“Cwm coke works is a large site just north of Beddau in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Up until the mid 1800′s Beddau was a small collection of farmsteads at the conjunction of four crossroads. (Incidentally, Beddau, which means ‘graves’, may be a shortening of Croesheol y Beddau, ‘crossroads of the graves’, as it is marked on an ordnance survey map circa. 1833. Criminals were often hanged as crossroads as an example to others…). In the 1860′s coal pits were sunk around Beddau, and the town grew at a steady rate until 1909, which saw the opening of Cwm colliery. As the industry moved in, Beddau grew quickly, and in 1958 Cwm coke works opened, furthering the expansion. At its peak, Cwm colliery was producing hundreds of thousand of tons of high quality, low sulphur coal per year. Much of this was processed at Cwm coke works, into high-grade coke suitable for foundry use. The National Coal Board closed the colliery in 1986, and Cwm Coke works in 2002, leaving yet another small Welsh town deprived and forgotten.”