; ; also known as Pontneathvaughan) is a village in

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

, Wales. It is the southernmost village in the historic county of

Brecknockshire Brecknockshire ( or ), also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon, was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It was created in 1 ...

, within the

Vale of Neath The Vale of Neath (or Neath Valley, Welsh: ''Cwm Nedd''), one of the South Wales Valleys, encompasses the upper reaches of the River Neath in southwest Wales. In addition to the River Neath, it is traversed by the Neath Canal and the A465 du ...

and in the community of Ystradfellte. It stands at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the rivers Mellte and Nedd Fechan ("Neath Vaughan") and gives access to a series of

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s that adorn the upper

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

valley. Dinas Rock is a quarried

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

promontory east of the village, popular with visitors.

History

District industrial activities started with a 21-year lease of an area from the

Marquess of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart was the member of a family that ...

by the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

entrepreneur William Weston Young, for mining

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

rock round Craig-y-Ddinas from 1822 onwards. The

was extracted for firebricks at the ''Dinas Firebrick Co.'' in Pont Walby. In 1843, Young's lease ran out and the then ''Riddles, Young & Co.'' firebrick makers moved to new premises on The Green,

. The stone sleepers for the

mine tramway can still be seen in the path of the waterfall walk. In 1857, the Vale of Neath Powder Co. built a "gunpowder manufactory", having obtained "a licence to erect their mills over a space of two miles including the Upper and Lower Cilliepste Falls". The site on the Mellte was chosen for remoteness and the availability of water power and timber for producing charcoal, an ingredient of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

. An inclined tramway wfrom a siding on the Vale of Neath Railway near Pen-cae-drain, brought in

sulphur Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundance of the chemical ...

and

saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...

, the other ingredients. The buildings were linked by a horse-drawn tramway, whose horses wore copper horseshoes to reduce the likelihood of sparks. In 1862, Curtis & Harvey took over the site, later merging with Nobel's Explosives Co.Pritchard, Tom, Evans, Jack and Johnson, Sidney (1985). ''The Old Gunpowder Factory at Glynneath''. Merthyr Tydfil: Merthyr Tydfil & District Naturalists' Society 998 reprint and being absorbed by

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

in 1926. It then closed in 1931, but the site is still known locally as the Gunpowder Works. It is administered by the National Park Authority and has a network of footpaths. The Welsh-language poet Evan Bevan died at Pontneddfechan in 1866.

References

Map sources

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pontneddfechan and surrounding areaEbenezer Calvinist Methodist Chapel memorial transcripts
{{authority control Vale of Neath Villages in Powys

History

See also

References

Map sources

External links