![\"1459597376[1]\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wentest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/14595973761-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225\" "\\"\\"")
Approaching the built up area of Bargoed, a large viaduct towered over us with many arches, some people scrambled down a steep slope to reach its base while most of us detoured through the local streets to come down more gradually.\n<\/p>\n\n\tWe started the Bargoed walk in the Pengam area. Soon after starting, we came across a very tall sculpture in a small public garden. The 40ft statue, which is called the Lady of the Stream, was erected in 2009. It stands on a former ash-tip, which was reclaimed as a playground and then became rundown. The statue depicts a woman watching over children in the area, supposedly in reference to Pengam folklore of youngsters drowning in a stream.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMoving away from the town we crossed Gelli-Gaer Common with the usual grazing horses. It was a grey day and the environment quite bleak. Within the Capel Gwladys area, there are regular shaped mounds, which are variously described as marching camps or Roman Practice camps. The Roman army was in the area from 47AD – 113AD and used these camps regularly to practice making temporary fortified camps by digging ditches and making ramparts.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWe continued in a generally northerly direction towards Pen-y-garreg farm and then Deri where we turned southeast. In Parc Cwm Darren we came upon a memorial stone ‘In memory of those whose lives were touched by the tragic events at the Darren Colliery on October 29th 1909’, below are listed the 27 names of those who died.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tAs we came down the valley, we followed a fast flowing stream; a bridge we crossed had a sign nearby ‘Caradoc’s bridge’. Caradoc was a Silurian leader who fought against the Roman occupation in Wales, but was eventually captured and taken to Rome. It is believed that this bridge near Deri has been called Caradoc’s bridge in his memory. The valley was steep sided and had layers of stone beside the watercourse. One area had some lovely Gorse bushes in full bloom.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tApproaching the built up area of Bargoed, a large viaduct towered over us with many arches, some people scrambled down a steep slope to reach its base while most of us detoured through the local streets to come down more gradually.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOur route now took us through a recently created woodland park – The Bargoed Woodland Park, which covers Bargoed, Britannia and Gilfach collieries. The country park has been created from barren waste ground left after the closure of the last mine in 1985. 90,000 new trees, 6500 bulbs and 8000 wild flowers have been planted. This was once part of the largest colliery tip in Europe. LS Lowry immortalised it in his 1965 painting ‘Bargoed’. The Rhymney River flows through the park and after the winter rains it was in full flow, there were rapids in places and a dipper was spotted flitting across the rocks midstream. \n<\/p>\n
\n\tComing closer to the town again a pretty stream ran next to the path and we passed under a modern road bridge with a stylish profile. Our final stretch took us alongside the river Rhymney through a quiet wooded valley to return to the cars.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTotal distance covered was 8.75miles and the climb was 950ft.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tPenperlleni<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tthis walk was our first since meteorological spring began and it was certainly a lovely day, lots of sunshine with some cloud and not too cold. Basically it was a lovely gentle country walk with swathes of wild primroses in places.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe route took us south from Penperlleni towards Little Mill and almost immediately we saw our first lambs of the season. Next we approached Cwm Hir, we wondered what awaited us (given its English pronunciation) but we walked through it without spotting anything of note.\n<\/p>\n \n\tLater there was an old metal, elaborate structure which carried a water course over a railway. From here we made our way to Glascoed and then towards Monkswood. We were now approaching the River Usk and as we passed through a field with a large flock of sheep an oldfashioned windmill could be seen in the distance. Lunch on the banks of the Usk was delightful in the sunshine with the fast flowing river very close.\n<\/p>\n \n\tUnfortunately we had to climb uphill straight after eating (always a challenge) but definitely worth it. Towards the end we passed a lane with a sign ‘No Parking Entrance in use DAY and NIGHT’ – pretty impressive since the lane was blocked by a fallen tree.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe reached the cars and as we took off boots, the weather changed and we had a short flurry of sleet\/hail, we had covered 7.25 miles and 900ft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We started the Bargoed walk in the Pengam area. Soon after starting, we came across a very tall sculpture in a small public garden. The 40ft statue, which is called the Lady of the Stream, was erected in 2009. It stands on a former ash-tip, which was reclaimed as a playground and then became rundown. The statue depicts a woman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[38],"tags":[90,91],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-bargoed","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11418,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11418","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":0},"title":"Bargoed","author":"Alan Williams","date":"16th April 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Bargoed This walk took us to Bargoed Woodland Park, which was created on land formerly occupied by Bargoed, Britannia and Gilfach collieries. The country park has been created from barren waste ground left after the closure of the last mine in 1985. 90,000 new trees, 6500 bulbs and 8000 wildflowers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Picture8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5692,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5692","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":1},"title":"Parc Cwm Darran","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Parc Cwm Darran. Parc Cwm Darran lies at the site of the Ogilvie colliery where coal was mined from 1923 until 1975. We started by walking along the Ogilvie lake. There are a few sculptures to the side of the path and numerous pieces of outdoor gym equipment (the Ogilvie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Picture3-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4553,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4553","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":2},"title":"Trelewis and Govilon","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Trelewis Heavy rain overnight, which continued as we drove up the A470, suggested that we were to get a thorough soaking and trudge through mud for much of the walk. How wrong we were, the rain was light as we left the cars in the Taff Bargoed Park and soon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4335,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4335","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":3},"title":"Quakers Yard and Hendryd Falls","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th February 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Quakers Yard - Starting at Quakers Yard, until the 18th Century, known as Rhyd y Grug, \u2018the ford of the rustling waters\u2019, where the Bargoed Taff and Taff rivers meet. Its name changed when land was bequeathed to the Quaker movement for use as a burial ground or yard.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10324,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=10324","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":4},"title":"Parc Cwm Darran","author":"Alan Williams","date":"19th September 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Parc Cwm Darran On a fine day at the end of June we travelled to Parc Cwm Darran, north of Bargoed. Even the drive here was interesting as we found ourselves driving across an area which none of us had ever visited before \u2013 a vast coal reclamation site. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Picture8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5951,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5951","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":5},"title":"Brecon Nature Reserve and Hidden Valley","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st May 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Brecon Nature Reserve and Hidden Valley We parked in the lay-by, on A470, at Brecon Nature reserve about a mile north of Storey Arms. A notice stated \u2018In just a few hundred metres you will find yourself enclosed within a shady, atmospheric amphitheatre created by the soaring craggy cliffs of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Sm-mountain.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}