Rhymney Tram Tunnel at The Black Mountains

Well, I finally got around to visiting the ancient tram tunnel that’s right on my doorstep. Axeman and I headed over there a couple of days back, and were in for a few surprises as we were expecting the tunnel to be quite mediocre, but it turned out to be one of the most interesting we have visited!

Background

I have been able to find out very little on the tunnel, and it took some detective work to work out where it might be, and then about an hour of searching round. Once I’ve had a chance to get to the library , I might know some more; Merthyr Library has old maps of the area available for anyone to look at, if I remember correctly, the earliest is from 1753! From the scraps of information that I have been able to put together, this is what I believe:

The trams served the Evan Jones pit in Rhymney, one of the first mines in the area.

The Evan Jones pit was situated at the location arrowed on the map; this came from an OS grid reference and gave me somewhere to start my search.

The southbound tramroad into Rhymney was an extension of the Brinore tramroad, that took quarried stone from Trefil Quarry to Talybont canal wharf; this was opened in 1815. The extension was designed to connect the Bryn Oer Collieries and Rhymney Ironworks with the wharf.

I can find no evidence of the tramroad to the south of the tunnel, although to the north the path it took is quite clear. My OS map shows a dismantled railway that runs towards the southern side of Rhymney, but there’s no indication of it after it passes Abertysswg, so this could have connected with the existing rail network at some point, and might not be a tramroad at all. The major question that I am unable to answer is if, as I believe, the Evan Jones pit was approximately where Rhymney station is now, why would the tramroad deviate from the valley floor and climb in to a point that is much higher than the pit, necessitating the construction of a tunnel, when it would have been logical to continue along the valley bottom. All I can think is that there was a junction north of the tunnel, the western branch running to the station and the route now occupied by the current railway lines, and the eastern branch running through the tunnel, on to Abertysswg and beyond, on the other side of the valley. On google earth I can see some evidence of a dismantled train/tram line running pass Abertysswg and into Rhymney at approximately the right point to connect with the tunnel.

Map

Perspective aerial shot of the area, thanks to Google Earth

The Tunnel

Externally, the tunnel is nearly buried up to the top and is difficult to spot when the undergrowth is thriving. There is no date-stone unfortunately, but it has the look of something very old, older than the other rail tunnels I have been to, and more akin to the Ynysybwl drift mine. There are some brackets that I suspect once held a gate in place. There are also angle-grinder marks on the stones, and no gate….

Inside, you have to slide down a muddy slope to reach the trackbed. The tunnel is perhaps 12ft high, quite narrow, with slightly angled sides that give it a pleasing shape. There is no evidence of any kind of cave in, but the floor is very wet and in places covered in thick, cloying silt that pulls at your boots. It is definitely the muckiest tunnel we’ve been in. The walls are caked with soot and there are thin white stalactites hanging from the roof, and dumpy stalagmites on the floor. In some places you can see the white mark in the centre of the ceiling, made by steam.

Just over halfway in the original roof has been replaced with a flat concrete slab. This may have been due to a cave in, or may be to support the weight of an overhead building. The tunnel is very shallow, as you can hear sounds from above even in the centre portion. I believe this concrete raft is position under the vicarage. This might be a clue as to why the tunnel was necessary at such a shallow depth; above ground there appears to be the site of a now-demolished church.

The tunnel is around 300yards long, at a guess. Towards the end, the ground gets firm and some rusted pipes intrude across the ceiling. The tunnel ends in a brick wall, with a recess in it like a chimney flue, there is a manhole cover at the top only a few feet above the level of the tunnel roof, a good indication of just how shallow this tunnel is.

The other end of the tunnel is filled in under an embankment. Variations in the colour of the grass on this bank outline where the tunnel portal was covered. The path of the old tramroad is quite obvious to the north; and the manhole cover that we saw from inside the tunnel is on the pavement right there! How many people walk over it ever day not knowing where it leads?

In summary: Spooky and inhospitable, but very interesting. If there’s anyone out there with more information about this enigmatic little tunnel, please get in touch!