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Nantgarw
Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, near Cardiff. From an electoral and administrative perspective Nantgarw falls within the ward of Taff's Well, a village some south, but historically fell within the boundaries of Caerphilly, which is a major town located less than to the east. The original village was almost entirely destroyed by the development of the A470 trunk road, which was situated at the location of the current A468 junction. Located close to the A470, Nantgarw is within easy reach of the town of Pontypridd ( to the northwest) and Cardiff City centre (around further south). Nantgarw is the home of the Nantgarw tradition of folk dancing. History Nantgarw lies on the River Taff. It is known for its porcelain, produced in between 1813 and 1814, and later between 1817 and 1820 at the Nantgarw Pottery, commemorated at the Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum. The potter and painter William Billingsley is credited with starting the porcelain t ...
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Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum
The Nantgarw China Works was a porcelain factory, later making other types of pottery, located in Nantgarw on the eastern bank of the Glamorganshire Canal, north of Cardiff in the River Taff valley, Glamorganshire, Wales. The factory made porcelain of very high quality, especially in the years from 1813–1814 and 1817–1820. Porcelain produced by Nantgarw was extremely white and translucent, and was given overglaze decoration of high quality, mostly in London or elsewhere rather than at the factory. The wares were expensive, and mostly distributed through the London dealers. Plates were much the most common shapes made, and the decoration was typically of garlands of flowers in a profusion of colours, the speciality of the founder, William Billingsley (artist), William Billingsley. With Swansea porcelain, Nantgarw was one of the last factories to make soft-paste porcelain, when English factories had switched to bone china, and continental and Asian ones continued to ...
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Nantgarw Pottery
The Nantgarw China Works was a porcelain factory, later making other types of pottery, located in Nantgarw on the eastern bank of the Glamorganshire Canal, north of Cardiff in the River Taff valley, Glamorganshire, Wales. The factory made porcelain of very high quality, especially in the years from 1813–1814 and 1817–1820. Porcelain produced by Nantgarw was extremely white and translucent, and was given overglaze decoration of high quality, mostly in London or elsewhere rather than at the factory. The wares were expensive, and mostly distributed through the London dealers. Plates were much the most common shapes made, and the decoration was typically of garlands of flowers in a profusion of colours, the speciality of the founder, William Billingsley. With Swansea porcelain, Nantgarw was one of the last factories to make soft-paste porcelain, when English factories had switched to bone china, and continental and Asian ones continued to make hard-paste porcela ...
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Nantgarw Tradition
The Welsh dance (), also known as the Welsh folk dance (), is a traditional dance in Wales, performed to Welsh traditional music and while usually wearing a traditional Welsh costume. History 17th century John Playford John Playford collected records of dances and music during the 17th century with Welsh associations and as such were considered a part of the Welsh tradition. 18th century William Jones Williams Jones corresponded with the Gwyneddigion Society, and with other contemporary men of letters, and began collecting and recording local folk songs and country dances for Edward Jones (Bardd y Brenin), the King's Bard. Jones spent much time conversing with the elderly members of the community as well as researching manuscripts and printed collections which provided Edward Jones with valuable material for his printed volumes. He describes many of the dances as having "sharp twists and turns rendering them fiendishly difficult to perform well", and stated tha ...
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William Billingsley (artist)
William Billingsley (1758–1828) was an influential China painting, painter of porcelain in several English porcelain factories, who also developed his own recipe for soft-paste porcelain, which produced beautiful results but a very high rate of failure in firing. He is a leading name associated with the English Romantic style of paintings of groups of flowers on porcelain that is sometimes called "naturalistic" by older sources, although that may not seem its main characteristic today. He trained in his home town of Derby, and though his work certainly reached the London market, all his many movements never took him further than the Midlands and South Wales, by then the heart of the British porcelain-making industry, although wares were often sent to London to be painted. His porcelain body was made by him at Pinxton and later at the Nantgarw Pottery, which he founded in 1813 with his son-in-law. He had spent over twenty years at Derby porcelain, a period after 1808 at Worc ...
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Cardiff Railway
From 1839, the trustees of the John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, Marquis of Bute, operated a large dock operation in Cardiff, the "Bute Docks". This was very successful, but was overwhelmed by the huge volume of coal exported through Cardiff. At the same time, it was seen that railway companies, especially the Taff Vale Railway (TVR), were making money conveying the coal to the docks. The Bute Docks company decided to build a railway from Pontypridd to their dock; they obtained an act of Parliament, the Cardiff Railway Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. cclxii), giving authority for part of the route in 1898, and changed the company name to the Cardiff Railway. To be successful, they needed to make a junction with their main rival, the TVR, at Treforest. A single mineral train traversed the junction in 1909 but legal challenges prevented any further use. The Cardiff Railway had built an expensive railway line that failed to connect with the collieries beyond Pontypridd. The c ...
