"Rape of my fair Land" a Gwent Travel Page by nightcowboy

This Colliery closed in 1968, it still stands, the brick work is really out-standing it been neglected over the years.
It reminds a part of my life as i was the last boy miner who worked down there. along side the Western valley railway.

What a place riped apart in the 1950s for private wealth and left a now life less place, and so eerie be here when the wind blows?
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Leisure by Gwents super tramp.
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep and cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
Notime to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

The Church as it stands today bears the name of St Illtyd, or Illtud, believed to have been associated with the court of Arthur before entering the monastery at Cassian near Marseilles in France.
Some say the name comes from a Giant who lived on this mountain and who's name was Ithel, who lived in the Eight century?
Along side the church the complex known as Castell Taliorum described by Mortimer Wheeler [historian]"as a Norman motte and Bailey castle a Roman fortress, a burial chamber" and some say it was the bed of Ithel the Giant. Its now accepted to be a Siluriam in origin from medieval times.
The church dates from 1213 Cistercians [white Monks].
One more interesting story about this place is that the pirate captain Henry Morgan buried part of his treasure in sight of the church.
Now you may get on a train in Cardiff to Llanhilleth, a hard walk for about one mile you will find interesting.