Pwll Waun Cynon

Pwll Waun Cynon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve, Mountain Ash (Main entrance: ST035998 Site centre: ST034997) is situated in an area that was previously known as one of the most polluted parts of the UK partly as a result of the adjacent Phurnacite plant.

Read more about the history of this interesting location in this detailed report.

The site itself has changed dramatically over the past 100 or so years. An oxbow from the Cynon detached and formed a pond (possibly the last natural pond to be found in the Cynon Valley), an Alder woodland flooded, becoming a water meadow, the Cynon was diverted to allow for a new road, a railway line was constructed and deconstructed and the huge impact of the Phurnacite plant next door.

Mary and colleagues (including  Alex Coxhead, Bernard Curtis, Nigel Ajax-Lewis, Diana Phillips, Geoffrey Raum, Joan Raum and Ceri Williams) visited the site many times in the 1980s and 90s and found many interesting species and habitats.

The plant closed in the late 1980s and Lord Aberdare generously gave the reserve to the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales (WTSWW) in November 1986. Over the past few years the Wildlife Trust has been working hard to restore the site back to good health and great progress has been made - read about when the project re-visited the site in 2016. 

 

Excavation, new bed of River Cynon from tip, June 1985
New River Cynon from burning tip, June 1985
Smokeless fuel production between Aberdare and Mountain Ash. View West. 30/09/73
Abercwmboi pond. Phurnacite works from burning tip, 23/10/84
Cynon ox-bow below Phurnacite. Here at least 80 years, trees died 40 years ago, September 1984
Phurnacite Works. Cwmammon from tip scheduled to be moved. Mountain Ash. 23.10.1984
Emission of SO2 from Phurnacite Works near Aberammon. Late September 1973
Ox-bow lake below Phurnacite works. New housing estate Red Squirrels till 1950s. Cynon September 1984
Young elder leaves already black with carbon. Phurnacite, 04/04/74
Phurnacite pollution. New trees at reserve entrance. February 1987
Ox bow lake and River Cynon near Phurnacite from tip. 23.10.84
Gaunt tree trunk to lee of Phurnacite works. Aberammon. 30 September 1973
Phurnacite Works. Cwmammon from Echium tip. - burning to South East of here. 23.10.1984. Tree regeneration since 1973 photos. End miners strike
At the entrance to the Pwll Waun Cynon reserve, 2016
The pond at Pwll Waun Cynon, in 2016
The River Cynon, 2016
The Japanese knotweed threatening to engulf part of the reserve, 2016
Pwll Waun Cynon in the rain, 2016
The pond at Pwll Waun Cynon, 2016