Pentrebach (, sometimes written Pentre-Bach, literally: ''small village'') is a village in

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Merthyr Tydfil County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Merthyr Tudful) is a county borough (since 1908) in the south-east of Wales. In mid 2018, it had an estimated population of 60,183. It is located in the historic county of Glamorgan and ta ...

, Wales and is formed from the original settlements of Lower Pentrebach, Tai-bach and Duffryn. It lies on the east side of the

River Taff The River Taff ( cy, Afon Taf) is a river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons; the Taf Fechan (''little Taff'') and the Taf Fawr (''great Taff'') before becoming one just north of Merthyr Tydfil. Its confluence with the R ...

opposite

Abercanaid Abercanaid ( cy, Abercannaid) is a small village in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom with a population of about 5,060. It is situated south of Merthyr town centre and is west of Pentrebach, across the Ri ...

, south of Merthyr and north of

Troedyrhiw Troed-y-rhiw (, translation: foot of the slope) is a large community village in the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Its population at the 2011 census was 5,296. It features the Troed-y-rhiw railway station. Governance The community sh ...

. To the east of the village lies the Mynydd Cilfach-yr-Encil which rises up to . Pentrebach is part of the Plymouth electoral ward which covers Pentrebach,

and

. The village was founded at the time that John Guest built the

Plymouth Ironworks The Plymouth Ironworks was a major 18th century and 19th century ironworks located on land leased from the Earl of Plymouth at Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales. The metal produced was considered to be the finest in South Wales. The Ironworks was ...

in 1763. The name Guest became part of the Guest, Keen and Nettelfold company (

GKN GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...

). In 1818 Anthony Hill took over ownership of the business. His House was later used as an old people's home, and today has been converted into a Brewers Fayre Restaurant with a

Premier Inn Premier Inn is a British limited service hotel chain and the UK's largest hotel brand, with more than 72,000 rooms and 800 hotels. It operates hotels in a variety of locations including city centres, suburbs and airports competing with the like ...

attached. The original

Merthyr Tramroad The Merthyr Tramroad (sometimes referred to as the Penydarren Tramroad due to its use by Trevithick's locomotive built at that ironworks) was a long line that opened in 1802, connecting the private lines belonging to the Dowlais and Penydarren I ...

, built in 1802, ran alongside the site of the modern day village, on its way from

penydarren : ''For Trevithick's Pen-y-darren locomotive, see Richard Trevithick#"Pen-y-Darren" locomotive, Richard Trevithick.'' Penydarren is a Community (Wales), community and electoral ward in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in Wales. Description The area ...

Abercynon Abercynon (), is both a village and a community (and electoral ward) in the Cynon Valley within the unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The community comprises the village and the districts of Carnetown and Grovers Field to the south, ...

, though very little of the village had been built at that time. A tunnel still exists, which can be visited on the Merthyr Road. Locomotives had to tip their chimneys while going through this tunnel due to the tunnel clearance. Pentrebach has its own

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

. This opened in 1886 on the standard gauge

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...

which runs from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...

alongside the

. The original purpose of the railway was to carry iron ore to

Cardiff Docks Cardiff Docks ( cy, Dociau Caerdydd) is a port in southern Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost . Once the main port for the export of South Wales coal, the Port ...

. In 1862, on the south side of the village, The South Duffryn Colliery was opened with two shafts which were deep. At the height of the production there were some 1300 men employed there. An

opencast mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

was also located on the mountainside above the village. The Plymouth Ironworks closed in 1882 and the South Duffryn Colliery ceased production in 1940. After the war, new industries were attracted to the village. In 1945, the Kayser Bondor Factory opened making underwear, followed in 1948 by the establishment of the Hoover factory manufacturing washing machines. The factory later produced the

Sinclair C5 The Sinclair C5 is a small one-person battery electric recumbent tricycle, technically an "electrically assisted pedal cycle". It was the culmination of Sir Clive Sinclair's long-running interest in electric vehicles. Although widely described ...

battery-powered three-wheeler car. On Friday, 6 March 2009, Hoover confirmed that it was to cease production of washing machines and other laundry products at the factory. Linde set up a factory in the village on a site where the South Duffryn Colliery was located. This plant manufactured

Forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

and at one time employed circa 500 people. The plant closed in 2013. but the site has since been taken over by U.S. defence contractor

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

to produce armoured vehicles for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. Pentrebach has two clubs: The Hills Plymouth

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Club, and the Pentrebach

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class me ...

. Pentrebach also has a chapel, Jerusalem Chapel, Greenfield School and an Integrated Children's Centre. The mountain above Pentrebach has become popular with

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

pilots in recent years.

References

External links

Old Merthyr Tydfil: Pentrebach
Historical Photographs of Pentrebach.
National Library of Scotland
- Old Maps of Pentrebach. {{authority control Villages in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough