Tynewydd is a village located in the County Borough of

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vill ...

, south

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. With

Treherbert Treherbert () is a village and community situated at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Historically part of Glamorgan, Treherbert is a former industrial coal mining village which was at its e ...

Blaencwm Blaencwm ( cy, Blaen-y-Cwm) is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, lying at the head the Rhondda Fawr valley. Two collieries were opened here during the Industrial Revolution, the Dunraven Colliery in 1865 and the Glenrho ...

Blaenrhondda Blaenrhondda is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, lying at the head the Rhondda Fawr valley. Blaenrhondda is a village and is part of the community of Treherbert. History The earliest evidence of people inhabiting the ...

and Pen-yr-englyn it is part of a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

of Treherbert. The village lies in the former industrial coal mining area at the head of Rhondda Fawr, the larger of the Rhondda Valleys.

History

It is believed that the village was named after 'Tynewydd' (built 1652) a

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

in nearby Blaenrhondda. The area was sparsely populated before the 18th century, but after the successful mining of the South Wales coalfield the area experienced a population boom in the late 19th century. In 1865 Ebenezer Lewis, the owner of the Bwllfa Dare Colliery in Aberdare, purchased the lease of mineral property at Tynewydd on the east side of the River Rhondda. An old level on the hillside was reopened and a shaft was sunk to exploit the lower levels. This mine was named Tynewydd Colliery (not to be confused with Tynewydd Colliery in nearby Porth, site of an 1877 disaster) and in 1868 ownership was transferred to Rhondda Merthyr Colliery Company for £50,000. The mine remained profitable until 1879 when a geological fault affected production. In 1887 the mine was purchased by Messrs L and H Gueret, and efficient production was re-established. Despite producing 100,000 tons of coal in 1910 by 1911 it had closed.

Transport

The village is connected to the national rail transport network by

Treherbert railway station Treherbert railway station serves the village of Treherbert in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is the northern terminus of the Rhondda Line, north west of Cardiff Central. History A station was first opened on this site by the Taff Vale Railway ...

, northern terminus of the Rhondda Line, originally the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in st ...

line connecting the

Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but ...

with the Rhondda Fawr collieries. The station is north-west of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. The Rhondda Fawr line was extended from Dinas to Treherbert in 1856 and passenger services to Treherbert began in 1863.

References

Bibliography

Heroic Endeavour, by Major D.V. Henderson, pub. Hayward & Sons, 1988,

External links

Photo of Craig-Y-Ddellw Mountain, Tynewydd, c. 1955, at Francis Frith Photos website
accessed 16 December 2010

accessed 16 December 2010 {{authority control Villages in Rhondda Cynon Taf