good morning everybody and welcome to South Wales again if you're watching
this video we've had success in what we're trying to do today
if you're not watching this video we've not had any success so carry on not
watching the video this is very exciting
okay so if you remember or if you've been watching our channel a long time
just over a year ago we did a video from the hills tram road the blorenge
mountain with four tunnels. Now we kind of got short time on that day and
we didn't really look at the third tunnel properly and we only briefly saw
one of the portals of the Pwll Du tunnel so we thought we'd like a little bit of
a short video today just seeing if we can find the third tunnel properly again
and to see if we can have a look at both portals of the Pwll Du to see if anything
has changed so that's it if you're watching this video then we've had a bit
of success so we're now okay right we are a very squishy guys really frosty
cold day today it's about -1, I think up on the side of this big old
mountain and yeah we're now in Garnddyrys Forge you join us here on the side
of the beautiful Blorenge if you ever get a chance you won't explore somewhere
different come to this mountain it's stunning it's
just next Abergavenny, there's a lot to explore a lot of industrial heritage
to explore here so 100% recommend coming here anyway right onwards
so just rocks we're trying to find where the tunnel portals were where the tunnel
was because we do have a better idea this time a bit more research a little
bit history about this place but Bleanavon works opened in late 1780 to 89
and at that time they were transporting limestone and iron ore from the
north over the top of the hill so Thomas Hill opened up Garnddyrys forge where we
are now from Bleanavon up to here they transported the pig iron to this forge
This Forge, between 1816 1860 was producing 200 tons of wrought
iron taken it down to the Becknock and Abergavenny Canal, per week 200 tons per
week here as a lot there's four hundred and fifty people living here right here
on this side of this mountain three hundred meters up 450 meters up so part
of that tramway the hills tramway that he built from Bleanavon and all across
this mountainside three miles down there there's four tunnels biggest was Pwll
du which we'll look at soon the other one which we didn't get to see properly
last time was the Garnddyrys Forge tunnel and the Tramway went
completely through it we assumed to protect the line as there's no need for a tunnel
here so we assume at the level it went we assume is to protect the line maybe
from the works or something better we've got a very idea now where we're
looking so onwards till that time
confirmation of the tunnel definitely being here and where we think it is, is
that hole there. So the hole where tells the story because I'll get some other shots
in a second but you can see there is an archway in there
that looks have really intact, really straight yeah this is good, straight you
said it was curved. I mean no blemishes, that was so cool I'm so
pleased we did come back and we found this we're going that way to see if
there's any more holes I think there's a couple of holes this side huh
look at all this old spoiled slag heap or whatever they call it and by products
of producing the wrought iron from the pig iron I sound like the right historian
and I have no idea what I'm what i'm on about. Look at that so this is the sidewall. The
the internals inside of it it were obviously arched. Outside it wasn't
arched I said it was clearly like a squared structure but over here just
there we've got the hole lets have a look inside
There's a big hole down there, we wanted to get in here for a long time.
I'm not worried about the air too much because there's a hole there hole right next to me and a
hole behind me. A bit of small enough to get there there.
Apart from the collapse it looks very very intact all around look back this way the
only wet bit seems to be here and it's long it's really long
there is the collapsed area I think.
so how long is this, a number of people says 150 meters I think it's longer than 150
meters
Ok, lets take some snaps.
let's have a quick look at the other hole that we saw in the tunnel the end
should be and let's take a moment to enjoy the
spectacular view. .... and the wild Paul is making his way down into the hole.
... this is back the way we came
....yet more light... like another opening. This has
dramatically changed since we were last here so there is another hole and
remember yep right if you remember when we came at last time we were we've all
we found was a tiny hole back there were film first and the side wall which is a
lot smaller I don't we know we could have gotten us this time the holes
someone's made it bigger but we also had two big collapses here's one understood
on top of the earth now that collapse the other is back there again there's a
hole in the roof but more importantly there's another hole further on what
we're trying to find this is really important for us is the portals no sign
of portals so maybe that hole down there is a portal that's gonna have a look
right when we came here last time there was there was none of this there was one
entrance I've just repeating myself you said before this is really bizarre sauce
because in one year there's been two, no three collapses of this dry tunnel which
doesn't sound right but who knows what condition is in and also here now that
could be the portal because behind right here there's nothing this is open
empty so I suspect this is probably the portal it doesn't look like a portal but
maybe there's some more bricks around it's just sort of rolled it away but I
reckon this is where the portal was now we didn't miss this last time because we
were here and we were saying we think this is where the portal is.
