Welsh Journals

In many ways these two books complement each other and, taken together, they provide us with a wealth of information about the economic, social and cultural history of the greater part of Llyn and Caernarfon during the nineteenth century. In the final analysis Dr. Lloyd deserves our warmest congratulations in undertaking the publication of these two books, which represent years of personal research, and for making available such a rich quarry of information about old Caernarfonshire's maritime past into which historians, and local historians in particular, will find it extremely rewarding to delve. MOELWYN I. WILLIAMS Aberystwyth THE BRECON FOREST TRAMROADS: The Archaeology of an Early Railway System. By Stephen Hughes. The Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales, Aberystwyth, 1990. Pp. 367. £ 14.95. Stephen Hughes's major work is subtitled 'The Archaeology of an early railway system' and this appropriately describes the approach of the book. The volume is a comprehensive historical and topographical survey of this fascinating network of early tramroads constructed in the bleak area of the watershed between the upper Tawe Valley and the Usk Valley. This area is historically the Great Forest of Brecon and the tramroads network owed much to the vision, dynamism, and drive of one man- John Christie. Christie was a nonconformist London businessman with Welsh roots. He seems to have been guided more by his heart than his head as far as his investment in the Great Forest of Brecon and its tramroads was concerned. Indeed, it was these investments which led to his financial ruin. The Brecon Forest Tramroads were one of three networks of tramroads built to link industrial south Wales to rural mid-Wales in the early years of the nineteenth century. The other two were the Hay Railway (1816-25) and the tramroads linking Hereford to Abergavenny built between 1811 and 1819. In all cases, the tramroads were linked to inland waterways: the Hay and Abergavenny systems to the Breconshire Canal and the Brecon Forest Tramroads to the upper end of the Swansea Canal. Hughes traces in detail the development of the system which functioned for almost forty years (1825-63). Its demise was accelerated by the construction of the Neath and Brecon Railway, although parts of the system survived as feeder branches. The book sets out in detail the industrial archaeological remains of the system and uses aerial photography very effectively to give the reader a surer grasp of the topography. Beginning with a detailed description of the planning and construction of the railways, Hughes proceeds to analyse the way in which the system was used and the impact which it had on the economy and society of the locality. Under this heading he assesses its impact on the agricultural economy of the area in terms of the lime trade as well as on the rural coal trade and the trade in general merchandise. The Brecon Forest Tramroads were alone amongst early Welsh tramroads to follow