2-982-251 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Valley of Llynvi, Turning the First Turf for a New Railway, 1858. '...the first turf for this new railway was turned, near two of the principal ironworks already in operation, and amidst a vast concourse of people, who all seemed to take a lively interest in the improvement thus commenced, as affording an assurance of additional employment, traffic, and prosperity...The Llynvi Valley is one of a series of picturesque valleys which intersect the hilly counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, and open into the lower lands bounded by the Bristol Channel. The valleys are rich in iron, coal, and lime, and most of them have been largely developed by the erection of extensive ironworks and the establishment of collieries...The Valley, which is second to none...in mineral wealth, has hitherto been but partially developed, because its only means of transport has been a tramway winding along the hillsides, and worked very expensively by horses. It is now to have the great advantage of a broad-gauge locomotive railway on a low level, in connection with the adjacent valleys of Garw and Ogmore, and the South Wales line, and, consequently, with all the ports in the Bristol Channel, and, indeed, with the rest of the kingdom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.