Penwyllt

Penwyllt (Welsh:wild headland ) is a hamlet located in the upper Swansea valley in Powys, Wales.

A former quarrying village, quicklime and silica brick production centre, its fortunes rose and fell as a result of the industrial revolution in Southern Wales. It is now an important caving centre.

The Geology of South Wales provides it with the basic raw materials structure to be at the centre of the industrial revolution. The large natural coal fields enclose significant deposits of iron ore and limestone, each basic to the production of materials via production methods.

The best coal in South Wales is found in the eastern sections beneath Rhondda Fawr, where the pressure is highest. The greatest deposits of limestone are found above the western section, around the northern section of Swansea Valley where it borders Breconshire. There were also coal deposits below the limestone layer, and the coal which lay underground at Clydach, Ystradgynlais, and Abercraf became more valuable as the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian era led to a huge demand for iron and steel, giving the area prosperity.

Penwyllt developed primarily as a result of the need for quicklime in the industrial processes in the lower Swansea Valley, taking limestone from the quarries and turning it into quicklime in lime kilns.

Subsequently Penwyllt also supported the Penwyllt Dinas Silica Brick company, which quarried silica sand at Pwll Byfre from which it manufactured refractory bricks, a form of fire brick, at the Penwyllt brick works (closed 1937 or 1939). The bricks were destined for use in industrial furnaces. A narrow gauge railway, with a rope worked incline , transported silica sand and stones to the brickworks, which was adjacent to the Neath and Brecon Railway (which on 1 July 1922 became part of the Great Western Railway).

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