Finally, we're allowed to travel around Wales so today
I've gone for a little road trip.
Well hello and welcome from the beautiful Brecon Beacons and in
particular the Black Mountain area and many of the
which is on the western side of the Beacons
where they border Camarthenshire you shouldn't get the name confused with the
Black Mountains which is a range further east this is
the Black Mountain just to make sure you know exactly where
it is have a look at this map and it also shows the router took
it's about 35 miles from Porthcawl and takes about 55 minutes because of the
types of roads but it is a beautiful drive especially
when you get towards the Beacons themselves take a look
the Brecon Beacons national park is a rugged wild open space
famous for its walks and tranquillity but this hasn't always been the case
during the industrial revolution quiet peaceful areas like this
were one centres for heavy and very dangerous industries
so this is where I am today at the black Mountain quarries
and line works also known as Herbert's quarry
what's unique about this area it documents
the rise and fall of the limestone industry
over the last 200 years, it was actually in use
until the 1950s
but as well as the rich industrial heritage of the area it's just a great
area to come and go for walks and enjoy the
spectacular views of the western side of the Brecon
Beacons so let's go and take a look around so as
you walk up from the car park the first ruins you get to see are the
offices and the engine room which were the heart
of the quarry back in the 1950s
Well this large kiln dates from the early 19th century
and it was one of a pair. What used to happen
the crushed up lime along with coal from down the road in neighbouring
Brynamman used to be dropped in the top used to then be heated to 900 degrees
then the quick line used to drop through and then get raked out and
as you probably know quick lime is dangerous
because if it gets on your hands it can burn, a good way of disposing of
bodies,
Well from here you can clearly see the difference between
the hills and the fertile farmland below and the lime produced here was really
important for the agriculture in the area
lime reduces the acidity of the soil so the farmers used to come up here in
the early days on the horses and later trackways were constructed and
they used to get the lime and get heavily loaded carts and take
them back down to their farms obviously those
heavily loaded carts could be dangerous going down the hills
So that leads us on to a story which I'll be getting to
very shortly
so overlooking the quarry you'll find this sign
roads and riots unlike other lime producing areas which had access via
canals and tram roads the only access to this area was by
roads and these were toll roads and during the
early 19th century more and more toll gates appeared and the farmers were
struggling it was really expensive to move their
goods so what happened they started the former gangs and in
disguise dressed in their wives
dresses and they blackened their faces they attacked the tollgates at night
and these became known as the Rebecca riots
and it says here men in their wives petticoats with their faces blackened
to disguise their identities destroyed the gates and finally brought the
injustice to the attention of the politicians and the press it says
here in 1843 a party of over 300 destroyed
three tollgates between the quarries and Llangadog
the cartoon from the London illustrated news depicts the rioters attacking the
gates so I'll show you that
so this is the top of one of the lime kilns
and where they used to feed the kiln where the limestone and coal used to go
in and don't forget when they were doing it
it was heat coming up fumes it was difficult to breathe the
lime burn to your skin not a pleasant job
well before I explore the rest of the site something really important a cup of
tea
and more importantly
a digestive biscuit. So now I'm going to go down, further down
the hillside to look at some other parts of the site when you do come here
there is a little guide see these numbers
it tells you where things are and there is a corresponding audio guide you can
download as well I'll put that link below
so as you come down the hill you come across
another 19th-century kiln it's quite intact
there are remains tucked away everywhere look in there
you can just see the top of another kiln
so that was a little tour around the black mountain quarries
if you haven't been, definitely worth a visit it's really quiet as well
what you can do, it's only about a mile and a half around the quarries
but then you can take a walk into the Brecon Beacons
behind me but before I go there's more to see and I did mention
a story about one of the farmers who came up here to load his cart
full of quick lime and take it back to the farm
so let's go have a look at that so as mentioned between the two car
parks on the road we came up on this was the main
trackway to the quarries and where the farmers used to come with
the carts to get the lime and the difficult part was when it
was fully loaded trying to go down the steep hill so this
is where David Davies aged 22 and this is where he was killed on the
21st of may 1884 his horse bolted and he fell
under the wheel of his cart which was fully laden with lime
so just an idea of how dangerous and I bet he wasn't the only one as well
and on the other side it's got the same inscription
this time written in Welsh
so I hope you enjoyed my little walk around the Black Mountain quarries
it's amazing to think how peaceful it is now compared to
what it must have been like in the 1950s and in the previous 200 years
I love these wide-open spaces just walking
no one around but amazingly my favourite and Mel's favourite holiday destination
couldn't be more different it's Las Vegas, we love it.
Anyway if you want to see more videos of myself and Mel
exploring Wales and the rest of the world have a look at the videos coming
up next and the ones in the description below
and we'll see you in one of those so from Wales, that's a goodbye, bye.