No one available to come out and play today so it was a solo ride.
There are two memorials to the dead in Senghenydd.
The War Memorial
and the Memorial to the mining disasters. Senghenhydd suffer two mining disasters, one in 1901 which killed 81 miners, and the other in 1913 which killed 439. All the men in many families would have disappeared.
Senghenydd mountain has quiet lanes and some stone walling, still in good condition.
This is Gelligaer Common and somewhere on the tops here there was a Roman camp , maybe its here.
These camps were just stopping off places where the soldiers could sleep and feed up, nothing elaborate.
The Roman Road, straight as an arrow, not like our Anglo Saxon roads.
- "Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
- The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
- A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire",
- CK Chesterton
The views from the tops are expansive with a clear sight towards Mid Wales. As I was cycling along the Skylarks were everywhere and the air was filled with their song. Beautiful. But while these pictures show the best of the scenery there is a huge downside in that the mountain is used for fly tipping. It really is bad, with piles of builders rubble strewn on the roadsides. These people have no respect for the countryside and as its rural and open, its almost impossible to police. The cost to the Councils of clearing it up must be so high that it rarely gets done. The issue is that builders are charged for using the landfill sites so this is their answer. Maybe the solution is to have free landfill tipping!
Web photo. below.
This is the village of Fochriw, its bleak up here in winter.
Its not all spoilt by fly tippers, here's part of the trail which is built on reclaimed land from the mining waste tips.
439 souls lost in one disaster would destroy a community..how horrid! AND we have the same problems with the builders illegal dumping, the gall of some people who think they are immune from the law?
ReplyDeleteKarma is the best thing in that case.
Its a shame that fly tipping is virtually universal. Although I once went to Austria for a holiday and I was impressed with how little litter and graffitti there was.
ReplyDeleteIn Washington State (US) a $25 recycling fee was imposed for televisions, computers and other electronics. The result of that was people dumping their unwanted stuff in the woods. It's infuriating.
ReplyDeleteHow tragic! Those poor men just trying to earn a living for their families.
ReplyDeleteI finally caught up reading blogs. I'm really lax about reading and writing in the winter when we're not traveling. But I'm back on the road now.
How tragic! Those poor men just trying to earn a living for their families.
ReplyDeleteI finally caught up reading blogs. I'm really lax about reading and writing in the winter when we're not traveling. But I'm back on the road now.
My uncles in Fife all went down the pit. The mine owners were so uncaring re the men that during the general strike Churchill, who strongly opposed 'socialism' began to hate the mine owners so much that he attempted to have the mines nationalised. It didn't happen under a Tory govt.
ReplyDeleteHuge number of men for a mining town.
Bleak indeed in winter but not too bad in Spring.
I love those beautiful captures with the clouds in the sky...amazing. And how tragic for those men...
ReplyDelete