The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

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rogerfarnworth
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The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#1

Post by rogerfarnworth »

In the early Autumn of 2022, we had a two week holiday in West Wales and I took the opportunity to have a look at a number of old railways. I walked lengths of some and spent hours whiling away the time looking at old photos. This thread is the result and this is the first article which looks at transport prior to the railway age, with a significant focus on tramways/tramroads .....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2022/09/13/ra ... ilway-age/
Elsewhere in the UK, a usual pattern of development was for river traffic to be supplemented by tramroads and canals which then, often when traffic warranted it, were replaced by railways. It did not exactly work out like that in Pembrokeshire. ... We start with a quick look at the history of industrial transport of the County before the railways. ...
Mountain Goat
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#2

Post by Mountain Goat »

If you need to explore the Carmarthenshire area which Kymer was heavily involved with I have a friend who knows a lot of information. Laugharne to St Ishmaels and Kidwelly area were early crossing points by boat as it is an estuary where the three rivers meet, so due to there being a long way round, the quickest way was by boat.
The industrial revolution in the Gwendraeth Valley area of Carmarthenshire started in the 1500's and was already established with cell mining into the side of Pembrey Mountain for coal. Cell mining predates drift and deep mining both of which were limited before pumps were invented. Cell mining one followed the seam into the mountain and then one mined as much as one could before going in any further would not be possible due to air supplies and of course, one would have to in those days mine above the water table. The next development were water audits to drain mines before water pumps came along and then came air shafts so drift mines could be opened up... The history here even pre-dates that as the saying "There's nothing new under the sun" is quite an apt one, as the Romans had a mine under Pembrey mountain on the Pembrey side near the end and they were mining for Silica. This same mine was many years later re-opened as a coal mine in the industrial revolution... But I mention the 1500's because the whole valley used to have a famous woods all the way up called "Kings Woods" (Named after one of the kings camped there) and this whole valley was almost entirely cleared of trees to satisfy the hungry furnaces at Furnace near Llanelli (Then named Llanelly after the town name was abbreviated from "Llan-Y-Lliw (See the book "Old Llanelly" written in the 1800's)). These furnaces supplied both cannon balls and musket balls for the Naplionic war and before and they sold them in large numbers right around Europe. Was only when they almost ran out of wood when they discovered the coal seams instead. The last remains of the Kings Wood are known as Coed Y Marchog and Coed Rhyal which are on the south Pinged side of Pembrey Mountain.
You mentioned a wooden tramroad with connections to Kymer. At Kidwelly there was also a wooden tramroad there and if I recall was built before the canals? Kidwelly Quay was one of the early ports. The estuary was once easily navicable up to the castle, but slowly silted up, but this dock which was closer to the sea than the castle was in use until about the 1880's where by then the ships (Small two masted ships were preferred for the small Welsh ports built in the Porthmadog area as they could go into small hard to get areas) could no longer reach the quay, and also by then the railways had well and truely taken over.
Several books have been written about the canals and the railways in these parts. I have a friend who is hoping to re-open one of these lines.
Incidently, were you aware that the Fairlie patent design was used in the Burry Port area in standard gauge form before the famous Ffestiniog Railway Fairlies were built? They were used in the vast harbour network of the Burry Port and Grendreath Railway lines (Gwendraeth is the correct spelling but the railway submitted the wrong spelling to get an act to open it and by the time they discovered the error it was too late to change it). I am told that the two boilers of these origional locos still exist as were used as culverts in the harbour area, and as far as I am aware have been rescued.
Pembrokeshire is also a fascinating area and yes, coal was mined in those parts as well, but it was the Gwendraeth Valley coal seams that were the famous ones as the anthracite there was of the best quality. Just the coal seams were thin and difficult to follow due to faults. The coal here in places was likened to black glass as it was so hard and shiny. It was also smokeless when burned.
I mentioned Kings Wood and had previously mentioned boats were used to cross this estuary to get to Laugharne, but there was also a well known ferry for years at Ferryside which crossed over to Llanstephan. Ferryside became famoud around the 1600's as it was claimed to be the worlds first recorded tourist holiday destination, and people came down after one of the kings used to visit each year.
Another interesting local tramway was built from the late 1700's onwards and that is the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Tramway. It closed around the 1830's and was re-opened around 30 years later as a railway where some of the curves and gradients were eased to allow for railway operation. The whole area was famous for both its early railways and early canals. Not that much further east was the famous NeathAbbey locomotive works who was in direct competition with Stevenson though they did not view it as competition and shared a lot of new inventions and designs as both Neath Abbey Locomotive Works and Stevenson Locomotive Works had to work together to overcome some of the early issues they had... But travel further east again in Wales and at Pen-Y-Darren ran the first ever steam locomotive on rails in 1804 built by Richard Trevithic... So the whole area of South Wales was world famous for their industry and their exports.
Other interesting points. Burry Port (Which was all origionally known as Pembrey as Burry Port did not exist before the industrial revolution (And neither did Llanelli!) though Pembrey did. (The origions of Pembrey started on Pembrey Mountain due to past repeating tsunamis every 400 years, the last occuring was in 1607 with some of the older Pembrey village houses bearing the marks where the tsunami reached and the old church doors (Removed in the 1990's) used to have a notch to record where the water came up to)... But moving back to Burry Port and it was well known for the invention of the process to separate lead from silver so it was not just coal but had a lead and silver works and a large copper works. The lead and silver ore (Same ore) came from the mines around Mid Wales and the copper came from North Wales and possibly Cornwall where years ago due to mining, many Cornish miners came to work here hence the Travithic connections along with other famous Cornish inventors and industrialists with a mining background.
Due to the Burry Port lead and silver works inventing this process, and the copper works and the coal along with many iron foundaries and other industies inthe area such as industries dealing with bricks, wool, lime, and other materials, Burry Port (Along with the slightly earlier Pembrey) harbours and then Llanelli's docks as there were many, not to mention Swansea, and the whole area was a busy one and in some areas, hardly a Welshman amongst them due to the sheer volume of incomers due to the industrial needs of their day.
Last edited by Mountain Goat on Thu Sep 22, 2022 10:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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rogerfarnworth
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#3

