The Black Mountain Lime Kilns (Herbert's Quarry)

Visit Date: April 2021.

Today's post is based on an area that, despite being only an hour away, I did not know even existed until a few weeks before my visit.

My visit was inside the Brecon Beacons National park, an area preserved and rightly praised for its outstanding natural beauty.

However, I was happy to learn that the relics of the heavy industries in the area are also prized and one of these is the Black Mountain quarries and lime kilns, also known as Herbert's Quarry.

Wales is known more for its coal mining, however, along with the great forests that created the coal, we can see along the western edge of the Brecon Beacons the exposed crags of carboniferous limestone that were of course at the bottom of the sea at one point in history but due to the powerful earth crust movements now lie at an angle along these mountain ranges. 2.6 Million years ago the great glaciers of the area carved out the geology that exposed the rich seams of both coal and limestone.

Lime has many uses but 200 years ago it was in great demand in Wales for use as a soil improver. Farmers would have to travel what would have been long distances to obtain this great resource.

In order for the limestone to be made into a useful lime product, it would have to be worked.

Making "quicklime" was hot and hard work. Once the limestone was removed from the quarry it would have been smashed into quite small pieces by hand with sledgehammers to be loaded into the kiln with coal. The temperature would have to be raised to 900 degrees. it was a skilful process to adjust the airflow and fuel to keep the kiln burning correctly at these high temperatures.

The lime would then be removed from the lower chamber and in the image below, you can see the rails, now just leading to mid-air, that would have been part of this drawing process.

Typically at this time in the 19th century, it would have taken two tons of limestone and one ton of coal to produce one ton of quicklime.

The process would take a day to load the kiln, three days to burn, two days to cool and a final day to unload. A kiln would produce 10 to 15 tons of lime at a time.

This whole process was a dangerous one and it cost many lives newspapers would to often carry stories like this:-

On Thursday week a young man named Thomas Griffith, son of John Rees Griffith, mason, Gwinfe, was engaged in blasting rock in the Black Mountain lime quarries. He bored the rock, and put into it about 20lbs of powder which he filled and returned to a convenient distance to allow the charge to explode. Not finding it to go off in the usual time he approached the place to ascertain the cause, when the powder fired with a tremendous explosion, driving of the pieces of rock quite through the unfortunate young man’s head. Death was consequently instantaneous.

Lime was treasured in the area and farmers needed it to spread on the land to fertilise and improve the land. They would often travel many miles with horse and cart to collect the lime. This quicklime of course was dangerous and would burn if on exposed skin so it was to be transported with much care and best efforts to keep it dry and safe.

Many farmers, of course, would have to travel many miles by horse and cart to collect the lime, sometimes return journeys of 100 miles would be needed and it was common to see processions of laden carts filled with the product on the road.

The roads at first would have been nothing more than tracks but as the industry expanded better roads were needed. In 1779 "Turnpike Trusts" were founded to build these new roads and the work was financed by tolls.

Tollgates sprung up everywhere.

As the roads needed to be maintained in good order more tollgates were added, eventually, 41 miles of road had 13 tollgates.

The tollgates were run as private enterprises and sold each year to the highest bidders who after paying the rent (presumably for the road upkeep) were allowed to keep the extra toll money they collected.

The Rebecca Riots.

At first lime carts were exempt from the tolls, but this soon changed and after a series of poor harvests farmers were struggling to pay the tolls. By 1840 the cost of the tolls cost as much as the lime. Farmers were facing dire poverty and they stood against the greed of the "Turnpike trusts".

This led to riots at the tollgates.

For a reason that has got lost in time there were masses of farmers who dressed themselves up in their wives clothes and blackened their face before setting out on these raids. They would burn down the tollhouses and tear down the gates.

The rioters became known as "Rebbeca and her daughters"

The following was from the time.

THE SLAVE DRIVERS

You say the toll man wiped his eye,

But this is all a bubble

For he shall never cease to cry

While Becca is in trouble.

In vain you strive to save a gate,

By threatening blood and slaughter;

Your swords shall ne’er intimidate

Rebecca and her daughters.

The cheating toll trusts may complain,

The Mayor may roar his ‘riot’,

‘Till Becca do her rights obtain

She never will be quiet.

Then if you wish to hear no more

Of what Rebecca’s doing,

BE HONEST, and her rights restore,

Or she will prove your ruin.

