The Industrial Archaeology and History of the Eastern Valley
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Gelli-deg and Ty Shewy
Gelli-deg Colliery - 2458 0039
The tramway up to Blaen-y-cwm Colliery passed behind Gellideg Farm to reach the small Gelli-deg Colliery, working on and off from the 1880s but probably disused by c1920. This might be the site of the mysterious 'Glyn and Gelli Colliery' who were responsible for building the tramway.
Ty Shewy Colliery - SO 2438 0058
Further along the tramway was Ty Shewy Colliery, owned in the 1930s by C Morgan of Ty Shewy Farm. It was working on and off from the 1880s to the late 1930s but now just the tips remain.
Gellideg Colliery, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Colliery, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Colliery, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg and Ty Shewy Collieries
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Ty Shewy Colliery tips
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Ty Shewy Colliery tips
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Ty Shewy Colliery tips
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Ty Shewy Colliery tips
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Ty Shewy Colliery tips
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Gelli-deg Farm
I visited Gelli-deg Farm in 2013 and it was an amazing site of dereliction and dis-use just waiting to be recorded before it collapsed completely.
Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Gellideg Farm, Pantygasseg
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Old Gellideg Farm
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Blaen-y-cwm
Blaen-y-cwm Colliery - SO 2391 0096
Blaen-y-cwm Colliery was operated at one time or another by the Llanhiddel Co or the Blaen-y-Cwm Coal Co. It was an old mine, working from before 1802, being attacked by 'Scotch Cattle' in 1832, and closing around 1895. There are still some old tips to be seen but the working area has disappeared under the opencast and forestry work. A bricked-up ventilation adit is beside the lane in front of Tyr Ysgubor Ddu Cottage. There was also a small level known as 'Blaen-y Cwm' nearby run by the Desmond family in 1947.
Originally Blaen-y-cwm Colliery used the 'Railroad' which ran on the Western and Southern sides of the valley, in front of The Masons Arms, along the side of the Glyn Valley and down an incline to Old Furnace. Later a tramway was built on the Eastern and Northern side of the valley. More details of these are below.
Blaen-y-cwm Colliery, 1880
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Blaen-y-cwm lease, 1835
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Blaen-y-Cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-Cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-cwm Colliery tips
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Blaen-y-cwm Colliery tips
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Tyr Ysgubor Ddu ventilaton level
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Blaen-y-Cwm farm ruins
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Blaen-y-cwm Farm ruins
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Blaen-y-Cwm Railroad c1800 - c1855
The Blaen-y-Cwm Railroad dates from c1800 to the 1850s following the Western and Southern sides of the valley. It followed the lane to Pant-y-Gasseg village, on to Coch-y-North and down an incline to Old Furnace. The incline was one of the few using a chain for haulage but it was too much of a deadweight and was replaced with a rope. Other than its route, there is little evidence of its railroad days but I've finally found a stone sleeper near Tir-pentwys Farm - there may be more!
Blaen-y-cwm Railroad, 1843
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Blaen-y-cwm Railroad, 1843
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Blaen-y-cwm Railroad, 1843
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Blaen-y-cwm Railroad, 1843
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Blaen-y-cwm Railroad trust document
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The start of the line at the colliery
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The site of Blaen-y-Cwm Colliery
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Approaching Tyr Ysgubor Ddu
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Passing Black Barn Colliery
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Nearly at Ty Gwyn
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Ty Gwyn barn, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn barn, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn barn, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn barn, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn Cottages, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn Cottages, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Ty Gwyn Cottages, Pant-y-Gasseg
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Passing Ty Gwyn Colliery
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Passing Ty Mary-Harry
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Across to Tir Pentwys Farm
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Tir Pentwys Farm sleeper
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Nearing Pant-y-Gasseg village
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Looking back at Pant-y-Gasseg
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Nearing the level crossing
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Looking back at The Masons Arms
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On the way to Woodland Cottage
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In the woods at Coedcae Newydd
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In the woods at Coedcae Newydd
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Approaching Incline Top
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Coch-y-North Incline Top
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Blaen-y-Cwm tramway c1860 - c1895
Some time before 12 May 1860 a new tramway, promoted by the 'Glyn and Gelly Colliery' owned by Jenkins and Edwards, was opened on the Eastern and Northern sides of the valley. This went down an incline to the valley floor at Ysbrydion, OS maps show this incline going straight down the valley side but evidence on the ground shows it going down diagonally. It then went back up an incline to Pant-y-Gasseg, passing behind the Masons Arms and going down a third incline to Cwm-y-Glyn Colliery on the old Crumlin Road in the Glyn Valley. At that time the GWR Cwmffrwdoer branch had not been built.
In 1877 Cwmffrwdoer Colliery, better known now as Tirpentwys Colliery, opened and the first incline then terminated at Gellideg Sidings on the new GWR branchline. I assume that the two inclines to Cwm-y-Glyn became redundant. The tramway closed before 1899, probably with the closure of Blaen-y-Cwm Colliery itself.
Glyn and Gelly Colliery, c1860
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway inclines
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway, 1880
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Opening of 1860 inclines
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Confusion over which colliery
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway
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Blaen-y-Cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Blaen-y-cwm tramway incline
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Incline heads at the Masons Arms
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Acknowledgments, sources and further reading.
Tirpentwys Colliery by Steven Oakden - Industrial Railway Record, issue 214
The Tirpentwys Story by John Cox - 'Archive' magazine, issue 51 (the story of the canyons opencast)
Small Mines of South Wales by A J Booth, vols 1 and 2 - Industrial railway Society (Pantygasseg and Rithan Collieries)
Blaen-y-cwm Railroad incline is mentioned in Early Limestone Railways by John Van Laun.
Pen Tranch newspaper cutting from Brian Walker.
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