Pentrebach (, sometimes written Pentre-Bach, literally: ''small village'') is a village in

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Merthyr Tydfil County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. In , it had an estimated population of , making it the smallest local authority in Wales by population. It is located in ...

, Wales and is formed from the original settlements of Lower Pentrebach, Tai-bach and Duffryn. It lies on the east side of the

River Taff The River Taff () is a river in Wales. It rises in the Brecon Beacons as two rivers, the Taf Fechan ("little Taff") and the Taf Fawr ("great Taff") before becoming one just north of Merthyr Tydfil. At Cardiff, it empties into the Bristol Chan ...

opposite

Abercanaid Abercanaid () is a small village in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom with a population of about 5,060. It is situated south of Merthyr town centre and is west of Pentrebach, across the River Taff and north ...

, south of Merthyr and north of

Troedyrhiw Troed-y-rhiw (, ) is a village and community in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Its population at the 2011 census was 5,296. It features the Troed-y-rhiw railway station. Governance The community shares a border with the electo ...

. To the east of the village lies the Mynydd Cilfach-yr-encil which rises up to . Pentrebach is part of the Plymouth electoral ward which covers Pentrebach,

and

. The village was founded at the time that John Guest built the

Plymouth Ironworks The Plymouth Ironworks was a major 18th century and 19th century ironworks located on land leased from the Earl of Plymouth at Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales. The metal produced was considered to be the finest in South Wales. The Ironworks was ...

in 1763. The name Guest became part of the Guest, Keen and Nettelfold company (

GKN GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It was a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 ...

). In 1818 Anthony Hill took over ownership of the business. His House was later used as an old people's home, and today has been converted into a Brewers Fayre Restaurant with a

Premier Inn Premier Inn Limited, a subsidiary of Whitbread, is a British limited-service hotel chain with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. As of 2025, the company owned and operated over 800 h ...

attached. The original

Merthyr Tramroad The Merthyr Tramroad (sometimes referred to as the Penydarren Tramroad due to its use by Trevithick's locomotive, built at the ironworks) was a line that opened in 1802, connecting the private lines belonging to the Dowlais and Penydarren Ironw ...

, built in 1802, ran alongside the site of the modern day village, on its way from

penydarren : ''For Trevithick's Pen-y-darren locomotive, see Richard Trevithick#"Pen-y-Darren" locomotive, Richard Trevithick.'' Penydarren is a Community (Wales), community and electoral ward in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in Wales. Description The area ...

Abercynon Abercynon () is a village and community (Wales), community (and electoral ward) in the Cynon Valley within the unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The community comprises the village and the districts of Carnetown and Grovers Field to ...

, though very little of the village had been built at that time. A tunnel still exists, which can be visited on the Merthyr Road. Locomotives had to tip their chimneys while going through this tunnel due to the tunnel clearance. Pentrebach has its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. This opened in 1886 on the standard gauge

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 stage ...

which runs from

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of K ...

alongside the

. The original purpose of the railway was to carry iron ore to

Cardiff Docks Cardiff Docks () is a port in southern Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost . Once the main port for the export of South Wales coalfield, South Wales coal, the Po ...

. In 1862, on the south side of the village, The South Duffryn Colliery was opened with two shafts which were deep. At the height of the production there were some 1300 men employed there. An

opencast mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

was also located on the mountainside above the village. The Plymouth Ironworks closed in 1882 and the South Duffryn Colliery ceased production in 1940. After the war, new industries were attracted to the village. In 1945, the Kayser Bondor Factory opened making underwear, followed in 1948 by the establishment of the

Hoover Hoover may refer to: Music * Hoover (band), an American post-hardcore band * Hooverphonic, a Belgian band originally named Hoover * Hoover (singer), Willis Hoover, a country and western performer active in 1960s and '70s * "Hoover" (song), a 201 ...

factory manufacturing washing machines. The factory later produced the

Sinclair C5 The Sinclair C5 is a small one-person battery electric vehicle, battery electric Recumbent bicycle, recumbent tricycle, technically an "electrically assisted pedal cycle". It was the culmination of Sir Clive Sinclair's long-running interest in el ...

battery-powered three-wheeler car. On Friday, 6 March 2009, Hoover confirmed that it was to cease production of washing machines and other laundry products at the factory. Linde set up a factory in the village on a site where the South Duffryn Colliery was located. This plant manufactured

Forklift A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

and at one time employed circa 500 people. The plant closed in 2013. but the site has since been taken over by U.S. defence contractor

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

to produce armoured vehicles for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. Pentrebach has two clubs: The Hills Plymouth

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Club, and the Pentrebach

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education ...

. Pentrebach also has a chapel, Jerusalem Chapel, Greenfield School and an Integrated Children's Centre. The mountain above Pentrebach has become popular with

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

pilots in recent years.

References

External links

Old Merthyr Tydfil: Pentrebach
Historical Photographs of Pentrebach.
National Library of Scotland
- Old Maps of Pentrebach. {{authority control Villages in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough