Because of the threat of bad weather Rachel cancelled her planned walk and decided to stay closer to home choosing to begin her walk from Taff’s Well railway station and was joined by a group of six walkers on a cool, overcast but dry morning.
Starting off and crossing their first of many bridges, this one across the cold looking River Taff to the west bank which they followed through a housing estate, then woodland to re-cross below Gwaelod-y-garth.
This meant a slight deviation through Taff’s Well or Ffynnon Taf, to visit the memorial garden and park which also contains the thermal hot spring which has a temperature of 21 degrees and which the village was named after, but unfortunately it was firmly locked as it doesn’t open until Easter. The well is sometimes referred to as Ffynnon Dwym or the ‘tepid well’ as the water temperature is twice as warm as in a normal natural spring and the surface has rising bubbles of pure nitrogen gas and the walls are stained red as a result of the iron and manganese in the water. The water is constantly flowing and leaves the well to flow back into the River Taff travelling southwards to the Bristol Channel.
During the 1700’s the well attracted people who ‘took the waters’ to cure arthritis, rheumatism and consumption but it fell out of use after years of flood damage from the River Taff and was neglected until the 1930’s, when it was re-opened complete with a swimming pool where many of the locals learned to swim. When the pool fell into disrepair both it and the well were closed, but concerted efforts were made to save Wales’s only thermal spa and it re-opened in 2017.
Heading by footbridge over the railway line and past the rugby club, the group continued to Parc Nantgarw, now an industrial estate but once the site of Nantgarw Colliery the deepest mine in the Cardiff area with two large shafts at a depth of 856 yards.
Heading uphill to Caerphilly Road with its bank of pretty primroses brought them to Crochendy China-Works or Nantgarw Pottery, which was opened in 1813 by William Billingsley and his son-in-law Samuel Walker, who produced some of the most precious works of art and exquisite examples of fine porcelain ever made. Living in Nantgarw House the pair built the kilns and outbuildings needed to establish the pottery and its position on the side of the Glamorgan Canal made it easy for importing the heavy china clay they needed as well as the smooth transportation required for the fine porcelain to be sent out, firstly to Cardiff then on to the rest of the world.
Billingsley was an artist famous for his paintings of roses and a potter who developed his recipe for fine porcelain whilst working at Royal Worcester and made his pottery at Nantgarw in order to profit from it, but because the porcelain was so fragile there was a high failure rate and not many precious pieces actually survived manufacture. The porcelain was made to a special recipe and Billingsley never wrote it down so when he left the works in 1820 he took it with him. When he died in January 1820 he was almost unknown and was buried in an unmarked grave in Kemberton near Coalport.
In 1833 Thomas Pardoe took over the works and his son William by 1833 was manufacturing stoneware and glazed earthenware bottles as well as clay tobacco pipes. Thomas Pardoe, a noted painter of flowers and birds who very much admired the work of Billingsley died in 1823 and is buried at Eglwysilan Church, whilst his son William had 14 children (remember there was no TV or computers in those days) and upon his death in 1867 his wife and younger sons kept the business going until 1920 when it finally closed. Nantgarw House until the 1970’s still housed descendants of the Pardoe family and after this time both the house and the pottery fell into disrepair. Now the Grade II listed house has been restored and in 2013 the Nantgarw China Works Trust took over the site and it re-opened as a museum whilst the pottery site is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.
Another footbridge led them across the A470 with views north towards the radio masts on a snow-covered Mynydd Meio and back towards a huge brick kiln at the rear of the China Works and up onto part of the Taff Trail, then by road to the entrance of Tir Thomas-James Farm, with its colourful bank of daffodils and glorious views of Craig yr Allt and Garth Hill to the south during morning coffee break.
Climbing up under a railway bridge and continuing along the Taff Trail before heading uphill over another railway bridge for the gradual long climb up a waterlogged Ffynnonbwla Road, brought them past a field containing a new born lamb suckling its mother. Whilst away to the north the familiar sight of the flat-topped Tylorstown Tip, a coal mine slag heap also known as ‘Old Smokey’ because it was once set on fire. The top of the tip was removed following the Aberfan Disaster in 1966 and it remains a landmark for miles around and as far away as Blorenge, the Brecon Beacons and Exmoor.
With a fine dusting of snow covering the hedgerows and great views west across the Taff Valley to Pontypridd, Rhydfelin and Treforest and joining the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway Walk, a tramp along Eglwysilan Road led to a cattle grid that was submerged under water, fortunately it also had a gate!
A huge group of mountain ponies were taking shelter on the lower slopes of Mynydd Meio and a short but steep climb up to the trig point at 321 metres led them into an icy cold stiff wind and a blanket of snow on the ground.
The views stretched north to Mynydd Eglwysilan and east towards the Rhymney Valley and crossing tumpy grass on the waterlogged and snowy summit led on towards views over the sprawling town of Caerphilly with its stone castle dating to the 13th century.
Descending through fields past the atmospheric ruined farmhouse of Ty-llwyd with its small pond and into Groeswen beside the chapel churchyard and the White Cross Inn which dates to 1750, a hazy sun put in an appearance.
Re-entering fields and paddling through a boggy area and across the Nant Gledyr stream eventually led to Old Nantgarw Road for the long descent and a late lunch below GE Aircraft Engine Services, with the pungent smell of aviation fuel used in the testing process wafting through the air.
Passing through Heol-y-Gors and across the busy A468 to re-join the Taff Trail at the Penrhos Cutting led them due south along what is also part of the National Cycle Trail for the final bridge above the A470 that is plastered with some obnoxious and unnecessary graffiti, for their return back to Taff’s Well.