This is really cool people.
Really cool but I would hope it's been looked after its a UNESCO World Heritage Site
this needs looking after this this actual tunnel is the reason why this
place is so important in terms of historical content is because of the
things they were doing here and it it was it was unique if they said
this was new technology at the time and this needs protecting okay at the moment
it's falling in it's falling in this falling in so I don't know maybe we
should get in contact with some of the safe coming up after this because this
is massively important heritage. Rant over let's go to Pwll Du tunnel
right so right now and one of three portals for the longest tram road
tunnel in the world. 1875 meters in length, built by Thomas Hill and in
here at the northern portal they took I think limestone and maybe
something else as well and they took south to Bleanavon pre
1816 over the top of the hill there and horse and cart which was hard work so 1816 Thomas
Hill decides to build this now it was an extension of an already built coal
mine from the other side from the Bleanavon side and it was already a
kilometre into the hillside he extended that pretty much another kilometer to
come out here this was a northern portal so just here we've already mentioned
before it's split and another side went off towards the east back toward where
were at Garnddyrys Forge. So this is traffic coming through the tunnel from
BLeanavon which was a pig ore went that way and back around towards garnddyrys and
then obviously round the rest of the hill was tram Road 3 further miles
down into the Llanfoist incline and to the Brecknock and Abergavenny canal
right so another first for us we're now looking for what would be the southwestern
portal or about to be or trying to find it of the Pwll Du tunnel now I'm aware
that they did do this up so they sort of redid the portal so behind us but Bleanavon
ironworks where everything happened so they transported tons and tons of
limestone through the tunnel this way southwards to the Iron works the Iron was
made that I believe it somehow into pig iron the pig iron was then transported
back through the tunnel and out of the let's call it the eastern y-shaped
portal the other end. fascinating history right here.
and apparently the local ladies, it says hopped on the trucks through tunnel
really yeah
right few observations so the guys what an great lump of concrete probably half
a foot thick fit concrete in there about a meter and a half in block it off with
a little square entrance now the water level is up to the up to the entrance
they're pretty much maybe a few inches away from the window
interestingly we know this end 20 meters lower than the other end so the water
obviously just backed up it's gone nowhere to go it's such a shame it's a
little bit of a Rant here. Narrated: So we did rant and I ranted we also wrote to CADW so
CADW whales look after a number of historic sites around the country and
whilst they aren't responsible for those two sites that we visited today in
particular they did get back to us and say they do have some involvement good
news the Pwll Du so important has obtained the services of a structural
survey engineer who is going to come and do an assessment and then they're going
to work towards a more positive outcome for it yes the lady that replied to me
did agree that the concrete structure isn't ideal despite the fact
it's got some holes in the bottom of the to let water out they obviously become
blocked up easily and agrees it does need some positive action which it's
it's going to undergo very soon this is great news back over to Garnddyrys
again CADW don't have direct responsibility
for it but do have involvement the lady said she had recently been out to the
site and has been working with the current landowner for a positive sort of
management strategy for the site as a whole including the tunnel which is
fantastic, so a big THANK YOU to CADW do for getting back to me
and yet just goes to show that if we do ask the question you do get some answers
so really positive outcomes and it's just left for us to round off the video
so from the beautiful landscape of the Blorenge and the Bleanavon ironworks
Garnddyrys Forge the Pwll Du tunnel right behind us which is in need of a little
bit attention in terms of this portal if they do want to look after it because
it's filled up with water and holes they seem to have maybe drilled in the bottom
it just plugged so that's us that we've two big ticks today we haven't seen this
portal before and we never got inside the garnddyrys, so we hope you enjoyed this
little video in the end and we will see you next time thanks watching like
subscribe and all that jazz.