Gerald Jarvis, local
historian and our guide for Calon Lan walk has kindly written an account of our
adventure! He has captured the
atmosphere of the day with his descriptive writing and gave Bev and me a
sense of history of the area.
Over to you Gerald!
On 2nd of
January 2013 we set out on the Calon Lan walk in a mixture of the Garw valley’s
horizontal rain and very low cloud. We
started at Blaengarw Workingmen’s Hall and pressed on to Calon Lan Park itself
which is an area carved out of what used to be a Colliery Washery site and Shunting
yard.
As you can see in this photograph, in the not too distant past we would have been standing in the midst of one of the busiest spots in the valley, full of noise and dust!
The picture shows
the Dunraven Hotel (now Club Calon Lan) in the mid foreground and the tracks
and coal trucks below it. This location is
now transformed into a tranquil area for reflection and memories with the only
noise now coming from the Garreg Brook, which due to the weather, was throwing
itself down the mountainside into the man-made lake below. Even
the ducks were giving that a wide berth today!
Pausing
on our way to admire the sculpture
to commemorate Calon Lan and Daniel James we moved on up the hill into Blaengarw’s main shopping street, an area now sadly a shadow of its former
self.
Where once there were busy shops
and services now a few hardy souls scrape a living.
Still standing and
apparently thriving, on the corner is the Blaengarw Hotel, still wearing its
Christmas decorations but sadly today looking very bedraggled.
Pressing onward we
pass by the houses in Katie St
where Daniel James and his family
lived and the huge Bethania chapel
where he worshipped. This chapel is now hopefully about to
claim a new lease of life as a
home for a local builder after
many years of neglect and
vandalism.
Carrying on past the
rows of typical colliery houses which were all built from local stone quarried
from the surrounding mountains, all identical in size and shape. However, there is now allowed that little bit
of individualism in the houses with their brightly painted fronts, no longer
afraid of the clouds of coal dust from the collieries nearby.
Down the hill and onto the site of the
Ocean Coal Co. and a pithead marker constructed from peculiarly bright orange
clay! On this day and in this weather it
stands out very brightly against the wind blown waters of yet another
ornamental lake constructed to beautify an area that suffered from major
industrial blight in the industrial past.
In this picture you
can see a side view of Ocean Colliery,
showing the coal tips on the mountain
above.
As any form of conversation
is whipped from our mouths by the wind
and stamped on by the rain, silence is the order of the day as we trek on up
further into this area to yet another lake formed by the rushing brooks at the head of this valley.
Standing next to a whirling, raging and swollen stream the sound is painful to
the ears, yet a few steps further on all is silence as we gaze out over the
lake. Walking back we are rewarded by
the sight of a Dipper, this bird with its’ distinctive white throat lives by
the river bank ‘dipping’ into the streams for its food source of snails etc. Not today though, I am afraid because the
normally placid trickle is throwing itself down the mountain like a ‘thing
possessed’.
Helping one another over the stile we proceed downward now and even the weather lessens slightly to give us an opportunity to chat.
It is at this point we are able to see vast areas where coal tip/slag heaps once overshadowed the valley, now removed but still leaving patches of a bright unnatural looking green in places as if the earth does not want us to forget the great weight that was placed upon it so long ago.
At the bottom of the valley we cross the main road and pass through the ornamental gateway and down to view the pithead marker for the ‘Ballarat’ or Glen Garw Colliery, a simpler monument than the others but made from the same orange clay.
On past the school where Daniel’s daughters
would have been taught back in the 1890’s, unchanged in outward appearance
since then perhaps?
But if you glance
upwards you will see the 21st century with its P.V. solar panel
display helping to reduce the school electricity bill, but not today because of
the low cloud.
Down the wet streets
we go to what was the largest hotel in town the Dunraven Hotel or now as it is
known as Club Calon Lan. This place has had many names in its time and I am
sure I will see a few more yet. It’s only link perhaps with Daniel James is a
sad one.
It was from Blaengarw Station opposite
this hotel that the
body of Daniel’s eldest son, William
Hopkin James was entrained for burial
in Swansea, almost
110 years ago to the
day.
I wonder what the weather was like
that particular day, I am certain it
couldn’t have been more depressing.
We are nearly at the
end of this walk/wade through the upper Garw Valley and some of its history and
we get on to the cycle path and head back towards our starting point. Pressing
on we enter into the comforting warmth of the Creation Café. Sitting in its cosy confines and with our
clothes steaming gently on our bodies we set about our coffee and biscuits, and
discuss our walk in more detail. For
myself it is always a pleasure to tell ‘strangers’ about some of my home town s
history. After eliciting firm promises that they will come back another day
when the weather improves I wish them well and send them on their way.
