6 minute read
FRAGMENTS FROM LOCAL HISTORY THE STORY OF THE HORSES
Fragments from Local History
Three short stories from locals’ memories throughout the Rhondda valley and various times in history.
Advertisement
This is the stone that was placed at the entrance to the Rhondda Tunnel to commemorate its opening. The Rhondda Tunnel Society started searching for a suitable place for the key stone to be relocated from the train station closer to the tunnel entrance. There was lots of engagement with the community that created support for the reopening of the tunnel.
The Rhondda tunnel was built in July 1890 and all of a sudden with one train line Blaencwm, in the Rhondda Valley, and Blaengwynfi, in the Afan Valley, were connected. Initially separated by the Bwlch mountain, the tunnel provided a 3443 yards (3,15 km), route straight through the mountain. When it was built the tunnel was the seventh longest railway tunnel in Britain. (Destination partnerships of Rhondda Cynon Taf, 2021)
At the beginning the tunnel was used for coal transportation, to provide an easier way to transport coal to the port of Swansea and provided an alternative to the Taff Vale Railway that ran to Cardiff Docks. (Destination partnerships of Rhondda Cynon Taf, 2021)
When I mentioned the tunnels to the locals I got a few different responses from the people I spoke to. One person recalled summer vacations to the beach in Swansea by train. The train rode through the tunnel on the way there and when people left their windows open, and the carriage would be filled with wind. Another remembered a story about a relative that would walk home through the tunnels after a night out, with the path lit up only by the flame of a candle. Since the light from the candle only lit up a few feet in front of them, they would become confused and would end up getting turned around, only for them to walk back out the same way they came in. At the end of the night they would finally come back out the right side of the tunnel only to be covered in candle wax.
The tunnel closed in the 1960’s, a victim of Dr. Richard Beeching’s rationalisation of the railways. (Destination partnerships of Rhondda Cynon Taf, 2021) The tunnel that had previously connected so many was now cut off from the other side. The closure meant relationships between families and friends were suddenly much harder to maintain because the physical distance seemingly grew much greater overnight.
Today the tunnel has been closed for 60 years, but through the enthusiasm people have shown for its reopening there is a hope for the disused tunnel to be opened again. The Rhondda Tunnel Society has members from all over the world. Their main goals are to reopen the tunnel, in its entirety, for cycling and walking as well as to reconnect the Rhondda and Afan Valleys. (Rhondda Tunnel Society, 2021)
With time the Home Guards’ location changed and moved further down the Rhondda River. The building was left and fell into disrepair over time, now only a ruined stone building to any outsiders.
Upon emerging from Treherbert park and crossing the bridge, our group entered the alley behind the houses facing Dunraven Street. Before the right turn that brings you back onto the street there’s a ruined stone building. Some of us had stopped to take pictures of the front wall when we started discussing what this building might have been used for before it fell to ruins. The blank poster board on the left side of the wall was of no use, and left most of us more confused than before we saw it.
From across the street an older gentleman acknowledged our confused faces with a smile. He asked us if we wanted to know what the ruins were from, to which we eagerly agreed. He started to tell us about the ruins and how they had once been used as the Treherbert Home Guard’s base during the war.
When the alarms went off the Home Guard would make sure everyone was following the blackout order. The blackout was an order to turn off all lights that might make it easy for enemy air crafts to target urban areas in the dark. We are not entirely sure what put this building into such a state of disrepair, perhaps from abandonment or purposeful neglect, but now it stands as a constant reminder of the efforts made by brave locals during such dire times.
On a walk along the paths around the Glyncornel nature reserve with the Social Strollers, I started a lovely conversation with an elderly lady about her life. While entering the nature reserve through the kissing gate she pointed at a building along the mountain ridge on the other side of the valley. She then began telling me the story of how the building that originally stood in its place was an old isolation hospital for people who had contracted smallpox, but it has since burned down. The hospital she was referring to was Penrhys Isolation Hospital.
A local lady points at the former location of the Penrhys Isolation Hospital.
In 1962 there was an outbreak of smallpox, which affected everyone in the valley. During the crisis, 12 patients were isolated there as doctors fought to control the outbreak. When there was news of a confirmed positive case of smallpox, panic spread. At this point in time there were very few who knew how to combat smallpox. Several people I spoke to remember their parents taking them somewhere to get vaccinated. At that time the vaccine for smallpox often left scars, so the memories of these scary times are still present to many in a physical way. They also remember being told not to go places where the virus had been contracted, missing days of school because of vaccination side effects and cancelled plans due to isolation. The hospital where the first case of smallpox in the Rhondda Valley had been isolated was destroyed when the outbreak was under control. Fire consumed any remaining traces of the virus which had plagued Wales in the spring of 1962. All that remained on the site were the walls around the edges of the property. Now there’s a house built on the site, however the location still reminds many of its past. (Stewart, 2012)
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing it is difficult to not see the similarities between these two healthcare crises. The two past years of the pandemic have brought back forgotten childhood memories for many.
References: Sign outside Treherbert train station, published by Destination partnerships of Rhondda Cynon Taf. 2021.
Rhondda Tunnel Society. 2021. Rhondda Tunnel Society, Available at: https://www.rhonddatunnelsociety.co.uk/ [Accessed: 15 November 2021].
James Stewart (2012) Storyline – outbreak in Wales. Available at: https://smallpox1962.wordpress.com/storyline-the-outbreak-in-wales/ [Accessed: 15 November 2021].
