LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
GOVERNMENT
again in 1939. They are now situated in what used to be the administration buildings of the old NCB Tredomen Engineering Works in Ystrad Mynach.
The provision of a new Isolation Hospital to replace an inadequate one at Penybank, Fochriw, was another matter to receive the new Council's early attention and the building of the Hospital at Gelligaer began in 1911. An extension was built in 1922 and in March, 1944, by agreement with the Welsh National Memorial Association, the treatment of tuberculosis patients in one part of the hospital began.
In 1948 the Hospital came under the control of the Welsh Regional Hospital Board..
The provision of burial grounds was another matter to which the Council gave attention during its early years. Gwaelodybrithdir Cemetery, north of Bargoed, was first used for burials in March, 1917. In 1914 the Council purchased a chapel, burial ground and cottage at Graigfargoed, near Bedlinog, and some adjoining land, and burials began in the new ground in September, 1916.
In 1934 the Council purchased land adjoining the Gelligaer Churchyard for use as a cemetery and the first burial took place in January, 1935.
The necessity for new houses to replace old cottages at Pontlottyn was apparent in 1911 when a Housing Committee was first formed. It was not until after the 1914-18 War, however, that the Council began building dwelling houses. Between 1921 and 1925, 468 houses were built at Bargoed, Gilfach, Fochriw and Hengoed. The Fochriw units are the old semi-detatched houses situated on Pontlottyn Road.
The failure of the Council to build houses during the years of depression before 1939, when costs were low, aggravated the Council's post-1945 housing difficulties. Up to 1952, 867 houses, bungalows and flats were built and this number would have been considerably higher had housing sites been more readily available. The difficulties in this respect arose on the one hand, from extensive mining operations, past, present and projected, which rendered the surface unstable and liable to serious subsidence, and, on the other hand, from the claims of agriculture.
The failure of the Council to build houses during the years of depression before 1939, when costs were low, aggravated the Council's post-
When the opencast coal mining on the northern side of Twyn-y-waun was completed a very large hole was created and this is now the depository for Fochriw's domestic waste as well as acting as a landfill site for a large area of south east Wales and is still in use to this day.
Another landfill site is the cutting of the old Brecon & Merthyr railway as it passes through its highest point of 1314 feet above sea level and this, until quite recently, was still in use.