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.
