A quick report this one, after an outing solved one mystery, but led to another. I had been told about a small tunnel near Ynysybwl by one of my lads at work, one that he used to play in as a kid. None of the kids were ever brave enough to follow it more than a few yards in though, and it was unknown what the tunnel was for or where it led to. Having pinpointed the tunnel with google earth and Kev’s quality map, I found myself waiting one freezing morning, in the car at Dan y Cribyn, for Axeman to arrive.
Map
It only took about 15 minutes to reach the tunnel from where we parked, although we had to jump across the stream, Llys Nant, which was icy and treacherous. The tunnel mouth is about 30 yards south of the marked footpath (which runs right through someones garden!) and you could easily miss it, especially in spring or summer. The entrance was forgotten and spooky. The air inside was amazingly warm compared to outside, and very humid, with steam rising gently into the frosty woods. The brickwork ends after about 15 yards or so, and the tunnel is cut straight from the rock; at this point we realised we were in an old mine (I had previously wondered if it could have been a tram tunnel), and tread more warily due to the very still air (a build up of dangerous gases can turn a mine into a death-trap). Our trepidation was short lived however; the drift ended abruptly after about 80 yards, with solid un-cut rock.
Walking back to the car we we wondering about the reasons for the sudden end to the tunnel, when our question was answered by to elderly chaps, native to Ynysybwl, whom we stopped to say good morning to. It seems that there used to be sidings running up the gorge, and the tunnel was the middle one of three drifts cut into the side of the hill; the tunnels to the east and west yielded coal, but this one didn’t, and was given up on. One of the gents said he was 80, and his grandfather had worked in the lower (easterly) mine.
Mystery solved. but then they asked if we had seen the ‘Strawberry Wall’, describing it as a huge stone wall in the forest, the original purpose of which was unknown. We hadn’t, so we followed their directions back up and had a look. Their description was accurate; it’s a very big wall, about 25ft high and 5ft thick at the base, about 50 yards long with a single arch built into it. What possible use could the Strawberry wall have had, and how did it get its name? If anyone reading this knows, please contact me!
UPDATE 10/01/2010
A fiend of mine has been contacted by someone who saw a report on this tunnel and the Strawberry Wall on his website, and it seems we now have some more information on the intended uses of the two structures:
“Regarding the ’strawberry wall’ in Ynysybwl…
The site of which is, as rightfully stated, the remains of a failed mining venture by ‘The Great Western Mining Co’ and was abandoned some time during the mid 18th century and was built on the original access road to Cribyn Du farm which was widened considerably in order to accomodate the stone built haulage house and other smaller buildings (remains removed circa 1970) and provide storage space for the necessary supplies etc.
This large stone structure was an intended retaining wall for the banks of the excavation of the considerable widening of the road and would have been backfilled with hardcore to reinforce and aid drainage of the brick arch which would have been the entrance and exit of the drift mine and any subsequent underground workings but was never completed.
The intended retaining wall was abundant with wild strawberries until the ivy eventually killed the last of them off about 10 years ago, hence the name.
The existing tunnel which is almost directly in line and approx 50 feet lower than the brick arch entrance on the South East downstream bank of the brook known as Llys Nant pictured on your site would have been for ventilation only and gets partly flooded during prolonged heavy rainfall.”
So, it would seem that the Strawberry wall was in fact due to be the site of the drift mine, and the lower tunnel was to be a ventilation shaft… I suppose both structures were started and subsequently abandoned at the same time. Thanks to Lyndon J. Ireland for the new info.
Argh, it’s spooky
Going in…
…and coming back out
The Strawberry Wall
Single archway
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