Nantgarw Colliery & Coking Plant, Treforest Industrial Estate, 1973

Image: © Ben Brooksbank: http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/44502 Taken: 29 Sep 1973

Photographer: Ben Brooksbank http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/44502 Taken by the side of the A468 (the route to Caerphilly lying behind the camera), looking towards its roundabout with what was then the A470 from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil. The sign indicates that one should double back (first left) for Taff's Well and Cardiff. The old A470 is now designated the A4054. The curve and downgrade are still essentially the same, but the roundabout now has an extra industrial estate turnoff on the right. This area had a complex rail network, with lines running down both sides of Taff Vale, and with another line running right through the middle of the industrial estate. By the time this photo was taken, that 'central' line had been reduced to a short spur running from the South to the colliery. The embankment of that line is visible in this photo, to the left of the roundabout, with the River Taff beyond. The colliery and coking plant closed in 1986, and the entire plant and embankment have since been flattened.The old house on the right was originally part of the historic Nantgarw Chinaworks, and is now its museum. The remains of the Glamorganshire Canal are also to be found in the vicinity of the chinaworks. The A470 Expressway now thunders over a roundabout intersection both behind and just to the East of the photographer's position - making the pictured foreground road a sliproad for the industrial estate. Wikipedia entries for Nantgarw & Treforest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantgarw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treforest Nantgarw Colliery: http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/GlamEast/Nantgarw.htm

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