Part One

In my childhood, Pontarddulais was a thriving industrial community. It could boast of a number of tinplate works, a coalmine and a very busy railway junction. Well I remember the hustle and bustle of industrial activity, the noise of machinery, the wailing hooters, men (and women) walking to work, and the pollution of the rivers and atmosphere. 'Bont' (as it is affectionately known) was an important industrial village. But it was not always so.

For centuries it was a sleepy, inconsequential hamlet. Its importance was due to the fact that it was here that people crossed the Loughor River. There is tentative evidence that suggests the Romans crossed the river close to where now stands Pontarddulais. They probably crossed where the remote medieval church, 'Yr Hen Eglwys', once stood (It is now in the process of being rebuilt at the Museum of Welsh Life in St. Fagans). The parish is called Llandeilo Talybont. Llandeilo means the church of Teilo, and Talybont means bridge end. There may well have been a wooden bridge at this point, but no trace remains. Close by is Castell Du, a motte and bailey castle, known locally at the 'Roman Hill'. On the other side of the river there are two defensive mounds. I feel sure that a 'dig' on both sides of the river might reveal evidence of a Roman past.

During the Middle Ages a stone bridge was erected over the river where Pontarddulais now stands. The bridge was known as 'Y Bont Fawr' and the village is still known as 'Bont'. It was built at about the same time as Caernarvon Castle. Over the centuries this bridge was widened, strengthened and repaired. The bridge at this point was the meeting place of roads from Llanelli, Carmarthen and Llandeilo, on the road to Swansea. (There was no bridge at the mouth of the Loughor river until 1834.) It was used not only by pedestrians but also by mail and stage coaches. It is across this bridge that Carmarthenshire farmers crossed to the markets and fairs of Glamorganshire with their agricultural produce.

Unfortunately this bridge (with its four arches) no longer stands. A single span bridge was built alongside it in 1938. There is some debate as to when this old bridge was pulled down. Some argue that it was demolished immediately. Others can remember military traffic using it during the Second World War and that the new bridge was for pedestrians only. It was known locally at the 'Lambeth Walk'. It was probably dismantled immediately after the war, and I can remember traces of its foundations visible in the 1950s.

The Rebecca Riots marred the tranquillity of Pontarddulais. Rebecca and her daughters crossed this very bridge from Carmarthenshire in September 1843. Jac Ty-isha (John Hughes) led the attack on the Pontarddulais Gate (where now stands the Workingmen's Club). He and his followers were apprehended by the authorities who were lying in wait. This young man was sentenced to 20 years transportation to Tasmania and never returned to Carmarthenshire. He married and settled down in Tasmania. I believe he was the only Rebecca leader to be caught in the act.

Rebecca had made an earlier visitation in July of that year. The Bolgoed Gate was destroyed by Daniel Lewis (Petrys Bach). He lies buried in the cemetery of Gopa Chapel, but there is no mention of his historic role in the Rebecca Riots on his gravestone. (After all he was a Methodist and you obeyed authority.)

These riots brought rural Pontarddulais to prominence and it became known to a wider world. Recently two memorial stones have been erected by the Community Council to commemorate these attacks on political, social and economic injustices of the first half of the nineteenth century. We who live in industrial communities assume that the countryside was paradise, nothing could be further from the truth.