The Craig yr Hesg quarry, situated in the Taff Valley near Pontypridd, is touted by Heidelberg Materials as “a nationally important source of premium quality blue pennant sandstone for road surfacing”. However, this description reflects a narrow, cold, and detached viewpoint.
The company’s description reduces Craig yr Hesg to nothing more than a measurable asset for exploitation. It’s quantified in tonnes, tracked for its book value, and treated as a mere commodity to be extracted, packaged, and sold to the highest bidder. But it’s so much more than that for those who care to look.
From environment to export
The Taff Valley was once the heart of Wales’ industrial might. Its silent coal mines still carve through the earth, and its slag heaps stand as monuments to past need and greed. But it has entered a new chapter of exploitation now. This era sees the wind that sweeps across its mountains, the rain that nourishes its soil, and the rock upon which its people live, all transformed into exportable commodities.
These natural elements, once freely given by nature, are now entwined in the profit calculations of distant corporations, with the wealth they generate flowing out of the country as swiftly as the resources themselves. A quick Google search shows that imported road aggregates cost about £45/tonne. If Heidelberg Materials extracts 15,700,000 tonnes over the next 25 years, that’s a total of over £706,000,000.
Who’s going to benefit from that while the local population endures more blasting – ‘nuisance dust’, as the company described it – and the prospect of a very large hole at the end of it? Not to mention the permanent loss of a treasured green space. And all while Wales will apparently be running out of materials to repair its own roads.
The people of Pontypridd are encouraged to take pride in the unique properties of the sandstone in terms of skid resistance. But they’ll never knowingly benefit from that, yet will experience the environmental side effects. It’ll be blasted, bulldozed, and loaded onto 40-tonne lorries, extracted at a rate of 400,000 tonnes per year – or approximately 10,000 polluting lorry trips per year. The lorries have long snaked down the narrow B4273 road, past rows of houses, the Old Bridge, and out through the town, snarling traffic and belching diesel fumes as they go.
A collective treasure
Judging by the state of the B4273, very little of this stone is applied locally. That’s an apt metaphor, as little of the wealth created by this extraction activity remains in the area. Relatedly, this quarry extension was approved by the Climate Minister for Wales, when Pontypridd town centre is noted for its poor air standards.
The last stone will be plucked from the ground and processed into road material in 2047. Then, amid the echoes of the final explosion reverberating down the valley and the last cloud of silica dust dissipating on the breeze, Heidelberg Materials will dismantle its equipment, install a few bat boxes, and move on to decimate the next hillside in its relentless pursuit of profit. All the while boasting of green credentials and community importance. It’s all rather reminiscent of the bygone era of the coal barons.
What Heidelberg fails to acknowledge is the profound, immeasurable significance of Craig yr Hesg to the people who hold it dear. For them, it represents more than a geological feature with easy access to mineral wealth. It embodies a collective treasure steeped in shared memories and cultural heritage. Heidelberg Materials fails to understand the ancient and deep-rooted relationship between the Welsh people, their language, and the landscape. What’s left of it.
This relationship is intricately woven into the fabric of Welsh identity, reflected in cultural expressions like ‘hiraeth’ and ‘cynefin’. The Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, celebrates this enduring bond between the land and its people, a pledge to the land – not a god nor its appointed representative on earth, but to the land itself. This cultural significance will be highlighted when Pontypridd hosts this year’s National Eisteddfod. Craig yr Hesg will provide the backdrop to the festival.
Still here
The Rhondda River is traditionally credited with inspiring James James to compose the melody of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. But I like to imagine Craig yr Hesg’s presence, proud crags visible from the site where the anthem was composed in Mill Street, playing a role in inspiring the lyrics written by his father, Evan James.
Over 150 years since its composition, and despite enduring exploitation and relentless assaults by generations of quarry companies, Craig yr Hesg stands as a scarred yet resilient testament to indomitable Welsh tenacity and spirit. It echoes the defiant refrain of a more contemporary Welsh anthem, Yma O Hyd – Still Here. But it also serves as a stark reminder of the unprincipled greed of industrialists, one of many such desecrated monuments the world over.
The extension of the quarry was originally denied. The company’s appeal contained no concerns regarding landscape, visual impact, ecology, hydrology, cultural heritage, agricultural land, or quality of life. It’s culturally insensitive and repugnant. It reflects the ignorance of those who fail to recognise or care about Craig yr Hesg’s relevance to the people and history of Pontypridd.
Julie James, of all people – the Minister for Climate Change who approved the quarry extension – said, “We have all spent more time in our neighbourhoods during the weeks of lockdown, and can all appreciate the difference between having a quality environment to live, work, and relax in. And how being cut off from our friends and family can mean that a poor environment, with no or limited access to local goods, services, and green spaces, can have a severely detrimental impact on our mental and physical health and wellbeing, as well as our ability to protect our livelihoods.”
Well, quite.
Craig yr Hesg: the grey, grey dust of home
This quarry in the Taff Valley does indeed possess a wealth of premium quality blue pennant sandstone, coveted for road surfacing. However, its true worth transcends the confines of a balance sheet, its intrinsic beauty far too precious to be reduced to a mere entry in a ledger many hundreds of miles away.
Instead of indulging in a final rapacious grab of what’s left of the mountain, edging ever closer to homes and a primary school, Heidelberg Materials has an opportunity to pivot towards a more noble gesture. Offering what remains of Craig yr Hesg as a living, green memorial to the people of the area would be a poignant gesture. A tangible acknowledgment of the environmental devastation wrought over two centuries of industrial exploitation. Moreover, it has the potential to mend the frayed bonds between the company and the local population.
However, I fear these pleas will fall on stone ears. Heidelberg Materials will join the infamous list of those who have scarred the people and landscape of Wales. They leave behind them an epitaph akin to that on ironmaster Robert Crawshay’s gravestone – a man who, by a strange twist of fate, was an owner of this same land – GOD FORGIVE ME.
I’ll conclude with a reference to two other songs associated with the area of Craig yr Hesg. The Grey, grey dust of home doesn’t quite resonate. But we’ll still keep a welcome in the hillside, while the hillside is still there.