She’ll Burn your Houses to the ground,

She’ll set your fields on fire,

She’ll make you pay for every pound

Your toll-men may require.

Then bid these wars and tumults cease,

You robbing vile aggressor!

She’ll gladly wave the flag of peace,

If you no more oppress her.

Reduce your farms to half the price -

More than this they can’t afford;

Down with the toll, take my advice,

Then sweet peace shall be restored.

The Welshman, 28/07/1843

The riots got so bad that a reporter from the London Times was sent to investigate and wrote:-

“Pentarlleche gate between Llangadock and the Black Mountains, was destroyed on Tuesday night by a party of Rebbeccaites, who came from the direction of Llandilo. It appears that they had sent threatening letters before, and two constables were employed to guard the house and gate, but they were compelled to go home for tools and made to assist in the work of destruction. In about a quarter of an hour, both gate and house were level with the ground.”
04/08/1843

and later.

FOUR MORE GATES DESTROYED – Last Wednesday night a party of mounted Rebeccaites, about 300 in number, visited 3 turnpike gates in the neighbourhood of Llangadock and completely destroyed them. Two of them had been before down and re-erected. The names of the gates are Wainstredverys, Pontarlucoe and Carig(?)-Southey.”
15/09/1843

The David Davies Memorial

To illustrate further how dangerous it was on the road with these lime filled carts, I would like also to relay two more reported stories. The first of which is remembered by this memorial at the side of the road. The memorial is in welsh on one side and English on the other. It tells the tale of a young man of 22 and was reported:-

Fatal accident – As Mr D Davies, Junior, of Glynclawdd Gwynfe, was driving an empty gambo on the Black Mountain on Wednesday afternoon, the horses became startled and dashed off. The unfortunate young man was thrown out, and though assistance was at once forthcoming he expired without a word. Much sympathy is felt for the family of the deceased, who is generally respected in the neighbourhood.

The Welshman 23/05/1884

The Memorial in Welsh

The Memorial in English

and finally

RHANDIR MWYN – Dreadful death – On Thursday, 5th inst., as Mr William Rees, a boy aged between 14 and 15, was returning with his master’s wagon with a load of lime from the Black Mountain, between the above place and Llangadog, the unfortunate boy fell under the wheels of the wagon and he was killed on the spot.
D. Thomas Baner ac Amserau Cymru 11/09/1861:

"TUFA"

As a result of the lime industry, an unusual geological formation called "TUFA" has formed in places in the highly alkaline waters that flow here.

Footer:

Visit Information:-

Google Reference:-
51.854527678567166, -3.8366992465994323

What Three Words reference:-
///rainfall.cackling.fees

OS Details:-
SN 73599 18921 Altitude:1623 ft

Additional information.
Visiting is easy as it is alongside the A4069 out of Brynamman which is one of the main roads through the Brecon Beacons.
There is a good size car park alongside the site ( 51.853047576738284, -3.8412540293511537 )
and an additional car park at the mountain view site ( 51.857233737767956, -3.844516511221795 ).
The David Davies Memorial is also alongside the road ( 51.85544051525515, -3.8432358117353203 ) -
WTW ( ///storming.saying.soap )

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The Porthcawl Ukulele Bandits

 Visit Date: July 2019

The "Players here are the "The Porthcawl Ukulele Bandits"

"The Porthcawl Ukulele Bandits is a tight 6-piece performing band which features harmony, backing vocals and additional instruments like bass, cajon percussion, melodica, accordion, mouth organ and mandolin (Taken from their publication)

They certainly have a most unique sound with unusual renditions of well-known songs.

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Memories, a photowalk into the past.

 Visit Date August 2020: .

Almost 20 years ago I moved away from the small mining village where I spent most of my life growing up and raising my family. For some time now I have been wanting to go back and revisit some of the places I remember. A few weeks ago I decided that the time had come and I would like to go on a walk that I did many times while growing up to see what had changed in the 25 years + since I walked this track.

From the main "Garw Valley" there are many smaller valleys leading off and the one I took was from the lower village of Pontycymer.

I walked a familiar course to this scene.

What you can see here is very different from the scene I remember as this small waterfall would have been part of a feeder reservoir which was one of the main water supplies to the colliery.

