Angel Way the Bargoed By-Pass

Well it is nearly 10 years since my last posting. The road opened and is well used but opinion is still divided about the benefits it has made to our community as a whole.

Here are a few items from local newspapers at the time

The first phase of a £30M regeneration scheme in south Wales has been completed.

A 3km relief road – Angel Way – will enable traffic to bypass Bargoed town centre and provide access to a new retail development, part of a major regeneration package for the former coal mining community.

The Greater Bargoed Community Regeneration Scheme also comprises the Rhymney river bridge and the Bargoed Newydd viaduct, which traverses the valley connecting the new road with the retail plateau and provides access to the southern end of the town.

The regeneration in Bargoed, will take up to 10 years to complete and include the new Angel Way by-pass, bus station and retail park.

The road improvements along the A469, aimed at easing congestion, are expected to be finished by early 2012.

The Developments include:

· A Rhymney river bridge - 130m (426ft) long, and 24m (78ft) above the valley floor.

· Bargoed Newydd viaduct - 200m (656ft) long crossing the valley from Angel Way to new retail park and linking the communities of Gilfach, Bargoed and Aberbargoed.

· New 2.2km (1.3 mile) relief road, a new bus station and cycle track routes to form an integrated transport hub around the existing railway station, with a new 90-space park-and-ride.

· New railway tunnel

The transport developments are part of the first phase of a 10-year regeneration scheme for the Bargoed area.

The retail area has been built from material excavated from the tip of the former Bargoed Colliery, which closed more than 30 years ago.

Over the years my husband Hugh has taken hundreds if not thousands of photographs of the project and it has taken years for us to put them together. I never know which way to put items in so bear with me if they seem all over the place

Tips Today

Below is a photo of both tip areas. You can see how extensive they were/are.

A lot of the waste from the Bargoed tip is being use as fill for the new road project and the new £30 million Retail and Leisure park area . The Aberbargoed tip still belongs to the NCB and as such can not be used so that still sits there. It has been grassed over but without much success.

THANKS

I would like to thank Richard and his family for the loan of this book with all the photos.
There were so many interesting ones it was difficult to choose which ones to put on the blog. I hope the ones I chose will be of interest to you.
Also to the photographer who took such evocative pictures back in the 1970s, they were really moving.
When I was young and I saw the tiredness in my father's eyes when he came home from working in the pit it just went over my head as it does when you are young. But seeing these pictures reminded me how hard it was to earn a living then and how much I owe him.
Thank you all, especially Dad.

Strike

This is the time of the 1974 strike.

Here are some miners at the entrance to the colliery opposite Bargoed railway station. Whether they are pickets or waiting for transport to other areas I'm not sure.

Bargoed High Street

Bargoed High Street on a cold wintry evening, early 1970s.

It's 10 past 5 and the shops are still open.

The Emporium! where you could get anything you needed, Boots chemist only recently closed and the Crown wallpaper shop.

Hard Work & Home time

Someone had a hard job breaking all that lot up

Coming home after work - crossing the bridge from the pithead baths and canteen over to Aberbargoed

Walking up the old "Stoney" path. It was a long hike after your shift

Never Learn

I will never learn I still post blogs in the wrong order.
I should have done the "after" first then the "before" and it would have looked better.

After

I NEEDED THAT ONE!

Checking the clock in the yard

Off to the baths

Before

Here are some of the boys before they go down for their shift

Coming up & Pay Day

Miners coming up

in the cage after a shift underground

and then queuing for their pay

waiting patiently in line after a hard weeks work

Union Meeting

BARGOED SURFACE LODGE N.U.M.

meeting in the Institute in Aberbargoed.

Held on Monday October 29th at 6pm.

You can see the reflection of the head gear in the window opposite the notice board where the meeting poster was placed

Colin Cook former County Councillor and Surface Lodge Secretary is on the mike with Mark Farrant in the front row looking at the camera.

Sadly Mark passed away in 1998 but Colin is still around (April 2008)

Everyone is looking very intent, Colin must have had something important to pass onto the men as there is a good crowd there and I don't think the meetings were always that full

Perhaps it was about the strike