merchcymru

The Flooding of Cwm Elan

Added 2023-04-19 17:58:17 +0000 UTC

Let's Learn about Cwm Elan and the Birmingham reservoir scheme.

Here's the part of the script I didn't noticed hadn't recorded:

The Elan reservoir was officially opened July 21st 1904 by King George VII and Queen Alexandra and first water reached Birmingham on July 28th, but was not available until September. The Claerwen dam was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.

Of the 67 properties in the Elan area; 26 submerged, 18 demolished or abandoned, 20 still in use and 13 of those by the original families. By the end of construction there were 193 residents according to the 1911 census; 101 English speaking, 77 bilingual and only 5 monoglot Cymraeg, despite all being Cymraeg speakers before the corporation’s interference. The landscape of the valleys had changed in more than one way and would never return to its original state. England’s impact on Cymru’s countryside had once again left irreparable damage to the culture, language and population and thanks to hindsight we know it wasn’t the last time they did it.

From classist descriptions of the affected properties, to lack of care to the residents, to general snobbery that underlines each report on the upcoming clearances of the area, to stating its not worth building new homes for some residence as they are old, mentally ill, widowed, single, childless or some other kind of discriminatory reason - utter shambles – there was a local government enquiry at Rhayader Magistrates in 1898 to discuss rehoming based on these reports. As of 2 months later only 6 of the 14 cottages affected by the clearances were to be replaced with almost identical homes, but only 3 immediately as the others wouldn’t be in the way of construction for the time being. During the time the residents remained in the area they made extra money by baking and selling Pice Bach/Pice ar y Maen/Cacen Cymraeg (Welsh Cakes) to the workers. An 11 year old boy died cleaning a steam crane. There were fatalities, it was unavoidable with such work in those days, but not all the deaths were construction related - there’s even a cold case murder!

Phase 1 - foundations for Dol-y-mynach dam and the main plans for removal/rehoming of residents. By 1905 phase one was complete and cost £5.8m - about £400m today.

Phase 2 – completion of Dol-y-mynach dam who’s foundations were to be laid in Phase 1 (1640 gallons) and two more dams Ciloerwynt (3100 gallons) and Pant-y-beddau (1900 gallons). Dol-y-mynach was never completed and the other 2 never started construction. Instead Phase 2 was replaced by the Claerwen dam (10,625 gallons) because all of that other stuff went to crap for various reasons.

Now I could tell you all the politics and analysis of the construction drama on it’s own, it would be a good video, but the residents are real people who’s lives were forever change by the Elan Valley Clearance project so I feel it’s only right to share some snippets of their stories that have survived.

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