Plynlimon (central) - Royal Commission on the Ancient and ...

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Uplands Initiative – Nant y Moch & Pumlimon Fawr / <strong>Plynlimon</strong> 2004for 30 cwt of ore, and how Onslow and his wife would come up at Christmas with 1 / 2 Ib of tea, apound of sausages and a small plum pudding for each of the men. On one occasion H.M. Inspectorof Mines approached Richards underground and requested a signal to slowly lower the kibble. Acandle was held close, and after a minute's examination the man turned and said 'there will be nomore mining here until you have a new rope'. That, combined with an almost unsaleable ore due torelease of Government stock-piles brought an end to Nantiago. The life was desperately primitiveby modern standards but for Richards ‗it was a happy mine to work in and it was a sad day when itclosed‘. The total output was 1709 tons of lead ore and 1929 tons of blende‖ (BICK 1991 p 54-58).One feature that binds all of the mines together within the survey area is that of the vast network of leats. Ingeneral these are approx. 3ft wide x 2ft deep, dug and lined with clay or else hewn from the hillside,sometimes through solid rock, laid over bogs and shorn with masonry. The greatest length of leat within thearea was a high level leat built by the engineers John Taylor and Sons c. 1850. This leat network, now reedfilled, stretches from the area north of the present Nant y Moch Reservoir, in the area of the AfonLlechwedd Mawr, south toward Camddwr Bach and further south toward Llywernog and Nant y ArianMines.―As may be anticipated, the chief architect was John Taylor who began by building a very long leatto the Lisburne mines at Pontrhydygroes about 1835. Some fifteen years later he commenced amuch more important development in the isolated plateau north of Ponterwyd to supply the rapidlyexpanding mines of Cwmsymlog, Cwmerfin and Cwmbrwyno for which the headwaters of theRheidol presented the only adequate source.Part of the task had been unwittingly completed in the early 1840's by John Horridge when heconveyed the waters of the Leri from Craig y Pistyll to Cwmsebon by a leat running in great loopsround two intervening mountain spurs. Near Lletty Evanhen the level dropped considerably aftercrossing a ridge and somewhere in the Cwmsymlog valley it dropped again, the overall fall toCwmsebon being approximately 400 ft. About 1850, Taylors turned this loss of head to goodaccount by building a high level leat from Lletty Evanhen to Cwmsymlog and Cwmerfin, fromwhence it descended to other mines down the valley, including Cwmsebon.This supply was augmented by bringing the Rheidol tributaries into the Leri above Craig y Pistyllby means of a long watercourse through wild and difficult country via Brynyrafr andBwlchystyllen. Near the latter, the flow could be discharged either towards Cwmsymlog or intoPond Syfydrin and thence to Goginan and/or Cwmbrwyno. The eastern Rheidol tributary, AfonUuestgota, was tapped below the Welsh Potosi mines, which obtained supplies from Llyn Conachand Llyn Dwfn, whilst the western tributary yielded its share near Dolrhyddlan (Eaglebrook). Thissystem was to form the main framework of the leats north of the A44 road, and once understood theremaining watercourses fall quite readily into place…...‖(BICK 1991, p 69).FIGURE 16. Previously recorded leats in Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire area .Leat built by John Taylor & Sons. Represented by numbers 2 + 3.71CAP Report No: 355
Uplands Initiative – Nant y Moch & Pumlimon Fawr / <strong>Plynlimon</strong> 2004As already mentioned, all of the mines had become abandoned by the early 20 th century. This abandonmentalso seems to have begun the abandonment of most of the cottages and small settlements in the area.As well as these leats supplying water to the mines, the major source of public water supply in northCardiganshire was from reservoirs formed by compounding works at Llyn Craig-y-Pistyll and ‗Llyn LlygadRheidol‘ (Area 9). The major sources of water supply in North Cardiganshire are reservoirs formed bycompounding works at Llyn Craig-y-Pistyll and Llyn Llygad Eheidol. Water from Llyn Llygad Rheidol,lying in the bosom of <strong>Plynlimon</strong>, has supplied the town of Aberystwyth since 1885, It was, and still is,conveyed to the Cefnilan reservoir in Aberystwyth by means of 16 miles of 8 inch diameter iron pipes.Apart from chlorination, there was no treatment. Of these waters, it was reported in 1879 by ProfessorFrankland of the <strong>Royal</strong> College of Chemistry, - "The water is clear, palatable, wholesome and of mostexcellent quality for dietetic purposes. It is also very soft and therefore well suited to washing".Over the years this soft water has attacked the pipes to such an extent that their present carrying capacity isless than half of the designed half a million gallons per day. The existing source and works had thereforebecome quite inadequate for the supply of water to a thriving town such as Aberystwyth and consequentlymajor new works became pressing necessity.Llyn Craig-y-Pistyll was developed for the benefit of the Rural District of Aberystwyth. Treatment Workswere built at Bontgoch in 1939 and these not only sufficed over the area but enabled the District Council tosell surplus water to the Aberystwyth borough Council in times of need. The reliable yield of this sourcewas about 450,000 gallons per day (From Cardiganshire Water Board manuscript in RCAHMW archive).The catchment of the Llyn Llygad Rheidol reservoir lies within the greater catchment 'contributing to theCentral Electricity Generating Board's Nantymoch reservoir which forms a part of their Rheidol HydroElectric Scheme. The Board's reservoir has an esitimated reliable yield of 560,000 gallons per day which itis hoped to. increase to 1 million gallons per day, and to this end gauging weirs have been built in theNantymoch and Maesnant streams6 CARTOGRAPHIC SOURCESCartographic sources consulted spanned the years 1693 -1948, including the later modern 1:10000 map.Each of these will be discussed individually in the following summary.i) William Wallers Map of 1693FIGURE 17. William Wallers Map of 1693.71CAP Report No: 355
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