A Bridge to the Past

Images from a past world



In Six Bells, if you walk through the tunnel beneath the cycle path, which was the old railway line, and then up a short steep hill you come to another bridge where you can walk under the busy Aberbeeg to Abertillery road.











A few years ago the community created a series of images which are mounted on the walls beneath this bridge. They reflect life when 'coal was king,' when the community felt its future would lie securely in coal, hill farming and smallholdings.


Now the community has had to learn to diversify and look for employment in a few local factories, or perhaps commuting to the cities of Newport and Cardiff or the relatively new town of Cwmbran.

The Coach & Horses pub - now Ty Ebbw Fach Centre

I understand that one of the original pit wheels from Six Bells is sited in the grounds of Abertillery Comprehensive School. 

The local bus depot was located nearby at Warm Turn, a strange name which, no doubt has a history of its own. The owner had once been a miner but saw a need for transport in the valleys and forms a company, employing his sons as well as local people.