TRAMROAD: According to the Oxford Concise English Dictionary, ‘tramroad’ is now an historical word: a road with wooden, stone or metal wheel-tracks; a ‘tramway’. Strictly speaking, ‘tramroad’ should be written ‘tram-road’ with a hyphen, but the spelling variation ‘tramroad’ has been used commonly in this district. There were many tramroads constructed in this valley in so-called ‘historical’ times, though we can still recall many of them very well indeed and had much fun in our youth having rides on the trams.
Blaen Cannaid Tramroad: This tramroad linked several of the ironstone and coal levels, as well as later mines and collieries, in the hamlet of Gelli Deg to Cyfarthfa Works. The tramroad started at some ironstone levels about 900-1,000 feet above sea-level near Blaen Cannaid, not far from the site of the sixteenth century iron bloomery or small furnace. The route of the tramroad went between Pen y Cae and Pen y Coedcae, crossing the (unnamed?) stream which fed the small reservoir near Lower Colliers Row; and thence over Nant Cwm y Glo to Cwm y Glo Colliery and Ironstone Mine.
Cwm y Glo Colliery. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Thereafter it continued northwards to Coedcae Ironstone Mine, over Nant Cwm Pant Bach, across the road Heol Gerrig, linking with Cwm Cannaid Tramroad at the coke yards behind the furnaces at Cyfarthfa Works. We often walked the area in the 1940s and 1950s but recall nothing of note: merely grassed-over waste tipping, etc. What a pity?
Clyn Mil Tramroad: This tramroad went from Plymouth Works up the steep Clyn Mil Incline to the east, past Prospect House (where some distant cousins of ours, the Coles, lived in the 1940s) and Tir Clyn Mil Uchaf and its lime kiln (where our great-great grandparents, David and Mary Morgan, lived and died), and then turning south towards Clyn Mil Colliery and Ironstone Mine.
Prospect House. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
One link from the tramroad deviated further up the mountainside via Coedcae and the Clyn Mil Inclined Plane to several ‘unnamed’ ironstone levels and southwards to waste tipping on Gwern Las land. Another link went to ‘Waun’ Coal Level on Gwern Las property. Another link went to a clay pit on the south side of Clyn Mil Pond and another tramroad linked northwards to ‘New’ Pit (one shaft for coal and another for ironstone) close to Tir Cwm ‘Blacks’ and then on to the brickworks at Tre Beddau.
A very extensive network of lesser roads, some only temporary, covered the higher part of Tir Clyn Mil and Tir Wern Las and these were used either for transporting ironstone or waste tipping. We have no idea as to dates or any other details, but walked all of these routes on numerous occasions, long after the tramroad lines had been removed, in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a barren area then, with industry all gone, but the despoliation was gradually returning to nature again. Here were the homes of redstarts, wood warblers, even wood larks, with skylarks, meadow pipits and cuckoos towards the higher moorland portions. There is surprisingly little information in print about the Plymouth Works as far as we can trace.
40 years ago today Merthyr was shocked by the news that a culvert had burst in a mountain stream and the deluge had inundated Rhyd-y-car Cottages, killing two people and leaving countless others homeless.
December 1979 had been very wet and in the week after Christmas there was serious flooding in many parts of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. By Thursday 27th most of the usual areas had been affected, with some properties suffering severe damage. Initially, it was the southern end of the valley which seemed to bear the brunt of the flooding but to the north and near to the town at Rhyd-y-car however, a story of flooding was unfolding which was not only responsible for irreparable damage to property but would also cause the deaths of two people and bring an end to a small but long established community. Here, a breached culvert caused water to cascade from the hillside into a confined area of land occupied by two rows of cottages. The torrent, loaded with silt, stones and other debris surged into cottages, outhouses and along the gwlis and yards between, devastating the properties in its path. To compound the misfortune suffered here and despite heroic efforts by family and friends, recently widowed Mrs. Gladys Jones and lodger Mr. Danny Jones were to lose their lives in the tragedy. Other inhabitants who had been in imminent danger were fortunate to escape serious injury or worse.
