Once you've found this cache look over to the opposite side of the valley. This small house is Ffynnon Badarn. The mine on this side of the valley never opened, though in the late 1800's legal work was done to explore the possibility of opening the site to work commercially. In the end nothing ever came of the signed leases, the expense of building a tramway to connect to the Corris Railway was too great and there was not enough water to power the necessary machinery.
The earliest written record of the house is from 1778, but a dwelling was certinaly here before that time.
The house was bought by the Cadbury family in the 1960s, and it was used to provide employees with holiday accomodation. The site was mostly used by young men who worked for the company. The Cadbury family were Quakers, and the Quakers have long historic links with this part of the country, and it was easy to travel here from the West Midlands.
The cottage is currently leased by St Francis Youth and Community Centre in Bourneville, and is still run as a youth project. There remains no electricity or mains sewerage system, and as you have no doubt discovered, mobile phone signal is also a rare commodity in this part of the country.
Ffynnon Badarn means St Padarn’s Well and it’s said to be the site of one of the holy wells of Wales.