Hi everyone
For those of you that are familiar with the remote copper/lead mine at Nant
yr Eira in Powys this site has now largely been cleared of coniferous trees
and will remain so. A number of features have been revealed which were not
obvious before including the barracks building and the dam. The Bronze Age
opencut is a spectacular feature with a waterfall at the north end. The
whole site is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the Clwyd-Powys
Archaeological Trust are working with the Forestry Commission and Cadw to
enhance access and interpretation. By October the site should be part of a
7km (approx.) 'Archaeological Trail'. Access is currently restricted due to
foot & mouth.
I thought some of you might like to see the site now it is cleared so I have
posted some compressed digital photos (each 6mb to 200k) on a photo album
web site. You can see the pics by going to www.fotki.com click on the My
Fotki link at the top of the screen. In the screen name box put markwalters.
In the password box put shinobi. You will probably be taken to the public
albums first (not very interesting unless you're into B17s !) so click on
the private albums link at the left of the screen - the albums of industrial
interest will now appear - enjoy ! I will be adding more mine sites over the
next month.
The Trust (www.cpat.org.uk) is putting together a web site based on the
surveys completed in 1993/4. We had hoped to publish these by now in a more
publicly available format (the original reports were for internal use, Cadw,
RCAHMW and the planning authorities only) but the Clwyd half of the
publication had to be ditched due to landowner restrictions and the CBA were
not keen on the size of the reduced publication based on Powys. We are
exploring other avenues and Powys, at least, should be published within the
next couple of years. The Trust web site has summaries of the Clwyd & Powys
surveys with some pictures
I am also putting together a personal web site on the Powys Mines which will
be wider in outlook and cover all surviving mines in the county. This should
be up & running before xmas, fingers crossed.
All the best
Mark Walters
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