CLWYD

Walking round The Great Orme.

The clickable PiP is the view in the other direction.

The main photo shows the reservoir on World Photography Day, and the first PiP is of the reservoir in February 2014. It's possible to see that today's water levels are significantly lower following a long period of drought and unprecedented high temperatures in July and August, despite significant rainfall here at the beginning of the week. The other 2 PiPs show the Afon Clywedog, taken on August 19, which feeds the reservoir and lies to the west. The dam is to regulate the flow in the River Severn to mitigate flooding and provide support for drinking water abstractions for the West Midlands. It was completed in 1967 and is situated near the B4518 road north of Llanidloes, Powys. It does this by releasing water into the river channel during low flow periods and re-filling during the wetter winter months. This enables major water abstractions to be made from the River Severn to supply the West Midlands with 50 million litres of drinking water. The concrete buttress dam is the tallest concrete dam in the UK, with a height of 72 metres (236 ft) and a length of 230 metres (750 ft). When at capacity the reservoir contains approximately 50,000 megalitres of water. It took me a bit of time to find the photo of the dam from 2014 in my archives. I must try a better system.

Sitting in the shadow of the dam at the southern end of Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, Bryntail’s buildings illuminate a time when this tranquil spot was a bustling site of industry. During the 19th century this was a noisy, smoky place as lead was extracted and processed, before being transported to nearby Llanidloes and shipped down the River Severn. Bryntail closed in 1884 as the local mining boom came to an end. The remains that still stand include crushing houses, ore bins, roasting ovens, smithy and the mine manager's office. The mine produced lead ore and barytes. The barytes mill includes massive Yorkshire stone slab tanks. I assume that this photo is part of a tank made of Yorkshire stone. Visible workings are largely of nineteenth century date and include three main shafts and a deep adit, well-preserved remains of an earthwork incline, tramway track beds, a leat which once carried water drawn from the Clywedog further upstream, substantial remains of buildings including structures which housed pumping and winding machinery. Other surviving features include the mine office, smithy and store building, a circular explosives magazine, together with wheelpits for winding and crushing machinery, ore bins, roasting ovens and precipitation tanks, jigger placements, a washing and picking floor area, buddles, slime pits. A wheelpit close to the river is 60 feet (18.23 metres) deep.