Coed Bryn Oer is situated at the head of the valleys near to Bryn Bach Country Park and Tredegar. The area was mined for coal and iron ore for over two centuries. However, the area has a longer history than that indeed, during the construction of the Heads of the Valleys road in the early 60s and completed by 1965.
Contractors found hoards of Bronze Age weapons in their excavations There are also ancient stone burial Cairns on the surrounding hilltops. These Cairns were dated from the Bronze Age time, at around 2000BC.
Coed Bryn Oer was mined for coal and iron to supply local iron furnaces at Rhymney, Bute town and Tredegar and was linked to the furnaces by tram roads. These raw materials were originally found in seams lying just below the surface and were fairly easily extracted using a process known as patching. Patching involved the removing of the top layer of soil in a certain area to access the minerals lying below the surface and could be called an early form of open cast mining. Later on when these reserves were exhausted, levels and deep mine shafts were driven into the earth, to access the lower seams and extract the iron ore and coal. For example, Bryn Bach pit was sunk in 1818 and employed men and woman and children as young as 7 years of age.
. Cache placed with the kind permission of Bryn Bach Park. Please do not remove laminated fact from the cache as it is intended for educational purposes.