Penwyllt is today the home of the South Wales Caving Club, and quite a lot has been published at various times in their Newsletters about the history of the brickworks and quarries. Might be worth checking their website.
Alasdair Neill.
----- Original Message ----
From: John Hine <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, 30 January, 2008 11:22:47 PM
Subject: PENWYLLT, CWMTWRCH: SILICA & LIMESTONE
Dear List members,
Whilst not directly concerned with mines, I hope it was in order to forward the following enquiry, from Brian Jones. Please respond to him direct, as he is not a list member.
John W Hine,
Chairman, Welsh Mines Society.
_________________________________
I'm interested in the industrial history of the upper Swanseas Valley area and have just read a fascinating article in the 1903 Colliery Guardian on an endless-wire rope haulage system installed at Penwyllt Brickworks by Alfred Lewis of Merthyr. A gripper car, akin to San Francisco's cable cars, pulled trams up an incline where car and trams were then pulled to the silica quarry by a second endless rope, clutch-driven as required by the first endless rope.
Perhaps this is familiar stuff to your readers. Were such systems installed in coal mines? I imagine that Alfred Lewis was a colliery engineer - does anybody know anything about him?
Incidentally, do any of your readers know anything about Penwyllt Brickworks? Or about John Hay, Cwmtwrch coalmining entrepreneur in the late 19th century, who had a more conventional silica and limestone haulage system on the Black Mountain north of Cwmtwrch and Brynhenllys mine?
Brian Jones <[log in to unmask]>
20 Masefield Crescent
Abingdon
OX14 5PH
Tel 01235 525295
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