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![PONTARFYNACH](webphotos/pontarfynach.jpg)
PONTARFYNACH
GRID REFERENCE: SN 739767
AREA IN HECTARES: 33.25
Historic Background
This small but complex landscape area lay within Strata
Florida Abbey’s Cwmystwyth Grange in the Medieval Period. The grange,
by at least the end of the Medieval Period, was divided into farms that
were leased out. One such farm - Rhos-tyddyn - lay in this area (Morgan
1991). Upon the Dissolution of the abbey the farm along with others in
the grange probably passed into the hands of the Herbert family, and eventually
became part of Thomas Johnes’s Hafod estate. Though settlements
such as Rhos-tyddyn Farm existed, it is likely that in the Medieval Period,
and for centuries after, this area would have consisted of marginal land
with woodland on the steeper slopes. It does, however, lie on an important
north - south route-way, and includes the crossing point of the Mynach
- Devil’s Bridge. The earliest phase of the surviving bridge may
be of Medieval date. The importance of the route-way was emphasised in
1770 when Devil’s Bridge became the junction of two turnpike roads.
From the west a turnpike ran up from Aberystwyth, over into Cwmystwyth
and eventually to London. From Devil’s Bridge a second turnpike
ran northwards to Shrewsbury (Lewis 1955, 41-45; Colyer, 1984, 176-182).
A visit to the Mynach waterfalls and the Devil’s Bridge was a vital
part of any tourist’s itinerary in the late 18th and 19th centuries;
the presence of the turnpike roads ensured that these attractions were
difficult to miss. Thomas Johnes constructed an inn to serve the tourist
trade, and the extant building - the Hafod Arms Hotel - was later rebuilt
in ‘Swiss Cottage’ style by the Duke of Newcastle (Walker
1998, 304), a subsequent owner of the Hafod estate. The garden of the
Hafod Arms is recorded on the Welsh Historic Gardens Database. The vast
numbers of paintings, drawings and engravings, published or unpublished,
attest to the popularity of the falls in this period. A few houses and
cottages developed close to the hotel, some perhaps for workers in the
lead mining industry, but as the tithe map testifies the settlement in
the 1840s was still very small. The Vale of Rheidol Railway, which opened
in 1902, with its eastern terminus at Devil’s Bridge, was built
to serve the leading mining industry, but rapidly became a tourist route.
The railway and the continuing growth in the tourist industry has allowed
Devil’s Bridge to develop into a small village with shops, a school
and small-scale housing estates. Apart from the railway, industry in the
area comprised a lead smelting works, which closed in 1834 (Bick 1983,
30), and a small hydroelectric scheme of the first half of the 20th century.
![PONTARFYNACH](webphotos/pontarfynach2.jpg)
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This area includes a sloping terrace at 200m - 250m
on the south side of the Rheidol and that part of the Rheidol and Mynach
valley sides which include the Mynach falls. Devil’s Bridge (Pontarfynach)
village, located on the sloping terrace, is a straggling settlement centred
on the imposing listed Hafod Arms Hotel and the listed ‘Devil’s
Bridge’ itself. Most of the older houses in the village date to
the mid-to-late 19th century and are built of stone, which is cement rendered
or left bare. They are of two storeys in the regional Georgian vernacular
style – gable end chimneys, central front door, and two windows
either side of the door and one above. Some have strong Georgian elements
rather than vernacular traits. Other older buildings include 19th century
chapels, the single storey corrugated-iron station building of the Devil’s
Bridge railway and several ‘temporary’ buildings such as ticket
offices and cafes built to serve the mid 20th century tourist industry.
These are distinctive and unusual elements of the landscape. Modern houses
and bungalows have been constructed within and on the fringes of the village.
The village has been built over former enclosed, though
poor quality land. Boundary banks of some of these enclosures are visible
in non-developed areas. Some roadside boundaries, particularly close to
the Hafod Arms Hotel, consist of mortared or dry-stone walls. Below the
listed bridge is a complex series of paths and tracks leading to various
viewing points for the falls. Though not examined in detail, it is possible
that some of these paths date to the late 18th or early 19th century.
Apart from the celebrated bridge, the surviving structure
of which may date back to the Medieval Period, the recorded archaeology
comprises standing buildings or industrial remains.
To the south this area meets unenclosed land and to the
east the squatter settlement of Rhos-y-gell. To the north and east lie
the steep wooded slopes of the Rheidol and Mynach valleys.
Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission
of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright
and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221 |