Upper Boat () is a village on the southernmost outskirts of the town of
Pontypridd
Pontypridd ( , ), Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as ''Ponty'', is a town and a Community (Wales), community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, approximately 10 miles north west of Cardiff city centre.
Geography
Pontypridd comprises the ...
, within the electoral ward of Hawthorn,
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff () and Ely valleys, ...
, Wales, and comprises part of the
Treforest Industrial Estate.
Historically
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
part of
Glamorgan
Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...
, it fell within the parish of
Eglwysilan Eglwysilan is an ecclesiastical parish and Hamlet (place), hamlet in Wales, within the Community (Wales), community of Aber Valley in the unitary authority of Caerphilly County Borough.
History of the parish
During the 12th-century Norman inva ...
.
Etymology
The location which is now referred to as Upper Boat was once a
ferry
A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
point over 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 ...
. There were three major ferrying points over the river, one at
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 So ...
, a second at Willowford, and the 'upper boat' was moored where today the Upper Boat Inn is located.
History
Founded as a
ford point across the River Taff, Upper Boat was mainly untouched by the booming
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
and
steel industry
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture strength and low raw material cost, steel is one of the ...
around which much of the
industrialised
Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...
south Wales grew. When the
Glamorganshire Canal was constructed in the late 18th century, Upper Boat found itself located between the Taff and the canal, which brought employment to the area.
In the
1841 census, Upper Boat had a population of around 150, and its industry was clearly connected to the
waterway
A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...
s that border it; employing
boatmen,
lock keepers, and
carpenters
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters trad ...
.
Others found work at the
collieries
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...
that opened in neighbouring villages, or at the local Melin-gorwg
iron foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
.
As no major coal mine was sunk in the locality of Upper Boat, its growth was gradual; and by 1901, its population had increased to little over 300. With the canal and the
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
now in decline, almost all employment in the village was reliant on coal mining, with people commuting to nearby pits.
In 1902, the construction of the
Upper Boat power station was initiated by the
South Wales Electric Company. Located on the west bank of the Taff, the
coal-fired power station
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...
provided employment for several decades, until it was decommissioned in 1972, and then demolished in 1976, following events linked to the
nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English)
is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...
of the
electricity supply industry in Britain.
In 1936, the Treforest Industrial Estate was conceived; to bring employment to the area. By the end of the following year, three factories were built, employing 69 people.
As the estate grew, the fields surrounding the area were consumed by urban sprawl; housing was quickly required for local employees.
Prefabricated houses were hastily built, and the village grew, but the decision to build the
A470
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 th ...
trunk road
A trunk road is a major highway with a specific legal classification in some jurisdictions, notably the United Kingdom, Sweden and formerly Ireland. Trunk roads are planned and managed at the national-level, distinguishing them from non-trunk ro ...
in the early 1970s across the north of Upper Boat saw these homes removed via a
compulsory demolition order.
Upper Boat was once served by two separate
railway stations
A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing such a ...
on different lines. The first (which was called Upper Boat Halt after 1924), on the
Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway, was opened in 1904, and closed in 1956. The second (called 'Upper Boat' throughout its life), was on the
Cardiff Railway, opening in 1911, and closing in 1931. The nearest station is now
Treforest Estate.
Buildings of note
Built in 1839, Upper Boat was home to
Carmel Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, which serve the community for over a century. Described as being designed in the simple round-headed style, the chapel closed in 1987.
From 2006 to 2012, Upper Boat was known in media circles for being home to
BBC Wales' Upper Boat Studios, where the hit revised version of ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', as well as
spin-offs
Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media
*Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine
* ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
''
Torchwood
''Torchwood'' is a British-American science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'', it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect i ...
'' and ''
The Sarah Jane Adventures
''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC s ...
'', were produced, before production moved to BBC Wales new complex at
Roath Lock, Cardiff.
Notes
External links
photos of Upper Boat and surrounding area— Geograph.org.uk
{{authority control
Villages in Rhondda Cynon Taf