Limekilns at Llanelly Limeworks

Cadw's description

Location

Former quarry located approximately 1 km NE of Darrenfelen, alongside by-road between Clydach and Darrenfelen. Quarry is entered via tunnels underneath small railway viaduct, and kiln is located on the right, immediately inside the entrance.

History

Probably built in 1863 or soon after, when John Jayne, ironmaster of the Clydach Ironworks leased the site from the Duke of Beaufort, assigning it to the New Clydach Sheet and Iron Co. Ltd. in the same year. The quarry produced limestone for fluxing at the ironworks, and also burnt lime for mortar and agricultural purposes, as well as roadstone. The Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway (1862) ran immediately adjacent, and by 1884, Lewis Daniel and Son were trading in limestone from a railway siding. In c. 1910, the quarry was purchased from F.C. Lowe of Abergavenny by the Clydach and Abergavenny Lime and Stone Company, which employed 29 men in 1913. Taken over by Robert C. Laird of Malvern in 1930, closing c. 1935. Reopened 1950-51 to produce agricultural crushed lime, processed at the Clydach Limeworks. Finally closed by 1963

Exterior

Large rectangular kiln with battered walls. Squared limestone rubble walls. Pair of round-arched drawing-arches, the arch-rings formed of three courses of yellow brick headers. Left arch much overgrown: right arch has partly-collapsed vault.

Reason for designation

Listed as a large well preserved late C19 block of limekilns, a prominent survival of the important industrial landscape of the Clydach Gorge.