Written and designed by Ioan Lord, published by Vale of Rheidol Railway. 272 pages, hardback with dust jacket, includes plans, surveys, sections and a wide range of old and new photographs. Contains geological study of the orefield, history of all 40 mines in the valley and archaeological descriptions of the surface and underground workings. Available at:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rich-Mountains-lead-mining-Rheidol-Ystumtuen-Ioan-Lord-zinc-Ceredigion-Galena-/273503764248 This detailed history of the lead, silver and zinc mines of Cwm Rheidol and Ystumtuen studies the rise and fall of the mining industry in this often-forgotten part of the Central Wales Orefield. A huge number of sites have and continue to be bulldozed, landscaped and destroyed; sites which have great significance in local heritage, and which shaped and transformed mid-Wales forever. Very few of these local industrial sites are protected, and many more can still be saved and preserved out of the hundreds which are scattered across the county. This book contains the individual histories of each mine site in Cwm Rheidol and Ystumtuen as well as modern day examinations and ground-breaking underground surveys; sites which all contributed to forming one of the largest and most important industries which Ceredigion ever had.
‘Not a person had stood at this place underground since the May of 1863, and many tools and artefacts lay exactly where they were left by those people from a bygone age. We filled in the entrance again after we left. Perhaps the time capsule of workings beyond are best left this way: entombed and silent, in respect of the people whose footprints still cover the floors, and who worked and laboured here more than 150 years ago.’
Ioan Lord, aged 20, has been studying and exploring the old abandoned mines around Aberystwyth since the age of 6, and started to write this book when he was only 8. A decade of further research and with the support of the Vale of Rheidol Railway who have published this unique academic book, Ioan has finally achieved a childhood dream and has a book which breaks new ground in exploring not only the history of an industrial valley which has never before been studied in detail, but also the lives and legacies of hundreds of men, women and children whose lives revolved around the mining industry. Ioan studies Welsh History at Bangor University, and when not working as a Guard and locomotive Fireman on the Vale of Rheidol Railway, volunteers in curating and exhibiting industrial museums at Corris and the Llywernog Silver-lead Mine at Ponterwyd.
This book is the culmination of many years of archival research, archaeology and underground digs and explorations which tie in the history with some fascinating discoveries recently made hundreds of feet below the earth in Cwm Rheidol and Ystumtuen. It brings together a vast archive of old photographs and documents, maps and books which date back as far as 1670. It demonstrates the local and national importance of a 4,000-year-old industry, which deserves a much higher recognition and value.