In my youth, the area was completely surrounded by an 18ft high fence and was inaccessible to all but the very daring.

Unfortunately, it does not have good memories for me as when I was a teenager a youth just a year or two older than I was drowned here.

Climbing up from the small river floor I could look back on the village that I know so well.

 

This scene is very beautiful now and is as I remember however The small green patch at the bottom of the image, now a rugby field which also occasionally plays hosts to fetes and is enjoyed by all, I can remember being built. It was built on the local refuse tip and when I moved to Ponycymmer as a young boy I had many adventures here playing on the tip and sharing the experience not only with my friends but also the large population of rats that lived off the refuse that was tipped there.

As I moved up this valley I could see the clean river which we often dammed with stones and pieces of turf so that we were able to swim in the river during the summer months. I recall that however hot the air temperature got the river was always freezing cold.

Generally speaking, the water here was clean unlike the "Garw River" that flowed down the main valley. This was known as "The Black River" as it appeared black due to all the coal particles that would have been carried in it from the colliery washery further up the valley a by-product of the coal being washed.

I remember if you put your had in the water it would come out dark and speckled in this fine coal dust as the dust did not seem to get dissolved in the water.

The pool that we build was clean and fresh except for a couple of times a year when the river would have been dammed further up the valley by the local farmer who would have "Dipped" his large flock of hill sheep in it. Luckily for us, no nasty chemicals were used to dip sheep back then.

During the walk there were a number of distinctive things came to mind that I used to come across during my walks here.

One of the main things I was keen to see on this walk was an old boiler tank I believe was from some sort of steam engine that I remember being cast aside and left alongside the river.

After taking a small detour from the main path I could bearly see the path that I and many of my friends regularly took. It was really well overgrown now and I could bearly make it out. I guess with the advent of video games and mobile phones not so many venture up here anymore if indeed anybody does.

I did manage to find the pathway and also the boilers. Or should I say boiler? I could only find one but I am sure the other one is here somewhere in the undergrowth.

The second of the milestones that I wanted to see I know was not going to be well hidden and I know the path from the boilers to it, as it was just up the stream.

It was this waterfall. It is not very big but looked very nice in the summer sun.

Moving further up the valley I then got onto the path that I know would take me on my next part of this journey.

The path we called "The Dram Road".

The Dram Road is a path cut into the hillside and was used to carry coal from the mine out of the valley before the main railway line was installed. This would have been a small gauge line and it's path I was told was across one side of the river to the other. The path can be seen between the heather and orange bracken on the other side and came onto the path I was on.

On the other side of the river, there are small outcrops that the sheep use now for some cover.

An old man told me that these were where local colliers came to dig out coal for their own use during the hard times of the 1926 general strike.

During my walk along "The Dram Road" it dawned on my that I had never seen evidence, other than the boilers, of the rails of the track along this pathway, so today I paid a lot of attention to try and find any.

I was almost at the end of the track before finally, I found buried in the pathway an old piece of rail and also a sleeper which was lying in the undergrowth.

Not very much evidence now still visible along this track.

Moving on I looked back to Pontycymmer I could see many familiar landmarks.

One of which is the cemetery to the right-hand side of this image. It reminded me of a movie that was shot here called "Very Annie Mary" as some of the scenes in the movie were shot here.

Of course, the farming of the valley goes back even further than the mining.

I remember well that two of the local farmers could often be seen rounding up their sheep on horseback in the early 70's just like the cowboys in the western movies, but somehow a flock of sheep, however large, did not have the same impact as a heard of cows.

Even the old-time farmers have now left the valley hills and mountains.

I remember in the early days of satellite TV being asked to visit one of these farms as the farmer intermittently lost his picture. When I got to the farmhouse I could not see any dish on the wall. When I enquired about this I was told "Gary put it over there". Looking "over there" I could see the dish mounted on a large tree. It turned out that in Autumn winter and spring when the tree was quite bare the picture was fine but of course in the summer the tree was full of leaves and then his signal disappeared. It still makes my chuckle today. But I digress.

The farmer's life was also a hard one and quite a few years ago, one of the farmers, possibly that last of the old-time farmers, a bachelor, did not have any offspring to pass on his farm to and sold it. The later days of this historic moment was documented in a BBC 6 part series called "The Last Days At Fforchwen""

Some of it should still be available on youtube here. It is a moving tale, sometimes very funny and often sad of a man who only knew farming having to face retirement and moving from the only home he ever knew.

