Visit to Trebeddrod, Sunday, 13th November, 2016
Once a source of much-needed clean water piped into the industrial town of Llanelli, the Trebeddrod reservoir is now a tranquil rural beauty spot favoured by fishermen and walkers.
Lyn John led a group of members on an hour’s gentle walk punctuated by stops for pieces of information on the area’s long past.
A few changes have occurred since its opening in 1855: over the years ornamental trees planted around the lake have grown to maturity, reeds and water plants now soften the edges. Recent concrete “improving” works strike a jarring note, but this is still a charming place - with a considerable history.
The meaning of “trebeddrod” is uncertain but is said to indicate the proximity of a burial ground. Local tradition suggests the possibility of a place for the burial of seventeenth century plague victims, even perhaps victims of the mid-fourteenth century Black Death. It has also been suggested that there was an informal graveyard here for Roman Catholics unwelcome in the parish church and the chapels of Non-Conformist Llanelli.
The Second World War has left its mark in the form of the remains of a Blacker Bombard or a Spigot Mortar, an anti-tank gun emplacement whose sights were trained on the Pontyates road, and a machine-gun nest high above. Coal was once mined here, but the evidence is hard to see.
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