Post by rogerfarnworth »

Thank you for this response. Full of interesting detail. Is this your local area? You clearly know it well. Thank you!🙂
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#4

Post by Mountain Goat »

I went to shorten it as I thought I wrote too much. Is back now. Yes. Is my local area.
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#5

Post by Mountain Goat »

https://www.liquisearch.com/burry_port/ ... al_history

Also found out that the coal in these parts is impregnated with specs of gold, as at one time some of the mine owners debated if they should extract the gold out of the coal and sell that, or if they should just sell the coal as both were of generally equal value, but due to the industrial concerns they opted to mine for coal instead.

The area also has a long history of Christianity with yet again Cornish connections. The early churches here were origionally known as "Llan's" (Where most of the Welsh town and village names that start with "Llan" came from, so for example Llanarthney was the "Llan" that saint Arthney set up or lived (Llan also means village as has a dual meaning).
Here there is a Llan where the village of Pembrey first began which was a 4th to 6th centuary enclosure with its nearby beehive-like prayer cell (Demolished around 8 years ago by footpath workers looking for stone to repair footpaths), and about just over half a mile away in a field is where they buried their dead as churchyards surrounding churches is a relitlvely recent thingbin Christianity. They would bury their dead anywhere from half a mile away to two miles away as they did not want any evil spirits that were in people that after they died would be looking for a new occupier to find one. These Llans or enclosures were often mistaken for forts, though in a way they also served as village protection. A few of these Llans are on each of the hills here so they are in line of sight from each other, but to understand Christianity one must first understand how it reached Wales. Israel was in Roman occupation in the years during and after Jesus died. The Jewish converts to Christianity were persecuted by the Jewish leaders who had not converted which resulted in them fleeing to other parts of the Roman empire. Many headed through Italy and north, and evzngelised as they went, so Christianity spread. A big movement of people (Was the mini ice age around then?) headed west throughout northen Europe and became known as the Celts, who were actually quite a mixed tribe of people from Jewish to the various tribes they had passed through on the way. They first rwached some of the far northern Scottish islands and then from there they missed the rest of Britain and came down to Cornwall. Cornwall was said to be well known as one of the trade route destinations since the days before Christ came so it is understandable why they headed there. St Pirian of Cornwall 4th to 6th centuary AD) was said to have lived 212 years old and met with St David and St Patric. Both St David and St Patric came into Wales and from there St Patric felt called to go to Ireland. St David fought off and cast out the druids from Wales and quite a few other miriacles such as when he preached at Llandewi Brefi, he was short and no one could see or hear him and the ground beneath his feet rose so he stood taller and was able to continue his message.
St David was not the only one as there were a great many others (Known as saints) also heading for various areas in Wales at the time, and the rest is history, but these enclosures typically have their origions from the 4th to the 6th centuary in Wales where later they were replaced with churches surrounded with villages, even if the village later moved as it did in Pembrey where as the sea moved further away from Pembrey Mountain the villagers moved with it.
Not too far is the remains (If you are quick and if they are still there. They were about a year ago) of the village of Horton near St Ishmaels (Close to Ferryside). This village was sometimes spelt Hortin or Hawtin or Hawton etc as it was generally before most people could read or write (Welsh was always a spoken language and not a written one though quite a few place names in these parts were not origionally of Welsh origions, though with the Celtish immigrants they were said to have been responsible for the origions of much of the Welsh langage hence why many Cornish words were the same words used in Welsh).