It was time to move on and head north towards the head of the valley.

Turning around the side of the hill The village of Blaengarw comes into view. This village was at the top of the valley and while Pontycymmer had the Ffaldau colliery, Blaengarw had the Ocean Colliery.

All remnants of the colliery have now gone and the land has been redeveloped with a small lake and good pathways for the peoples leisure time.

It is a very peaceful place but the tranquillity hides the Blood sweat and toil that was mining in the first part of the last century.

I remember the Ffaldau colliery and the Ocean colliery being combined and then closed.

It was a bitter blow to the valley because even in the 1970s and 1980s the work was hard labour.

I did not work in the colliery but many of the schoolmates when they left school did.

I remember vividly being in the local workingmen's clubs midweek and there would be just a handful of us there until the colliery afternoon shift came to an end. Within an hour the bar would be full of these work hardened men their eyes dark with coal dust that the showers could not remove and the blue scars that they had from cuts underground being engrained in coal.

Despite doing a dangerous job in a dangerous place I only remember them as happy go lucky people.

There is a sculpture on the site of the old mine.

It is a moving scene of a fallen Pit Pony being attended to by a young man while to miners carry on working.

Despite the work still being hard, by the time the colliery closed for good in 1983 the miners were at least earning a decent living from their work so it was a great blow to the area when the end finally came.

There were many hard-working loyal face-workers who would never earn such good wages again and the valley people would have to adapt to a new future.

This post now ends here. This was a blog that I had previously made as a stand-alone blog, now however I see it as the first part of a three-piece blog with the second and third parts taking place later this year, (hopefully). Exploring the other side of the valley and the forest and mountain paths.

I have made a short video photowalk which can be found here:-

A Journey in The Gary Valley - YouTube

Additional Information:

YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES TO GET A LARGER VIEW!

Google references to point along the way (Note these are approximate)
The First Waterfall: 51.61355120428729, -3.5787354313861806
The boilers: 51.616333902482864, -3.571497376234325
The second Waterfall: 51.616582503969425, -3.571079630305689
Route Start: 51.61333664429233, -3.5793740249838346
Route End: 51.62602694887964, -3.583753079861704
Miners sculpture: 51.62646191192561, -3.5817175713442486

Note a Comprehensive list of my blogs can be found on my website HERE

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Maen Ceti (Arthur's Stone)

 Visit Date February 2019: .

Many ancient monuments have the name "Arthur's Stone, but this dolmen situated in the centre of the Gower peninsula in South Wales is mounted on top of what is a small mountain and is overlooking the mouth of the River Loughor and onto Carmarthen Bay.

This Neolithic burial site is known locally as Maen Ceti or the Stone of Ceti.

The Site dates back at least to 2500 BC and possibly even earlier.

The capstone of a quartz conglomerate has an estimated weight of 25 tons, and measures around 13 feet wide and 7 feet high. It was once larger than this, but at some time in the past, a 10-ton section of the stone broke off and now lies cracked at the side of the cairn. Legend has it that the patron saint of Wales, St. David cleaved the stone apart with his sword in protest of Druid worship.

The capstone is supported by 4 uprights although the evidence is that there may have been more originally.

This monument has been well known and well documented and was probably first mentioned in Welsh Triads of the 10th Century. In the 15th Century, it is recorded that Henry VII's (born in Pembrokeshire castle), troops, en route to the battle at Bosworth Field, made a one hundred mile detour to visit the stone. This was presumably to support Henry's claim to be the new Arthur.

Another legend relates to the Dolmens English name, Arthur's Stone, and tells how King Arthur while marching to the Battle of Camlann, found a pebble in his shoe, Tossed it aside and the stone grew with pride to it's current size.

Like many of these legends relating to this type of megalith, it is also said that the capstone travels down to the estuary on New Year's Eve to drink from the river.

Maen Ceti was once referred to as one of “the three arduous undertakings accomplished in Britain.” the other two being Stonehenge and Silbury Hill.

Close by, just a few hundred metres to the west of Maen Ceti there is another mound that could be the site of another Cairn.

Footer:

Visit Information:-

Google Reference:-
51.59352460633934, -4.1793914504919405

What Three Words reference:-
///quitter.sandpaper.bearable

OS Details:-
SS 49134 90547  Altitude: 482 ft

Additional information.

