Historical background
Settlement within this area is marked from at least the early
nineteenth century, when farms are evident along the lower
slopes below Coed Dolgarrog (area 19) along the winding course
of the turnpike road, but was significantly altered by the
decision of the Aluminium Corporation Ltd to make use of the
natural topography of the area to establish a hydro-generating
station and aluminium reduction works on the valley floor.
Aluminium reduction is a process which consumes enormous amounts
of electricity, and which has therefore always been sited where
there is abundant water-power to operate generators
The reduction works and hydro station began work in 1907 and
1908; a carbon factory was added in 1913 and a rolling mill
in 1917. The reduction process was discontinued in 1943, and
the factory now functions as a specialist rolling mill. The
hydro-electricity power station's pipeline and the works' transport
systems across the meadows and up the side of the hill are
prominent features.
Suburban-style workers' houses were built from 1907 until
1926, resulting in the creation of an utterly untypical Welsh
industrial community. The earlier houses are built mainly out
of brick, and are rendered, those which date from the 1920s
out of concrete sections. The village was laid out with no
attention whatsoever to the lie of the land, in a long ribbon
development which contrasts markedly with the organic settlement
of the earlier farmhouses upslope.
The settlement differs little from the form which it achieved
in the mid-1920s, due to the inability of the aluminium works
to carry out further investment after the dam disaster of 1926,
when the waters of Llyn Eigiau caused much loss of life in
the area and put the factory temporarily out of action.
Key historic landscape characteristics
1920s ribbon development, distinctive house style
The village is an unusual Welsh example of an industrial ribbon
development, and represents an only partially successful attempt
to apply ‘garden suburb' principles. Grants have recently been
made available to clad the 1920s houses in brick.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
