Comments for The Black Mountains

Comment on Failed drift mine and the Strawberry Wall at Ynysybwl visited by rhys davey

rhys davey — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:11:50 +0000

my connections with ynysybwl arefrom 1943-1990. during the 1950.s in company with my uncle ;harry hopkins would walk the bwl branch from old bwl to pistill golau onthe way i was shown the brick arch entrance to a drift mineabove cwm sidings. i tried finding this in the mid 1980,s but no luck, probably collapsed

Comment on Tidenham tunnel visit by Axeman

Axeman — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:13:39 +0000

The Tunnel that started it all!

Comment on Pencaedrain tunnel at Rhigos visited by Dave Workman

Dave Workman — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:18:14 +0000

Hy There

Having been fascinated by railway tunnels ALL my adult life, and whilst employed as a Junior Surveyor (at Bridge Six) near Pont-Nedd-Fechan on the (then) much needed by-pass road, I was informed by someone in the village of the Pencaedrain Railway Tunnel (I was informed that this historical tunnel was to be demolished during the road construction).

Led to have been to believed this, I went through most of my adult life with the ‘knowledge’ of its ‘destruction’, and only VERY recently (after a close friend discovered the presence of the Pencaedrain Tunnel whilst looking on Google Earth), I have now realised its actual location and presence. He and I shall soon be venturing to this location (armed with camera, safety gear, maps etc) to photograph and document this tunnel for future interest.

Living at Aberdare, I cannot now believe that ALL these years, whilst I truly believed that this tunnel had been destroyed during road construction, where as in fact its been awaiting me and my camera.

Thank You

Regards

Dave Workman (Local Historian)

Comment on Pencaedrain tunnel at Rhigos visited by RichB

RichB — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:34:05 +0000

Nice pictures of PenCaeDrain! I’ve been into the tunnel several times – my first visit was nearly 30 years ago. The “mine” is very interesting but I came to the conclusion that it is either there for ventilation or for drainage. I’ve never measured it accurately but I believe that the “mine” dips down slightly along it’s entire length from the tunnel. Why you would need either a ventilation adit or a drainage adit in the tunnel I don’t know. The other thing that would rule out this being a mine is that there isn’t actually any evidence of any mining, though I guess it could have been a trial adit that never found anything worth working. Definitely a very interesting feature of this tunnel.

Comment on Cefn Glas Tunnel / Quakers Yard Tunnel by Stuart’s Photography - » A Giant’s Bite In The Landscape

Stuart’s Photography - » A Giant’s Bite In The Landscape — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:35:16 +0000

[...] The Quakers Yard Tunnel on the Black Mountains website. (Part 2 is also well worth a look). [...]

Comment on Failed drift mine and the Strawberry Wall at Ynysybwl visited by Mark Davies

Mark Davies — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:08:56 +0000

I am from ynysybwl, and having left over 15 years ago am pulled back by it mystery ( and my beautiful partner) I’ve visited the strawberry wall and level at Darrenddu, not believing i had never noticed the open shaft during my many walks up to the fishery as a kid. I discussed both with my grandad, who is a life long Bwl inhabitant claimed that the wall was an elevated dram platform for another level. he also claimed that Ynysybwl was scattered with these levels including one covered at the bottom of new road, one in Jackie Butch’s quarry by the round park, whitch he can remember working in his lifetime!! and several up towards the old bwl pub. does anyone have any more info on there please?

Comment on Fan Fawr by Internet Banking

Internet Banking — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:00:28 +0000

Just killing some free time on Stumbleupon and I found your post . Not typically what I like to read about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.

Comment on Update to Ynysybwl tunnel page by Axeman

Axeman — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:34:48 +0000

Brilliant! Great to get some answers about this one

Comment on Fan Fawr by Sparhawk

Sparhawk — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:02:08 +0000

Ha. Sorted it, thanks for the alert.

Comment on Fan Fawr by Pete

Pete — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:56:44 +0000

It is not up its down
[ADMIN EDIT: So it is. Hmmmm.....]