Arterial bypass
Travelling the A470 many times over the years, I sometimes forget if I’m going north or south. This isn't helped by a new-fangled SatNav whose display matches the orientation of the car. It would be easy to be queasy if I were to watch the screen. The view turns with every turn of the wheel. Correctly, I devote my attention to the road itself, while random thoughts enter the head about places I pass. Anyway, maps are supposed to have north at the top, aren't they? I once naively believed maps “below” the Equator were the opposite way around, and was rather disappointed to find that not to be the case. When on holiday in New Zealand, I quite literally felt upside down.
The A470, Cymru’s “Route 66”, has endless fascination, everywhere from Llandudno to Caerdydd. But some say, if going south on this arterial road, that it becomes boring when it becomes the only section of dual-carriageway, past Merthyr Tudful. In one part, reduced speed limits (50mph) protect the semi urban environment below from airborne pollutants. Until recently I knew little of that “underworld”, while its place names captured my imagination. Now I have joined the ranks of amateur psychogeographers discovering the delights lurking beneath.
This section of the well known cycling and walking route Llwybr Taf (the Taff Trail) shuns these places, and even the eponymous river too. Pedal bikers and hikers are guided instead towards a high route on the other side of the trunk road, strangely giving a wide berth to Afon Taf until they converge at Pontypridd: better known, and home to the 2024 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol. The path mostly misses those settlements along the “back road” between Pontypridd and Caerffili, such as Trefforest (Treforest), Upper Boat, Nantgarw and Ffynnon Taf (Taff’s Well). The latter is named after the nation’s only thermal spring, currently awaiting restoration.
While these former mining and engineering villages have been seen as within a deprived area, there is also a refreshingly edgy mixed economy. Between business parks and warehouses, there are car dealerships, cafés, curry houses, corner and specialist shops, restaurant chains, brew-pubs and sports clubs. Weeds and wild flowers (I never know which) add colour to post-industrial “brownfield” sites. Long straight lines of terraced cottages rub shoulders with new estates of “executive” homes claiming the slopes above. Industrial buildings are partially repurposed to create alternative meanings of community. There is something aesthetically satisfying about the juxtaposition.
Trefforest has long links with learning, home to the Newport Mechanics Institute from the 1840s, later the School of Mines and today part of the University of South Wales. It was home to a large percentage of overseas students, with many coming from Iran in the days we knew it as Persia. Still cosmopolitan, I understand, it was in 2023 chosen by the Welsh Centre for International Affairs to host a conference on international solidarity and peace.
These villages may not be traditionally “picturesque”, but I enjoy their honest ruggedness. The seemingly random assortment of domestic, commercial and industrial buildings reminds me of an America that I have never visited. And, in truth, I have only fleetingly driven through Trefforest on the way to Pontypridd, or to buy something from one of those “out-of-town retail outlets” (big shops). My rose-tinted varifocals may be biased by wishful thinking. Next time I’ll make it a “destination” (“a meal in itself”), and find out.
LINKS
PONTYPRIDD: THE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY OF MILL STREET #pontypridd #psychogeography (youtube.com)
Nice Work If You Can Get There | An Autobiography in Random Chapters (wordpress.com)
Walking The Valleys - Finch and Btriggs (peterfinch.co.uk)
Taff Trail | Walk or cycle | Day out in Cardiff | Visit Wales
A short history of Pontypridd | Peoples Collection Wales
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I look forward to your comments. Also it would be nice to know where you are in the world. Thanks for reading.