Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Walk

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Lowland and Hill Walks
Aug 07
2021

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£12.50
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This walk is roughly 22km

This Welsh Heritage Walk focuses on the varied and complex history of the former [unofficial] Welsh Capital.

This walk starts and finishes in Merthyr Tydfil, which saw the worlds first railway steam train journey in 1804....surprisingly 25 years before Stephenson's Rocket Train supposedly changed the world. It was also the birthplace of the composer of Wales's saddest love song, Myfanwy. Joseph Parry went on to become widely regarded as the best composer to be produced by Wales.

We will pass the debtors court which is synonymous with the tale of Dic Penderyn. The working class martyr who's integral to the story of the 1831 Merthyr Rising, that saw the death of at least 24 members of the public and 16 soldiers.

We will then take a section of the Taff Trail and pass Aberfan before trail then leads onto Pontygwaith, where there has been an iron works since 1580. This iron works used to make cannonballs for the royalist army and so, during the civil war, became a target for the Roundheads fighting for Oliver Cromwell.

The trail then merges into the Trevithick Trail, named after the Cornishman who created the steam engine for the Penydarren Ironworks. In 1804 the worlds first steam train took 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers along this route during the worlds first ever steam train run.

We will then head back to Merthyr over Puddlers Bridge, where you will see sculptures of Merthyr born fashion designer Julien Macdonald, designer Laura Ashley and engineer Richard Trevithick

 

 

 

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