Quakers Yard Station - Edwardsville Continued
It was to the opposite side of the river that Thomas Dadford and his son
gave their attention when employed to survey the course of the
Glamorganshire Canal. Here they were able to use a shoulder of the hillside
below the crag called Cefn Glas along which to construct the canal. It
course can still be discerned although the A470 road cuts its route at one
point. Looping under the stone arched bridge of Pont y dderwen and past the
site of Cefn Glas Colliery it travelled towards The Prince Llewellyn Inn
(now a private house), near to where it began its steep decline through a
series of locks to the basin at Navigation (now Abercynon). Completed in
1794 the canal had a profound influence on the development of the iron
industry at Merthyr although favouring the growth of the Cyfarthfa works
over those of the works at Dowlais, Penydarren and Plymouth.
The construction of the Penydarren Tramroad in 1802 on the eastern side
of the river added a third line of communication. This ran alongside the
turnpike road from Merthyr Tydfil, crossing it south of Troedyrhiw, but both
staying close as far as Pontygwaith. From here however, with the valley
sides steepening, their courses diverged. The road kept high on the valley
side but the Tramroad, with its need for gentler gradients, stayed nearer to
the river. The tramroad was of single track, but it is along this stretch
between Pontygwaith and Quakers’ Yard that it is possible to locate the
numerous passing places.
As the walker approaches Quakers’ Yard station, and where there are steep
drops on the right to the river below, the remains of the abutments of two
viaducts can be discerned among the vegetation. The more northerly
ten-arched structure carried the line belonging to the Rhymney and Great
Western Railways. Crossing the River Taff at this point, it was opened in
1886 and followed the western bank, gaining access to Merthyr Vale Colliery
by the Black Lion viaduct and the town of Merthyr Tydfil itself near
Rhydycar. The second viaduct dating from 1858 carried the Newport,
Abergavenny and Hereford Railway across the Taff and to a tunnel into the
Cynon valley where it joined with the Vale of Neath Railway at Middle
Duffryn.
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