Aberdulais Falls in Wales

We decided to drive to the southern area of Wales on Sunday afternoon. Leaving Bristol, we drove across the Second Severn Bridge Crossing to get to Wales. It is the second bridge to be built across the Severn River, and it was completed in 1996. The first one (the Severn Bridge), just a short distance away, is easily seen from the new one, and it was completed in 1966. People here think it is amusing that the people who named the second bridge did not come up with a more original name!
The Second Severn Bridge Crossing is a beautiful bridge. From a distance, it looks like huge sailboats, but unfortunately my pictures of it in the distance did not turn out well. Here are my closer shots.




The next couple of pictures are just scenery beside the road----not really great pictures.


The following photos are of Aberdulais Falls, a place that had a succession of industries through the years, beginning with copper smelting in 1584, then flour and grist mills, then finally a tin-plate works that operated between 1830 and 1890.
The falls, coming from the Dulais River, provided power for those industries.
There is a fish pass constructed beside the falls (you can't see it in the photos) that allows salmon to bypass the falls and swim up the Dulais River to spawn.


The tin-plating industry was very hard, labor-intensive, and hot work. Most of the employees, women and children included, worked 12-hour days in temperatures of over 100 degrees. The tin-plating industry required many steps, involving coating sheets of iron with tin, putting the sheets of tin into hot fires, and then rolling it into thinner sheets. This tin product was used in making tin cans, tin toys, tin boxes, etc. The business here suffered greatly when the manufacturing of tin began in the U.S. and the U.S. put a high tariff on imported tin.
The water wheel was built to the specifications of the one used in the 1800's. It supplies enough electricity today to service the National Trust property located here.