April 19, 2024

Portalcot

Interior spice

Vanished Wales: Why this historic village was reduced to just a handful of houses

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Archive exhibits the village when it was the moment vibrant and teaming with everyday living


In the gorgeous Sirhowy Valley lies a village which is totally distinctive. 

It is partly demolished, partly intact, with gaping holes wherever buildings after stood.

Welcome to Troedrhiwgwair, where by – for more than a century – rows of tightly packed terraced houses hugged the mountainside.

Developed in 1863 to dwelling the workers of the regional collieries and iron will work, it was after active and vivid – consisting of 96 houses and 500 inhabitants.

The village was as soon as dwelling to a neighborhood of 500 people. Credit rating: ITV Wales

The Thomas household have one-way links to the village that go again generations.

“Oh it was an incredible location to improve up”, remembers Gerald Thomas.

“We experienced all this wilderness as our playfield. Most people knew all people and no person locked their properties.

“They made use of to go to city on the bus, they had a bus each individual fifty percent an hour, and they wouldn’t lock their houses. They’d just shut the doorway and off they’d go.

“Fully remarkable spot”, he extra.


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The story of how this historic village was decreased to just a handful of residences begins in 1973.  

The mountain at the rear of Troedrhiwgwair was surveyed by the nearby council, who deemed it unsafe.  

The villagers have been instructed to go out in situation of a landslip.  The mountain under no circumstances did shift, but a lot of people did.  

By the mid ‘80s, the village was in a sorry condition.  But the remaining citizens refused to leave – and Brian Gardner was one of them.

“We are hunting at a history of this village that went back 100 odd several years”, Brian told ITV Wales.

“We understood the mountain, we ended up people who lived on this mountain, me and families just before us, for the reason that most of us experienced arrive from households who had been right here suitable the way from the time the damn village was created.”

When the council proposed going the final people out – and  demolishing Troedrhiwgwair altogether – there was outrage.

“Troedrhiwgwair would have been wiped off the map, no question about it if we hadn’t performed what we did”, reported Brian.

“Like soldiers in a battle. All the people who still left this village, they came back again as our supporters. People today who had absent out of the village and absent from listed here, folks from different guises.”

In 1988 a community enquiry located in favour of the inhabitants, and Troedrhiwgwair was spared.

Currently the village consists of just 12 residences. Credit: ITV Wales/Vanished Wales

  But the empty buildings had been finally pulled down, leaving terraced streets with just 12 residences.

Currently it’s challenging to consider the vibrancy of this village, in its heyday.   

But Troedrhiwgwair continue to stands – and its abundant historical past will reside on for generations.


You can see more on this tale, and lots of other missing landmarks, in Vanished Wales. Friday 20th May at 7pm on ITV Cymru Wales. You can also capture up with the collection here.

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