A4061 road

The A4061 at the Bwlch y Clawdd summit, overlooking Cwmparc, Rhondda and an ice cream van

The A4061 is the main road linking Bridgend with Hirwaun via the Ogmore and Rhondda Valleys in South Wales.^[1] It is a mix of streets connecting former mining communities, and mountain passes built as relief work for unemployed miners.

The road was originally a dead-end from Bridgend along the Ogmore Valley built in the 19th century, but concerns over travel difficulties, environment and post-World War I unemployment in the Rhondda led to an extension over the mountains to Treorchy in the 1920s. A further section, from Treherbert northward to Hirwaun, was built later in the decade. As well as improving communications and transport, the A4061 allowed locals to visit the mountain summits easily for leisure purposes. Ice cream vans have been a regular feature at the two summits, Bwlch-y-Clawdd and Rhigos, since the 1930s.

The A4061 has been praised for its engineering and scenery, including a feature in National Geographic, and formed part of the Olympic Torch route in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Route

The A4061 has a significant number of hairpin bends on its mountain sections.

The A4061 is about 25 miles (40 km) from south to north, but its winding sections make it longer in road miles. It has four main sections. From south to north these are the Ogmore Valley, the Bwlch-y-Clawdd Road (known to locals simply as "the Bwlch"), reaching a summit of 1,476 feet (450 m), the Rhondda Fawr Valley and the Rhigos Road, with a summit of 1,381 feet (421 m). The road meets the M4, a motorway through South Wales, Sarn Park services, the A4107 mountain road to Abergwynfi, the A4058 Rhondda Fawr valley road to Porth and Pontypridd and the Heads of the Valleys Road. The two mountain sections feature numerous hairpin bends.^[2][3][4]

Settlements served by the road include (from south to north) Bridgend, Sarn, Bryncethin, Blackmill, Lewistown, Ogmore Vale, Price Town, Nantymoel, Treorchy, Ynyswen, Penyrenglyn, Treherbert and Hirwaun. The road also connects Bridgend, Treorchy, Ynyswen and Treherbert railway stations.^[5]

The landscape at the northern end of the A4061 has been extensively used for open cast mining, which remains an active industry.^[6]

History

Glamorgan Inter-Valley Road

The area was rural and sparsely populated until the mid 19th century, when the discovery of coal led to a major industrial boom. The geography of narrow river valleys sandwiched between mountains meant that land space was at a premium, with roads and railways struggling to find space.^[7] With relatively little sunlight reaching the valley floors, the local climate in the valleys was depressing. Visiting a town in a neighbouring valley, only a few miles away as the crow flies, could involve a 30–40 mile (50 – 65km) round trip.^[8] The A4061 was typical of this, and around 1900 it was a dead end road from Bridgend to Nantymoel, requiring a detour via the Ogwr Fach Valley and Tonyrefail to reach the Rhondda Valley.^[9]

The downturn of the coal mining industry after World War I hit the Rhondda particularly hard due to its isolation and lack of access, with high unemployment by the 1920s.^[10] In 1924 a series of new mountain roads, to connect isolated valleys, was proposed, including a new through route from Bridgend to Hirwaun via the Rhondda.^[11] As well as providing unemployment relief and connecting communities, Glamorgan County Council hoped the better access to the mountain summits would provide recreation, which Lord Temple described as "a playground for all time for those people".^[8] The Leader of the Opposition and Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald was particularly keen for the road to be built, knowing it would be good for local economy as well as communications, and he was keen to find ways of moving the economy of South Wales valleys away from the monoculture of coal mining.^[12] The total estimated cost of the mountain roads, including neighbouring routes (such as the A4107 to Abergwynfi) was around £400,000 (equivalent to £20,575,000 in 2015), of which 75% was to be paid by central Government and 25% by Glamorgan County Council.^[13]

The road schemes were designed by Ministry of Transport engineer and surveyor George Macpherson,^[14] with a standard planned width of 20 feet (6.1 m), with an additional 5 feet (1.5 m) on one side for pedestrians.^[15] The workforce was drawn largely from unemployed miners, and the mountain sections were quickly built.^[5] About half way through construction, funding was withdrawn and work halted, though pressure in Parliament, particularly from MacDonald, ensured there would be a commitment to finish the road in 1928.^[12] By 1929, £356,431 (now 19,542,000) had been spent on constructing 32.29 miles (51.97 km) of new road (including the A4107 and all connecting links).^[15] The Bwlch-y-Clawdd section opened at the end of 1928,^[5] while the Rhigos Road section, from Treherbert to Hirwaun, delayed by financial constraints, opened on 4 November 1929.^[16] Herbert Morrison, Minister of Transport, visited the works in 1930 and was impressed by the progress and effort expended in the project.^[17]

