The coordinates above are the centre of Ystradgynlais and not those of the caches or parking. Ystradgynlais is the closest town to the cache location. The car park and virtual cache can be found by web-based research and answering three questions below. The final location is found by visiting the virtual cache and answering a question at that location.
The Upper Swansea Valley was one of the major iron producing areas in Britain and for a while was the leading area in Europe for new developments in the making of iron. By 1717 with a number of furnaces, the works were producing about 200 tons of iron each year using local iron ore, limestone from the Cribarth, and smelting with charcoal transported by packhorse.
By 1800 a canal had been built up the Swansea valley and tramroads had also been constructed over the mountains to the north. This meant that coal, limestone, and iron ore could be brought to the ironworks more easily, and the iron that was made there could be transported by canal to the port of Swansea, and then sent around the world by sea.
In 1817 the owners of the ironworks brought in a young engineer, David Thomas, to oversee production with George Crane the Works Manager. The two worked together on introducing new methods for smelting iron ore at Ynyscedwyn that changed the iron industry at home and abroad.
David Thomas, influenced by a Scottish engineer called Neilson introduced the new hot-blast furnace which enabled the local hard coal called anthracite to be used as fuel and from then on the works produced top grade iron more cheaply. David Thomas took his skills and experience on to Pennsylvania where his success lead to the formation of his own Thomas Iron Company which soon became the biggest anthracite iron producer in the USA.
Iron production continued at Ynyscedwyn until 1870's and the site was later used for other engineering purposes and later still by the Welsh Tin Plate Company. Most of the building were demolished in 1946.
Click here to research answers for questions 1 to 3.
Question 1: What age was David Thomas when he transferred to the Ynyscedwyn Ironworks? [c f]
Question 2: How many years did David Thomas stay at Ynyscedwyn Ironworks? [a = subtract the first digit from the second digit]
Question 3: What year did David Thomas emigrate to Pennsylvania with his family. [e d f b]