The 'Shale Lorries' of South Wales Valleys

In the late 1950’s Richard Thomas & Baldwin planned to build Spencer Steelworks, later known as Llanwern, near Newport in South Wales.   It opened in 1962 and employed 1600 people.   The planned site was to the east of Moorland Avenue.   The name of the avenue was significant, as prior to building the huge expanse of steel works buildings, the ‘moor’ had to be stabilised by laying millions of tons of hardcore.  

A request went out to the local area for sub-contractors to provide the necessary material.   This was the trigger for entrepreneurs in the South Wales Valleys to become hauliers and buy one or more lorries.   Grocers, entertainers, coalmen, even the retired joined the rush.   With payment on results, two or more drivers often worked in a shift pattern to ensure maximum usage and thus maximum financial reward.   Not satisfied with the amount of slag they could load, owners would often increase capacity by fitting ‘greedy boards.’   These were fastened along the top of the lorry sides increasing their height.   Then they were held together across the top with chains to prevent sagging.    Owners searched the valleys for any unwanted hardcore or stone waste they could take to make a profit.   Slag and red ash tips that had stood for generations from Pontypool to Blaina were swallowed by the marsh.

With no bye-passes or motorways, the result, in the narrow, twisting valley roads and busy villages was frightening.   Local authorities and residents from Abertillery to Newport made continual protests.   People were harassed when trying to cross the road, and deafened day and night, by the constant roar of revving engines of often overloaded lorries, travelling at break-neck speeds along ill suited roads to make their next delivery.    Smelly, steaming loads poured water as they travelled, as the dusty shale had to be dampened down.

Llanhilleth, due to its position, possibly suffered more than most, positioned on two steep hills.  Huge lorries thundered down Commercial Road, towards Crumlin and Newport.   Unfortunately,  the weight-to-power ratio often prevented their acceleration up the other side.   They would stall in the bottom, near the railway bridge, or worse, skid and collide into houses or shops on the way down.

In 1961, Mr Marples, the Minister of Transport, in a written reply to Mr Llywellyn Williams, the Abertillery Labour MP described the project as an “immense road transport operation.”   He revealed the extent of the problem when he explained that between January 1960 and 1961, 980 road accidents involving lorries had occurred, but, he was quick to add, in 750 of those no one had been injured.   Although 18 people had been killed and another 280 injured, Mr Marples commented, according to the The Times, “no accident was on so large a scale as to cause anything approaching a national outcry.”     

After sympathising with the families of the 18 people killed and the 280 injured, we can acknowledge a few advantages: 

Firstly, the disappearance of much of the hundreds of tons of coal waste and slag tips which had towered over the welsh countryside for decades.  

Secondly, the hope of the creation of thousands of jobs, ancillary businesses, and a little prosperity by ousting a few hundred wild birds and stabilising an area of Severn marshland.   

The valley landscape was re-emerging, after a time when any free space was used as a dump for waste products from both coal mines and iron works.   Suddenly beautiful views across the valley, masked for decades by hills of grey ash, were visible again.   Children could enjoy a natural beauty barely remembered by their parents or even perhaps their grandparents.

The Aberfan Disaster in 1966 ensured that the remaining spoil heaps and waste tips in the valleys were all thoroughly checked by the National Tip Safety Committee, and a plan created to level them.   Certain valley areas may now, on occasion, look like “Telly Tubby Land,” but can be used for sheep grazing or left to naturalise.   But this fragile grass environment can so easily be destroyed, as can be seen from the black grooves and ridges created by off road motorbikes and four-wheel drive vehicles selfishly enjoying this landscape.

Llanwern steel works opened in 1962, and its prospects have varied greatly over the years since.