Recent history

In 2013, a large sink hole appeared on the Rhigos Mountain Road section. The road was shut for several days for repairs.^[18]

In 2016, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council announced a £1.25 million resurfacing package on the A4061 between Treherbert and Hirwaun. The road was closed for three weeks while the council laid around 6,000 tonnes of tarmac.^[19]

Landmarks

Sheep roaming by the A4061, at Bwlch-y-Clawdd, in 1962

The Paran Baptist Chapel was built at the junction of what is now the A4061 and A4093 at Blackmill. It was originally constructed in 1819, and expanded several times throughout the 19th century. It is now a Grade II listed building.^[20]

The Bwlch-y-Clawdd Road is well known for an ice cream van parked at the summit, with sheep regularly roaming the local area.^[3] Ice cream has a strong connection with the Rhondda following immigration to the valley by Italians during the 19th century, and the same family has been selling ice cream from the summit since the 1930s.^[5][21] In June 2001, National Geographic used a photograph of the summit as the centrepiece for an article on Wales.^[5]

Legacy

The A4061 has been celebrated as one of the most ambitious road projects in Wales. Author Mike Parker has described the road as "the most famous of the miners' mountain passes."^[5] On a clear day it is possible to see the Bristol Channel, Exmoor and the Brecon Beacons from the summit.^[22] In 2006, a BBC News report described the road as the fifth bendiest in Britain.^[23]

In May 2012, as part of the preparation for the London Olympics, the Olympic torch was carried along the A4061 from Treorchy to Bridgend.^[24]

See also

• Craig y Llyn

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A4061 road (Wales).

• SABRE – A4061
• A4061 – Welsh Roads video

A roads in Zone 4 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme
	A4 A40 A41 A42 A43 A44 A45 A46 A47 A48 A49
	A403 A404 A405 A406 A412 A413 A414 A415 A417 A418 A419 A420 A421 A422 A423 A425 A426 A427 A428 A429 A431 A432 A433 A435 A441 A442 A444 A445 A446 A448 A449 A452 A453 A454 A456 A458 A461 A465 A468 A469 A470 A472 A473 A474 A475 A476 A477 A478 A482 A483 A484 A485 A486 A487 A488 A489 A490 A491 A493 A494 A496 A497 A498 A499
	A4005 A4006 A4008 A4010 A4012 A4018 A4025 A4032 A4037 A4040 A4042 A4050 A4053 A4054 A4055 A4059 A4060 A4061 A4063 A4067 A4069 A4074 A4076 A4080 A4085 A4094 A4103 A4107 A4109 A4110 A4113 A4117 A4118 A4119 A4123 A4130 A4133 A4135 A4136 A4138 A4142 A4146 A4148 A4150 A4155 A4160 A4161 A4169 A4173 A4174 A4202 A4212 A4216 A4217 A4221 A4226 A4230 A4232 A4234 A4240 A4241 A4260 A4361 A4400 A4536 A4540
List of A roads in Zone 4 List of B roads in Zone 4

Transport in Bridgend county borough
Road	M4 motorway European route E30 A48 road A473 road A4061 road A4063 road
Bus	First Cymru Veolia Transport Cymru National Express Bridgend bus station
National Cycle Network	National Cycle Route 4 National Cycle Route 88
Railway lines	South Wales Main Line Maesteg Line Vale of Glamorgan Line
Railway stations	Bridgend Garth Maesteg Maesteg (Ewenny Road) Pencoed Pyle Sarn Tondu Wildmill

Transport in Rhondda Cynon Taf
Road	M4 motorway European route E30 A465 A468 A470 A473 A4054 A4058 A4059 A4061 A4093 A4107 A4109 A4119 A4222 A4223 A4225 A4233
Bus	Stagecoach in South Wales First Cymru NAT Group
National Cycle Network	NCR 4 Taff Trail Lôn Las Cymru Celtic Trail
Railway lines	Maesteg Line Merthyr Line Rhondda Line South Wales Main Line
Railway stations	Abercynon Aberdare Cwmbach Dinas Rhondda Fernhill Hirwaun Llanharan Llwynypia Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Vale Mountain Ash Penrhiwceiber Pontyclun Pontypridd Porth Quakers Yard Taffs Well Ton Pentre Tonypandy Treforest Treforest Estate Trehafod Treherbert Treorchy Troed-y-rhiw Ynyswen Ystrad Rhondda

Coordinates: 51°37′28″N 3°32′21″W / 51.62449°N 3.5391°W / 51.62449; -3.5391