Aberthaw Lime Works

A short walk at the Aberthaw Nature Reserve

At Aberthaw, west of Rhoose in South Wales, are the remains of Aberthaw Lime Works. This operated from 1888 and 1926. Aberthaw Lime was made famous when it was tested by John Smeaton and found to have properties where it would set under seawater. This made it ideal for projects such as his Eddystone Lighthouse (though that used lime made in Watchet from stone shipped across the nearby Bristol channel). It was also ideal for construction of docks and similar infrastructure projects.

Google Map

1906 Map

Aberthaw was ideally situated as the lime was quarried locally and coal could be easily supplied from the countless collieries of the nearby South Wales valleys. A connection to the Taff Vale Railway's Aberthaw branch brought in the coal and a tramway brought in stone from the quarries to the east of the works.

More information about the works can be found on the Wikipedia article.

The site is now located in a nature reserve just off the Wales Coastal Path. It features a pair of kilns which would have been charged at the top and unloaded at the side. There is also a chimney and the walls of a building that would have housed machinery between the two sets of kilns.

Below - The complex seen from the east. The old map above shows the kiln building on the left and machinery building in the middle but the other kiln building on the right that is now covered in ivy appears to be a later addition.

 

Below - The passage between kilns on the left and the machinery building on the right.

Below - This is where the later set of kilns would be discharged. A set of rails would have allowed the kilns to be discharged in to a wagon that could be tipped in to a mainline wagon alongside the kilns.

Below - The roofless remains of the machinery building which would also have housed the works offices.

Below - Inside the machinery building, it can be seen that it had three floors.

Below - Bearing for a line shaft

Below - A water or steam pipe connection.

Below - An out building on the east wall looks like it may have been a boiler house for the engine that would have worked the machinery.

Below - Tunnels remain in the original pair of kilns where the kilns would have been discharged. The lime would have been manually handled out of the building. The workers would have been well covered as the lime would have acted as an irritant. The tunnels would have been a very unpleasant environment.

Below - The complex seen from the south showing the tunnels to the bottom of the kilns.

 

Below - Site of the connection to the Taff Vale Railway.

The Taff Vale Railway trackbed can be followed until it meets the Vale of Glamorgan Line, originally the Vale of Glamorgan line crossed over the Taff Vale Line on a bridge that still exists, however a later line in to the now closed Aberthaw power station cuts across the route without a bridge. The former trackbed is now a footpath in the woods but with nothing to see of the Taff Vale Railway's Aberthaw station (later known as Aberthaw Low Level) it is hard to believe that the woodland footpath was once a railway line.

A bridge under the Vale of Glamorgan line to Well Road and one over the line to Fontygary Road cross the existing line. The former Aberthaw High Level station and signal box can still be seen but though the line had passenger services reinstated in 2005 it was only the intermediate stations at Rhoose and Llantwit Major that reopened.