Wild swimming surrounded by beauty and history!
Last year taking a walk through the forestry above Treorci to the Fforch ponds, little did i realise that not only was i surrounded by beautiful countryside but thousands of years of history! I couldn’t resist taking a photograph of my feet in the cold clear water overlooking the scenery! and here they are captured on a large canvas in oils!
Fforch Ponds Treorci, Y Rhondda Fawr
The historic landscape area of Y Rhondda Fawr: “Enclosed Valley Sides is a landscape of some importance” CADW
This area pre the Norman conquest formed part of the early Kingdom of Glywysing, later known as Morgannwg which was divided into seven cantrefi. The Rhondda was in the cantref of Penychan. The boundaries of which were with the Cantref of Gorfynydd to the west, Senghennydd to the east and to the north Y Cantref Mawr, part of the neighbouring Kingdom of Brycheiniog . Traditionally each cantref was divided into two cwmwd, or commotes, each maenorau (estates) made up of a number of trefi (towns).
The Fforch ponds are situated in Cwm-y-Fforch (Fforch valley) overlooked by Mynydd Ynysfeio.
Created near the site of the old Ynysfeio Colliery (with an earlier farmstead of this name). It is derived from ‘ynys’, meaning ‘riverside meadow’, and ‘feio’, which is probably the plural of the Welsh ‘fa’ or ‘ma’, meaning ‘place’. The ponds are formed from manmade stonework along the Nant Ynysfeio (stream)
There is early evidence of human settlement (Mesolithic and Neolithic), where flint arrowheads and other finds have been recorded including a petit tranchet axehead from the slopes of Mynydd Ynysfeio. The Mesolithic tranchet axe is really the first type of tree felling or woodworking axe seen in the UK around 8000 years ago, “tranchet” is french for slice!
Not far from Nant Ynysfeio in Cwm-y-Fforch there are remnants of a stone ‘old sheepfold’ an example of a ‘hafodau’, detailed on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales’ database; Coflein as an ‘Old Sheepfold’ which includes a fireplace recess.
Hendre-Hafod transhumance system
Seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures known in Wales as the ‘hendre-hafod’ system (transhumance) saw stock and farming families moved to the uplands during summer, or Hafod, and back to sheltered grassland during winter, or Hendre..
Many of these buildings have long disappeared but cartographic record and place-name evidence affords some indication of the location of medieval settlements along the valley floor, as on the higher ground, ie hendre and hafod place-names, such as Hendre-Fawr.
Several colliery sites have affected the character of the historic landscape but others such as quarries, overlay the remnants of the partly relict medieval agricultural landscape; of particular interest is the scheduled incline haulage system at Cefn Ynysfeio.
Scheduled incline haulage system
“The monument consists of the remains of an incline drumhouse, dating to the late 19th century. The incline was used to carry Pennant sandstone from a quarry on Cefn Ynysfeio into the Rhondda Valley. The quarry was operational by 1875. The stone would have been used for building in the Treherbert area, but the size of the quarry suggests it may also have been carried by rail to other towns. The quarry was still active in 1897, but the incline was disused by 1914. Remains include three tall sandstone haulage engine platforms, each with an arched entry, brick machine seatings and holding down bolts. The largest and most easterly of the platforms is related to a long incline to the bottom of the valley and is adjacent to a probable former boiler house.
The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of 18th and 19th century industrial and transportation practices. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques. A drumhouse may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.
The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.”
Source: Cadw
Who would have known that there was so much history here!
Pethau Bach 