The cottages at Rhyd-y-car had been built on the banks of Nant Cwm Glo in the first years of the nineteenth century to house ironstone miners and their families who were needed to work at one of the newly opened mines belonging to the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Twenty-nine cottages were built in two rows, with each unit consisting of a living room/kitchen and a single bedroom. At the back, on the ground floor in an outshot covered by a catslide roof was an extra bedroom and larder. Water would have been carried from the stream and there was no sanitation. Despite these obvious limitations and representing what we would view as a very basic form of habitation they would generally have been superior to the living conditions experienced by those arriving in Merthyr Tydfil from the Welsh countryside.
A section of the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing Rhyd-y-car Cottages
Although we have only scant information on the people who lived in the cottages in the first four decades of their existence, there is some evidence that they came mainly from the counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The majority would have been Welsh speaking and brought few material possessions to furnish their new homes. By 1841 Rhyd-y-car was already a well established community with 90 per cent of the working population engaged in producing ironstone and coal from the nearby pit. Ten years later the cottages reached their peak in terms of population with a total of 169 inhabitants, averaging almost 6 per cottage. For almost a further one hundred and thirty years of Merthyr Tydfil’s fluctuating industrial fortunes the cottages housed families who formed part of a close knit and caring community.
By the 1970’s, notwithstanding the many changes that had taken place in the immediate locality, most of the inhabitants remained loyal to Rhyd-y-car , treasured and tried to improve their homes and this in itself is a tribute to the strong and steadfast community that existed there. Following the events of December 27th 1979 however, and despite the fact that some residents continued to express the wish to remain, it became inevitable that the cottages would have to be abandoned.
Movements for the preservation of significant aspects of Merthyr’s heritage were very much in their infancy at this time but there had been some notable successes. Dowlais Stables, parts of which had been in a state of collapse, the spectacular engine house at Ynysfach and the birthplace of Joseph Parry at Chapel Row had all been saved. Many people locally however, continued to emphasise lost opportunities and mourn the demolition of significant areas of industrial housing.
The decision to demolish and remove some of the Rhyd-y-car cottages, all be it in a piecemeal fashion,was seen as of little consolation and another loss to Merthyr Tydfil. Their survival at the museum in St. Fagan’s, with the potential for a part of Merthyr’s heritage to be seen by hundreds on a daily basis was hardly recognised and not given proper significance.
Rhyd-y-car Cottages in 1982
Nevertheless, negotiations were undertaken between the National Museum and the Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and necessary plans laid to undertake the removal of six of the twenty-nine cottages to St. Fagan’s. Before demolition of course, the cottages were measured and recorded in great detail but because of the nature of the cottages’ construction individual stones or timbers were not numbered and repositioned on rebuilding. Within a relatively short period of time, Rhyd-y-car Cottages were erected on a carefully selected site and began their new and very different existence.
On Monday, 27 July 1987 The South Wales Echo announced that on the previous Saturday a special event had been held at the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagan’s to celebrate the official opening of Rhyd-y-car Cottages. Curator Dr. Geraint Jenkins who introduced the proceedings said, “Up until this time the museum’s efforts had been aimed at saving buildings from rural Wales but today we have been breaking new ground with the opening of a row of terraced cottages from an industrial town”and added,” the project was unique in Europe, if not the world by reconstructing the interiors and fabric of the buildings in different periods”.
One of Merthyr Tydfil’s famous boxing sons was present at the event and contributed by releasing a number of racing pigeons. Although not born at Rhyd-y-car, Mr. Eddie Thomas’ grandfather had lived at No. 26 with many aunts and cousins living in other cottages. Dr. Jenkins concluded by saying that, “The day belonged to Merthyr in celebration of the town’s contribution to Welsh Heritage”.
