THE DYFI ESTUARY AS A POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE

For three hundred years from the sixteenth century, the combination of a situation in the centre of Wales, natural resources, and a good harbour with access to Ceredigion Bay, coastal trade enabled the Dyfi valley to be an early part of industrialisation in Wales. Its principal industries were wool, metal mining and slate quarries. Mines in North Ceredigion produced a substantial proportion of Britain’s lead and silver. Lobbying to change the law in 1693 was of national consequence, guaranteeing the freedom of British landowners to exploit the mineral resources on their estates. A safe harbour made Aberdyfi a leading port on the bay with customs and transhipment of goods to river boats. At the end of the nineteenth century international competition, lack of funding and the development of steamers operating from deep water harbours ended Dyfi industry and trade leaving a post-industrial landscape. This paper is based on the Jane Gruffydd Memorial Lecture 2023.

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