Tondu
Encyclopedia
Tondu is a village
in Bridgend County Borough, Wales
, located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the town of Bridgend
.
Tondu lies on the A4063
from Bridgend to Maesteg
, and was established in the late 18th century as a coal mining
village servicing the Parc Slip Colliery. In later years, an iron
works was also established, and in the 19th century, a brick
works was constructed using the clay
from the carboniferous
coal measures to make a variety of bricks, mostly for engineering. The brick works was demolished in 1977. The association with the coal industry was also reflected in the large area office of the National Coal Board
in the village and a centre for the Mines Rescue Service.
to Maesteg line was re-opened to passenger traffic and provides a service to Cardiff
. Occasional steel trains run via the Margam
to Tondu and Tondu to Bridgend branch lines. The Margam line is now used by the new Parc Slip opencast mine for coal. The village is served by Tondu railway station
.
flows alongside Tondu on its way to its confluence
with the River Ogmore
. The Llynfi at this point has had a history of severe pollution
. Historically, the pollution started with the coal industry. The coal seams in this part of the South Wales Valleys
are quite wet and the coal itself is rich in pyrites and thus also rich in sulphur. Such mine waters have a very high burden of coal and rock solids and also contain heavy metals such as nickel
, iron
and copper
in acid
ic solution.
were discovered six miles (10 km) to the north in the Maesteg area during that year. The discovery, and an unprecedented period of growth in the iron trade during the mid-1840s, prompted Sir Robert to develop his works at Tondu and open-up the Tywith coal and ironstone mine near present-day Nantyffyllon, Maesteg. Typically for the iron trade, prices fell sharply after the short-lived boom period and, as a result, the Tondu Works struggled to survive through the early 1850s and Sir Robert Price faced bankruptcy. However, because of the progress made during the years 1843-1847, the Tondu Ironworks and associated mines formed a significant pocket of production in mid-Glamorgan with some potential. That potential was recognised by the Lancashire firm of John Brogden and Sons
who bought the Tondu property in 1854.
.
he said he was employing 900 men and farming 1100 acres (4.5 km²) with 20 men.
In 1863-1865 Brogdens opened coal mines at Tywith, Garth, Wyndham and Tynewydd - all managed from Tondu. In July 1863 Brogdens obtained an Act of Parliament
to build a new standard gauge
railway in the Ogmore Valley and to lay a third rail on the existing broad gauge
Lynfi Railway to Porthcawl. In 1866 they obtained an Act to merge the two railway companies. In 1867 they opened a new dock in Porthcawl. All of these measures helped to promote the growth of industry in the area.
died and his eldest son Alexander Brogden
came to Tondu to take charge of the business and in 1872 formed a new company, the Llynvi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company Limited, for Brogdens’ Glamorgan business interests. However the new company was short-lived and was wound up by creditors in 1878. The liquidator made a number of attempts to make the business viable until it was taken over by North’s Navigation Collieries (1889) Ltd.
shook the Parc Slip Colliery; 112 men and boys died with just 39 survivors: some remained trapped underground for a week before being rescued. Sixty women were widowed and 153 children left fatherless. The mine closed in 1904. A memorial
to the disaster still stands consisting of 112 stones - one for every death. Much later, the coal seams were re-worked as part of the Parc Slip opencast
coal mine.
– under the circumstances a very useful thing. He had followed his elder brother Robert to South America
. Robert had gone into partnership with Colonel North there and John also joined the business, managing the Iquique Gas Company on the border of Chile
and Peru
. He retired in 1913, at the early age of 52. After that North’s Navigation continued until the Nationalisation of Coal in 1947, although the iron works was closed.
for the Pyrotechnic Research Department (PRD), evacuated from London. The site was chosen because it was in an elevated and relatively isolated position, some distance from a built-up area and only four miles from ROF
Bridgend. This involved Tondu with some very important war work, including the development of incendiary flares that were dropped on targets by Pathfinder aircraft. These aircraft, including the famous Mosquito, would fly ahead of the main bomber force and locate and mark the targets with the flares. PRD was relocated to Langhurst Sussex
in 1957, where it merged with the former Flame Warfare Research Establishment. Today there is still evidence of the PRD's presence at Tondu Farm; a concrete viewing shelter in the woods close to the farm, from which the researchers could safely view and assess their experimental pyrotechnics. Tondu House was demolished in 1963.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Bridgend County Borough, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, located about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the town of Bridgend
Bridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
.
