a site is on enclosed land and the owner or occupant is at hand permission should be sought; it is rarely refused. Front cover: Underground waterwheel at Ystrad All mine sites are potentially very dangerous Einion mine (221. due to unstable buildings and unprotected open shafts; the element of risk is always present and it is unwise to go alone. Geographical and Historical Introduction. The differences between the folk of North Wales and Author's Preface. The appearance of this modest South Wales are as marked as those between publication has been planned to coincide with Northumberland and Devon. In Wales there is an the 1984 Annual Conference of the Association ill-defined area, or 'buffer-state', Mid-Wales; this for Industrial Archaeology in Aberystwyth. In comprises the old county of Cardiganshire and preparing it I must express my gratitude to most of the counties of Montgomery, Merioneth many friends and fellow workers, but especially and Radnor with Aberystwyth as the most to my co-authors and former colleagues Brian important cultural centre. Malaws, who has also drawn the map, and his The uplands, blessed with a good rainfall, wife Hilary. Thanks also to Fleur Michael and provide the sources of both the Severn and the lain Wright in the photographic unit of the Wye, whilst from the western side of the water- Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in shed the Teifi, Ystwyth, Rheidol and Dovey Wales (RCAM) for supplying photographs, and (Dyfi) flow into Cardigan Bay. This uplapd area to my friend and neighbour Ceridwen Lloyd at about 1500 ft above sea level contains some Morgan for the specially prepared .appendix on of the least populated land in Britain; it is un- the nature of the Welsh language as a useful spectacular undulating moorland with acid soils guide to the understanding and pronunciation given over to sheep and forest. Here are to be of local place-names. David Bick has kindly seen the rare red kite and the mounted shepherd allowed me to use his photograph of Llywernog with his happy dogs, whilst our ears are mine; the remaining photos and drawings are delighted with a Schubertian melange of a the copyright of the National Monuments mountain stream, the bleating of distant sheep, Record for Wales and are reproduced by kind the barking of a far-off dog; an idyllic scene, alas permission of the Secretary of RCAM. Finally, all too often shattered by the fiendish roar of Margaret Akers has dealt admirably with the earth-skimming military jets. In contrast, the typing. coastal strip and some of the alluvial soils of the Douglas B Hague river mouths are fertile. Both Borth Bog (Cors Llanafan, Aberystwyth Fochno) protected from the sea by a sand spit 2 several miles long and Tregaron Bog (Cors Goch) on political manoeuvering and expediency. It at 53 ft, formerly the floor of a moraine-dammed has Carmarthen as its county town. Llanelli, lake, are of considerable botanical interest. Haverfordwest and Pembroke have claimed this With the exception of the rhyolitic lava distinction, but not Aberystwyth, which has intrusions in the extreme north and south of the every reason to consider itself the cultural area, where gold has been found, all the exposed capital. To some it is just a small seaside town and underlying rocks are sedimentary shales and at 'the end of the line but there is much to grits, mostly Silurian with small areas of commend and endear it to both residents and Ordovician and the quality of building stone is visitors; its twelve thousand inhabitants are poor. However, as these rocks are badly broken fortunate in many ways. It has the oldest college by faults and cracks, they contain very rich of the University of Wales; it is the home of the deposits of lead and silver lodes which have been National Library of Wales, one of the six copy- exploited from earliest times to the present right libraries in the British Isles. Here too is the century. These riches have been shared by a few Welsh School of Librarianship, the Welsh Plant powerful families, notably the Prices, Vaughans Breeding Station, the Forestry Commission head- and Powells. With the exception of Nanteos, the quarters for the Principality, the offices of the home of the Powells, the houses are not distin- Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in guished, and the northern part of the county lacks Wales and diverse other organizations. The the attractive smaller houses to be seen in the presence of these establishments gives the small south and in Merioneth, north of the Dovey. town an unexpected cosmopolitan atmosphere Cardiganshire, or Ceredigion, now forms the in which a good deal of its cultural life is self- northern limb of the unwieldly gargantuan county generated but the concert hall and theatre of Dyfed, whose creation and survival depends attract visiting artists of international calibre. 3 It is an intimate, friendly town and those who Metalliferous Mines live or work there find that on every corner Slate Quarries there stands a friend eager to discuss the state Railways of the world or to entertain one with wholesome Mills and Miscellanea. gossip. The plan of this guide differs from that As many sites within the classes have features followed in previous ones which covered Norfolk in common, each section will be preceded by a and Lincolnshire. With obvious exceptions, in- short explanatory introduction. cluding the often dramatically sited castles, the scale of archaeological monuments in Wales is small; an assessment especially true of this area. Here we have no great warehouses, breweries, GBibliography maltings or distilleries, nor do we have large manufacturing industries such as those found in Metalliferous Mining some rural counties of England. Throughout Wales the greatest and most lasting monuments Annels, A E and Burnham, B C. The to industry are those left by generations of miners Dolaucothi Gold Mines, 1983. and quarrymen; many of these true Welshmen Hick, D E: The Old Metal Mines of Mid- were from immigrant stock, some skilled miners Wales, Vols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 from 1974. came from Europe, many in mid—Wales from Cornwall. Their alien names are recorded in the Bick, D F . The Great Metal Mines of Wales, burial grounds where they lie in peace with their Dylife, West Montgomeryshire, 1975. mates who shared the privations and dangers of Foster-Smith, J R: The Mines of Cardiganshire, a calling as fearful and perilous as that of the sea. 1979. The guide has been designed to include the greatest concentration of sites in the hinterland Hall, G W: Metal Mines of Southern Wales, of Aberystwyth, but with selected sites further 1971. afield. All the sites will be given their most well- Hall, G W: The Gold Mines of Merioneth, known names as appear on published maps and undated. guides and all will have their grid references, for Hughes, S J S: Cardiganshire and its Mines, railways their beginning and end, whilst in the 1981. case of reservoirs, the centre of the largest dam The area is covered by the Ordnance Survey Hughes, S J S: The Cwmystwyth Mines, 1981. 1:50,000 series sheets 124, 125, 135, 136, 146 Lewis, W J: Lead Mining in Wales, 1967, and 147 and on the older One-inch cover, sheets 116, 117, 127, 128, 139, 140 and 141. North, F J: Mining for Metals in Wales, 1962. The numbering of sites is quite unrelated to Palmer, M: The Richest in all Wales (Esgairhir their importance, age or quality. It has been & Esgairfraith load mines), 1983. arranged merely to facilitate reading of the map. Rees, D M: Mines, Mills and Furnaces, 1969. In general, the sites included will be worth a visit, but as the great majority are totally un- Rees, D M• Metalliferous Mines of Wales,1973. protected, they may at any time suffer from Rees, W. Industry before the Revolution, 1968. stone robbing, natural decay and collapse, use as an unofficial rubbish dump or be cleared and Slate Quarrying afforested. For the full appreciation of any Lindsay, J: History of the North Wales Slaic lead mine site in the area, David Bick's booklets Industry, 1974. are essential companions. Railways The following descriptions are for various Baughan, P E: A Regional History of the reasons of differing lengths and will be presented Railways of Great Britain, Vol 11, North under four headings: and Mid-Wales, 1968. 4 Boyd, J I C: Narrow Gauge Railways in Mid- time when techniques of working had been Wales, 1965.