Now this abandoned village has marvellous dressed stones which had been brought in from elsewhere so whatever these buildings were, some of them were quite something in their day! This village of Hortin was one side of a crossing point (By boat) from Kidwelly so was at one time an important place. The village was at least twice abandoned. Once in the 1607 tsunami and then again in the latter half of the 1700's I believe when they had a big storm, and the surviving villagers decided enough was enough and settled up on top of the hill where the origional "Llan" was (Llansaint). Llansaint later became known as a smugglers village and the houses and streets were purpously built to confuse any undesirables from athoritian sources so they could send them round in circles rather than being caught. (If one has been there one will understand as one can drive through and end up out the other side again and miss half the little streets that make up the village).
At StIshmaels itself with its little church, one can cross the railway and see the remains of a few early metal rails used as sea defences. Broad gauge rails and others. Is interesting! Also the old gun emplacement that had a 21mile range, and was situated where is was as it is the onlynplave in Wales that if one went in a straight line, one could reach American without Ireland or any other island or land being in the way. Aso of note in the coastal areas here is that it holds the highest difference between high and low tides with generally shallow flat beaches so when the tide goes out, it goes right out and vice versa. Many ships went down in the area and half of them met their fate due to the local "Hatchet men" who would light fires to lure ships into thinking they were heading to port only to find themselves washed up on the sands. They then took their hatchets designed for the purpose, to break in and steal the cargo, and kill those who stood in their way, and at Pembrey Church, Napolien Bonaparts niece is buried who as a little girl, met her death due to one of these events. They often would find dead bodies missing their fingers where these hatchet men cut off rings from their victims, and it wasn't until parliament sent troops down in the 1880's that this looting finally stopped. My Mum has an old map somewhere recording all the larger vessels that went down over a 100 to 200 year period (Approx) and I counted 180 of them, a great portion coming to grief on Cefn Sidan sands (Pembrey).
The very similar looking long sandy beach on the other side of the estuary is where they used to do (And still occasionally do) the land speed records at Pendine. Today is hardly worth going as due to restricted access, is only the very end of the beach one is allowed to go without special permission from the government or the American company who are contracted to test weapons etc which began during WW2 and was "Supposed" to be given back to the people, but never was and has been extended and extended over the years.
Last edited by Mountain Goat on Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#7

Post by Mountain Goat »

Welcome. :)
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rogerfarnworth
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#8

Post by rogerfarnworth »

This next post about Pembrokeshire's Railways covers the mainline railways of the county:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2022/09/13/ra ... -railways/
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Journeyman
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#9

Post by Journeyman »

Roger, your posts are always interesting and now you are writing about my home area so am looking forward to what you come up with.
Also some interesting stuff from M.G. keep it up.
Roger you mentioned the tramway at Nolton, in the 60's most of the surfing community lived in the Nolton area Peter Jones as well as being a surfer was also keen on railways and did work on the tramway, as did Roger Worsley. A lot of Peters stuff ended up at the Ffestiniog and Roger’s in the local archives, both are now dead.
The Hook Colliery was not nationalised in 1948 so the records show it as being closed then, but it was still being worked in the early 50's. There was a standard gauge line to Johnston and I remember Locos on the track in the 50's the track was still there in the 60's and I remember riding a motorbike along and across it.

Cheers, Dave.
rogerfarnworth
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Re: The Railways of West Wales - Pembrokeshire

#10

Post by rogerfarnworth »

Glad you find them interesting. Please free to correct any errors. Best wishes. Roger
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