Visiting is easy as it is alongside the B4271 out of Reynoldstown on the Gower peninsular. I visited by parking close by and there is a car park near the start of the walk (51.588877417146136, -4.180022525744314).

Although the site can't be seen from the road walk North from the car park along the country path and after a short while the site will come into view.

There are wild horses here on the common and they are friendly and not wary of people but take care.

.

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East Orchard Castle.

 Visit Date 05-2022.

St. Athen in South Wales in recent times has been known for the RAF base here where the RAF’s non-aircraft, ground engineering technicians were and still are trained.

The Station officially opened as RAF St. Athan on 1 September 1938.

More recently, St. Athen has become base for the manufacture of the high-class Aston Martin SUV. Conversion of the three super hangars have been redeveloped into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

My interest here, however, goes back many hundreds of years before this.

We go back to the 11th Century for this story.

Two Orchards were laid here. Both the orchards were built by the Berkerolles who received the land from Robert Fitzhammon after the conquest of Glamorgan in 1091.

In one of the orchards, we find East Orchard Castle now a ruined building whose remains date mainly from the 14th century.

While it is named a castle, I suppose it would be classed as a fortified manor house however despite this it was not fortified in the style of one and is officially classed as post-medieval and broadly defined as a domestic manor house dwelling.

It has been in ruins since the late 18th century, the house having been dismantled from 1756.

While East Orchard is one of the mysterious ruins in the Vale. It must have been a substantial building. It had a chapel, a barn and a dovecote.

In the main manor house you can still see some of the features like the fireplaces and windows.

The layout and style would seen to confirm the mansion was entirely residential rather than defensive.

The manor looks like it may have been a two-story or even three story house.

An earlier structure on this site was destroyed in 1316 during a revolt led by Welsh leader Llywelyn Bren, but the residence was soon rebuilt.

The mansion was constructed for the Berkerolles family who had been resident in this part of Glamorgan since shortly after the Norman conquest, though much of their history is unclear.

The Berkerolles were subsidiary to the Lords of St Athan, and they occupied the mansion until the early 1400s when the house passed by marriage to the Stradling family from St Donats.

The Barn/Outbuilding and Dovecote

The Stradling family endured for several centuries and carried out various improvements to the buildings. The castle was sold in 1756 but then soon abandoned and partially dismantled, and has been ruinous for over 300 years.

The chapel in ruins (left) 

The three main structures outside the manor house, the Chapel, Barn and outbuilding can still be seen

The Chapel seen here on the left is in the most ruinous state and none of the features remain but just the remnants of the walls.

However, the barn looks like it has been used as a farm building more recently although now it is also in a poor state.

Although you can see some of the features you would find on a structure of this age.

The dovecote is still standing and looks externally to have stood the test of time better than the other buildings.

You can see internally the box holes are built into the walls where the nesting birds would have been. Not shown here is the massive tree that is now growing through the building.

The manor is mostly surrounded by a belt of woodland, on the west side of the shallow but relatively steep-sided valley of the River Thaw, 1.5 miles from the coast, near St Athan, with further natural protection provided by a tributary valley a short distance north.

Currently, it is a peaceful and tranquil place that is quite easy to get to and is in a very quiet part of St. Athen.

Footer:
Visit Information:-
Google Reference
51.403302827696336, -3.3973049137655678

What Three Words reference:-
///roaming.canal.offshore

OS Grid Ref
ST 02899 68068

Additional information.
Visiting is easy but parking near by may not be.

There is a small pull in lay-by (51.39926230839226, -3.397730966275135) but this is part of an maintenance access road. It should be ok at the weekends but please take care.

Alternatively St. Athen Village (1 mile away) or at Four Cross Station (Petrol Garage) about 500 yards away.




Once at the lay-by there is a walkway just past the eastern end of the Lay-by walk up the steps and over the style (this is an official "marked" pathway).

Enter the field on the left of the stile and keep forward along the hedge, past the old pillbox and to the top right hand side of the field. Here there is a style although the step part was broken. After this stick to the path for 5 minutes and the Castle will come into view.

BTW Google maps directions do not take you this way but this is by far the best way (the OS app is better here)

Thank you for visiting this blog.


If you would like more information on this location please feel free to contact me.

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