Tondu lies on the A4063
A4063 road
The A4063 links the town of Bridgend with Cymer in Wales.Settlements served by the route include:*Bridgend*Wild Mill*Pen-y-fai*Sarn*Aberkenfig*Tondu*Coytrahen*Llangynwyd*Cwmfelin*Maesteg*Nantyffyllon*Dyffryn*Caerau*Croeserw*Cymer-Source:*...
from Bridgend to Maesteg
Maesteg
Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 17,859, but it is now at an estimate of 20,000....
, and was established in the late 18th century as a coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
village servicing the Parc Slip Colliery. In later years, an iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
works was also established, and in the 19th century, a brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
works was constructed using the clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
from the carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
coal measures to make a variety of bricks, mostly for engineering. The brick works was demolished in 1977. The association with the coal industry was also reflected in the large area office of the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
in the village and a centre for the Mines Rescue Service.
Railway connections
The village has several railway lines and provided access to collieries in Wern-Tarw and the Ogmore and Garw valleys, along with maintenance facilities. All were closed to passenger traffic in the 1960s. They were used extensively by coal trains until the mine closures in the 1980s. The Wern-Tarw line was disused and lifted first, followed by the Ogmore line sometime afterwards. The Garw line is disused, but still extant. During the early 1990s the BridgendBridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
to Maesteg line was re-opened to passenger traffic and provides a service to Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
. Occasional steel trains run via the Margam
Margam
Margam is a suburb of Port Talbot in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway.- History :...
to Tondu and Tondu to Bridgend branch lines. The Margam line is now used by the new Parc Slip opencast mine for coal. The village is served by Tondu railway station
Tondu railway station
Tondu railway station is a railway station serving the town of Tondu, Bridgend county borough, South Wales. It located on the Maesteg Line from Cardiff via Bridgend....
.
River Llynfi
The River LlynfiRiver Llynfi
The River Llynfi, otherwise referred to as the Llynfi River or Afon Llynfi in Welsh , is one of three main tributaries of the River Ogmore or Afon Ogwr....
flows alongside Tondu on its way to its confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
with the River Ogmore
River Ogmore
The River Ogmore is a river in South Wales popular with anglers. It runs generally from north to south from the Ogmore Vale and Pentre, past Bridgend and Ogmore...
. The Llynfi at this point has had a history of severe pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
. Historically, the pollution started with the coal industry. The coal seams in this part of the South Wales Valleys
South Wales Valleys
The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...
are quite wet and the coal itself is rich in pyrites and thus also rich in sulphur. Such mine waters have a very high burden of coal and rock solids and also contain heavy metals such as nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
in acid
Acid
An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
ic solution.
Sir Robert Price
Sir Robert Price took over leases around Tondu Farm (now Ecodysgu) previously granted to William Bryant, the liquidator of John Bedford’s business. Sir Robert had ambitions as an ironmaster and began to develop an ironworks alongside the Dyffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway at Tondu in the late 1830s. He traded as the Glamorgan Coal and Iron Company. Progress was initially slow due to a trade recession in the early 1840s, but there was a revival in 1843 and the first furnace at Tondu was blown-in in 1844. The year 1843 was significant for the Tondu district as extensive reserves of black-band ironstoneIronstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
were discovered six miles (10 km) to the north in the Maesteg area during that year. The discovery, and an unprecedented period of growth in the iron trade during the mid-1840s, prompted Sir Robert to develop his works at Tondu and open-up the Tywith coal and ironstone mine near present-day Nantyffyllon, Maesteg. Typically for the iron trade, prices fell sharply after the short-lived boom period and, as a result, the Tondu Works struggled to survive through the early 1850s and Sir Robert Price faced bankruptcy. However, because of the progress made during the years 1843-1847, the Tondu Ironworks and associated mines formed a significant pocket of production in mid-Glamorgan with some potential. That potential was recognised by the Lancashire firm of John Brogden and Sons
John Brogden and Sons
John Brogden and Sons was a firm of Railway Contractors, Iron and Coal Miners and Iron Smelters operating from roughly 1837 to the bankruptcy in 1883. However the business essentially started when John Brogden moved from his father's farm near Clitheroe to set up in business in the rapidly...
who bought the Tondu property in 1854.