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Taff's Well
Taff's Well () is a semi-rural village, Community (Wales), community and electoral ward located at the south-eastern tip of Rhondda Cynon Taf, north-west of the city centre of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Known locally as the 'Gates to the South Wales Valleys, Valleys' by some and considered part of the Valleys by others, it is separated from Gwaelod-y-Garth by the River Taff. Taff's Well is distinguished because it contains the only Hot spring, thermal spring in Wales. The tepid water is thought to rise along a fault-line from the Carboniferous Limestone, in somewhat similar manner to the warm springs at Bristol and Bath. The Welsh myth of the Taff's Well Turtle originates here. Various religious groups regard it as a spiritual site. Garth Hill overlooks the village and was the inspiration for the fictional "Ffynnon Garw", featured in the book and film ''The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain''. Name The name "Taff's Well" is derived from the situation of ...
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Pontypridd, Caerphilly And Newport Railway
The Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway was built to bring the coal output of the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys directly to Alexandra Docks at Newport. It was a little over in length, running from Pontypridd to a junction near Caerphilly; from there to Newport existing allied railways conveyed the mineral trains. A passenger service was operated later, not stopping intermediately on the line, until in 1904 a railmotor service was started, calling at new low-cost intermediate stopping places. The line closed to passengers in 1962, and to freight from 1965. Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company The remarkable topography of south-east Wales consists of mountainous terrain with a number of valleys running north to south, or north-west to south-east. In addition, the region at the upper part of the valleys was rich in mineral resources, in particular iron ore, coal and limestone. The co-existence of these minerals encouraged the production of iron, but both that indus ...
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A468 Road
The A468 is a principal road from Newport to Nantgarw. The current route begins at the A467 in Bassaleg then passes through Rhiwderin, Machen, Trethomas, Bedwas and Caerphilly, terminating on the A470. History Originally the A468 began at the Handpost Pub on the junction with the former A467 (reclassified to B4240) and proceeded west along Bassaleg Road, passing under a pair of stone arch bridges carrying the Ebbw Valley Railway and the Brecon and Merthyr Railway The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (B&MR) was a railway company in Wales. It was originally intended to link the towns in its name. Finding its access to Merthyr difficult at first, it acquired the Rumney Railway, an old plateway, an ... before reaching the current starting point. References Roads in Caerphilly County Borough Roads in Newport, Wales Roads in Rhondda Cynon Taf {{Wales-road-stub ...
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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 stages in 1840 and 1841. In the railway's first years, the coal mining industries expanded considerably and branches were soon opened in the Rhondda valleys and the Cynon Valley. The conveyance of coal for export and for transport away from South Wales began to dominate and the docks in Cardiff and the approach railway became extremely congested. Alternatives were sought and competing railway companies were encouraged to enter the trade. In the following decades further branch lines were built and the TVR used "motor cars" (steam railway passenger coaches) from 1903 to encourage local passenger travel. From 1922 the TVR was a constituent of the new Great Western Railway (GWR) at the grouping of the railways, imposing its own character on ...
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A470 Road
The A470 (also named the Cardiff to Glan Conwy Trunk Road) is a trunk road in Wales. It is the country's longest road at and links the capital Cardiff on the south coast to Llandudno on the north coast. While previously one had to navigate the narrow roads of Llanidloes and Dolgellau, both these market towns are now bypassed due to extensive road modernisation. The from Cardiff Bay to Merthyr Tydfil are mainly dual carriageway, but most of the route from north of Merthyr to Llandudno is single carriageway. Route National parks The road travels through two of the national parks of Wales: the Brecon Beacons, and Snowdonia National Park starting just south of Dinas Mawddwy. Cardiff Bay – Merthyr Tydfil The southernmost point of the route is in Cardiff Bay, outside the Wales Millennium Centre. It runs up Lloyd George Avenue (this was previously Collingdon Road, and the A470 previously ran along the parallel Bute Street), and continues along St. Mary Street in centr ...
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Porcelain
Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arise mainly from Vitrification#Ceramics, vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. End applications include tableware, ceramic art, decorative ware such as figurines, and products in technology and industry such as Insulator (electricity), electrical insulators and laboratory ware. The manufacturing process used for porcelain is similar to that used for earthenware and stoneware, the two other main types of pottery, although it can be more challenging to produce. It has usually been regarded as the most prestigious type of pottery due to its delicacy, strength, and high degree of whiteness. It is frequently both glazed and decorated. Though definitions vary, po ...
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South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield () extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, especially in the South Wales Valleys. Description The area comprises a fully exposed synclinorium which gave rise to dramatic upland areas () rising to 300–600 metres above sea level, and intersected by steep-sided valleys in which most of the area's deep mines were developed. The coal measures (Upper Carboniferous/Pennsylvanian) are thick, workable seams in the lower parts and generally thinner and sparser seams in the upper parts, with a development of sandstones ( Pennant Sandstone) much used in local construction, (including the characteristic terraced houses). The coal generally increases in grade or "rank" from east to west, with bituminous coals in the east, and anthracite in the west, mostly to the north and west of Neath. The Rhondda Valley was par ...
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