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Description
Click on the image to enlarge and compare the photographs.
The South Wales and Monmouthshire Trading Estate at Treforest was established in 1936, the first such estate in Wales, as a government attempt to stimulate employment by introducing light manufacturing in the Rhondda which was then suffering a serious decline of the coal industry.
During World War II, between 1939 and 1944, the government requisitioned many buildings and built and altered many others for the war effort; a peak of 16,000 employees was reached in 1944.
The first photograph shows the new estate in 1937. At this point in the Taff Valley were, from east to west, the Alexandra Railway, the disused Glamorganshire canal, Nantgarw Colliery, the dismantled Cardiff Railway, the A470 North-South Trunk Road, the first buildings of the trading estate, the River Taff and the four-tracked Taff Vale Railway.
The second photograph shows the estate in 1952. At this point the estate has grown to its largest and most productive. The A470 North-South trunk road is now a dual-carriageway.
The third photograph taken in 2006, shows several original factories surviving, but with many new units. The estate is now privately owned.
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