History
Founded in the early 1920s to provide a holiday camp for the children of workers in the South Wales Coalfield, getting them away from the industrial grime of the valley towns. The site included various sporting and leisure facilities as well as a church and a war memorial commemerating local casualties of both world wars. Briefly requesitioned for military use in the second world war, but returned to its civilian purpose in 1946. Cheap international holidays and the decline of the wealth coal industry saw the site fall on hard times, before closing in 1990. As of this vist much of the site has been demolished to make way for housing, with only the church and one cottage remaining to be redeveloped.
Trip
This was a disappointment sadly. Looks like no-where's safe from redevelopment, not even sites as well trod and seemingly timeless as this one. After a 15 mile cycle from Cardiff I arrived to find a flat plain of turned earth and heaps of debris. The church and cottage provide hints of what this place was once like, so I'm grateful I saw them before they become completely unrecognisable. Wish I'd been able to wild camp a night here in the glory days though.
Pictures
Founded in the early 1920s to provide a holiday camp for the children of workers in the South Wales Coalfield, getting them away from the industrial grime of the valley towns. The site included various sporting and leisure facilities as well as a church and a war memorial commemerating local casualties of both world wars. Briefly requesitioned for military use in the second world war, but returned to its civilian purpose in 1946. Cheap international holidays and the decline of the wealth coal industry saw the site fall on hard times, before closing in 1990. As of this vist much of the site has been demolished to make way for housing, with only the church and one cottage remaining to be redeveloped.
Trip
This was a disappointment sadly. Looks like no-where's safe from redevelopment, not even sites as well trod and seemingly timeless as this one. After a 15 mile cycle from Cardiff I arrived to find a flat plain of turned earth and heaps of debris. The church and cottage provide hints of what this place was once like, so I'm grateful I saw them before they become completely unrecognisable. Wish I'd been able to wild camp a night here in the glory days though.
Pictures