.
Brogdens
In February 1854 John Brogden sent his fourth son James, aged 22, to revive and run the business. In July 1854, John Brogden signed a new 99 year lease with Jane Nicholl. James rapidly reorganised and expanded the works. James rebuilt Tondu House between 1854 and 1857. In the 1861 censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
he said he was employing 900 men and farming 1100 acres (4.5 km²) with 20 men.
In 1863-1865 Brogdens opened coal mines at Tywith, Garth, Wyndham and Tynewydd - all managed from Tondu. In July 1863 Brogdens obtained an Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
to build a new standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
railway in the Ogmore Valley and to lay a third rail on the existing broad gauge
Broad gauge
Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
Lynfi Railway to Porthcawl. In 1866 they obtained an Act to merge the two railway companies. In 1867 they opened a new dock in Porthcawl. All of these measures helped to promote the growth of industry in the area.
Brogdens give way to North's Navigation
In 1869, John BrogdenJohn Brogden (industrialist)
John Brogden was a cleansing, building and railway contractor, railway promoter, a miner of coal and iron and an iron smelter. He was brought up on a farm near Clitheroe, Lancashire. As a young man he migrated to a rapidly growing Manchester and applied his farmer's knowledge of horses as a...
died and his eldest son Alexander Brogden
Alexander Brogden
Alexander Brogden was born in Manchester on 3 November 1825, the second son of John Brogden and educated at Blackburn, New College Manchester and King's College London, where he read mathematics. He married Anne Garstang on 6 September 1848 at Manchester Cathedral. He joined his father’s...
came to Tondu to take charge of the business and in 1872 formed a new company, the Llynvi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company Limited, for Brogdens’ Glamorgan business interests. However the new company was short-lived and was wound up by creditors in 1878. The liquidator made a number of attempts to make the business viable until it was taken over by North’s Navigation Collieries (1889) Ltd.
Disastrous explosion
On the day of the annual St. Mary Hill Fair, August 26, 1892, a huge explosionExplosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
shook the Parc Slip Colliery; 112 men and boys died with just 39 survivors: some remained trapped underground for a week before being rescued. Sixty women were widowed and 153 children left fatherless. The mine closed in 1904. A memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
to the disaster still stands consisting of 112 stones - one for every death. Much later, the coal seams were re-worked as part of the Parc Slip opencast
Opencast
Opencast is a term to describe audio and video content, primarily in an academic context. It combines the terms "Open" for Open Source and/or Open Access and "Broadcast"...
coal mine.
New manager
Also in 1892, John Boyd-Harvey was appointed General Manager and Managing Director. Boyd-Harvey was a Cornishman who had studied gas production in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
– under the circumstances a very useful thing. He had followed his elder brother Robert to South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Robert had gone into partnership with Colonel North there and John also joined the business, managing the Iquique Gas Company on the border of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. He retired in 1913, at the early age of 52. After that North’s Navigation continued until the Nationalisation of Coal in 1947, although the iron works was closed.
Tondu House
The General Managers lived in Tondu House until 1940 when the house was commandeered by the Ministry of SupplyMinistry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
for the Pyrotechnic Research Department (PRD), evacuated from London. The site was chosen because it was in an elevated and relatively isolated position, some distance from a built-up area and only four miles from ROF
Royal Ordnance Factory
Royal Ordnance Factories was the collective name of the UK government's munitions factories in and after World War II. Until privatisation in 1987 they were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply and later the Ministry of Defence....
Bridgend. This involved Tondu with some very important war work, including the development of incendiary flares that were dropped on targets by Pathfinder aircraft. These aircraft, including the famous Mosquito, would fly ahead of the main bomber force and locate and mark the targets with the flares. PRD was relocated to Langhurst Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
in 1957, where it merged with the former Flame Warfare Research Establishment. Today there is still evidence of the PRD's presence at Tondu Farm; a concrete viewing shelter in the woods close to the farm, from which the researchers could safely view and assess their experimental pyrotechnics. Tondu House was demolished in 1963.