THE HISTORY
The large Cwm Coking Works complex opened in 1958 and were designed to centralise and maintain production of foundry coke in South Wales.
Coal was originally supplied from the adjacent Cwm Colliery until its closure in 1986 since when coal was brought to the site by road and rail from various sources.
The works supplied coke to the four sites of the British Sugar Corporation and Britannia Zinc at Avonmouth, and produced by-products of gas (which it supplied to a local hospital), tar and ammonium sulphate.
The works closed in 2003.
As with other by-product coking works, it produced manufactured gas, benzol, sulphate of ammonia and tar.
Some of the clean gas was store in a 1m cubic feet spiral guided gasholder and sold to Wales Gas Board for use in the gas grid.
There was a separate gasholder (250,000 cubic feet capacity) used to store untreated gas which was burnt in the adjacent Cwm Power plant.
Tar was sent to the tar works in Caerphilly for distillation.
Two gasholders were marked on the OS maps from 1960 and were still present in 2022.
THE EXPLORE
This has been on my list for years, but never had the chance to visit.
So after a failed visit to Whitchurch, i headed up to Beddau.
Id read lots about security on site, but to my surprise the site was completely empty, which made for a lovely relaxed explore.
The Workshop area is stunning, but the rest of the site is pretty past it now.
All stairways have been cut down so accessing the upper levels of most buildings is near impossible.
Still an enjoyable mooch none the less.
On the the pics
The large Cwm Coking Works complex opened in 1958 and were designed to centralise and maintain production of foundry coke in South Wales.
Coal was originally supplied from the adjacent Cwm Colliery until its closure in 1986 since when coal was brought to the site by road and rail from various sources.
The works supplied coke to the four sites of the British Sugar Corporation and Britannia Zinc at Avonmouth, and produced by-products of gas (which it supplied to a local hospital), tar and ammonium sulphate.
The works closed in 2003.
As with other by-product coking works, it produced manufactured gas, benzol, sulphate of ammonia and tar.
Some of the clean gas was store in a 1m cubic feet spiral guided gasholder and sold to Wales Gas Board for use in the gas grid.
There was a separate gasholder (250,000 cubic feet capacity) used to store untreated gas which was burnt in the adjacent Cwm Power plant.
Tar was sent to the tar works in Caerphilly for distillation.
Two gasholders were marked on the OS maps from 1960 and were still present in 2022.
THE EXPLORE
This has been on my list for years, but never had the chance to visit.
So after a failed visit to Whitchurch, i headed up to Beddau.
Id read lots about security on site, but to my surprise the site was completely empty, which made for a lovely relaxed explore.
The Workshop area is stunning, but the rest of the site is pretty past it now.
All stairways have been cut down so accessing the upper levels of most buildings is near impossible.
Still an enjoyable mooch none the less.
On the the pics
THANKS FOR LOOKING
