Mid-Wales Mine Adventures was established in 2019 to make the important history and remains of the area’s mining heritage accessible to the public. We offer a range of trips where people can see and explore the surface sites and underground mine workings, as well as see and learn about the landscape, people and working conditions of the prehistoric miners up to those of the early twentieth century. Some of our locations are amongst the most important and oldest industrial sites in Wales, and provide a variety of trips which can be suited to your requirements.
Mid Wales Mine Adventures aims to engage local and national audiences in promoting mid-Wales’ huge mining industry which has been neglected for many years. Whether you are a caver, mine explorer, geologist, historian or industrial archaeologist,
Mid Wales Mine Adventures can tailor its tours to suit your interests.
Ioan Lord, the founder of Mid Wales Mine Adventures, was born in 1998 and has spent his life exploring and documenting mid-Wales’ metal mining heritage. He is a director of the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust, which works to conserve and restore relics of the area’s industrial heritage for years to come. He also works on the Vale of Rheidol Railway as a guard and locomotive fireman; a preserved local industry which grew from the mining boom in the area.
He published his first study of mid-Wales' mining industry in 2018, Rich Mountains of Lead: the Metal Mining Industry of Cwm Rheidol and Ystumtuen, which enhanced the field of research as well as local and national interest in this often-neglected aspect of Welsh history and culture.
Firmly based on printed, manuscript and oral authorities, the book explains the history and working of each of the mines in the district from ancient times to the twentieth century, and describes, from personal observation, the surviving remains, both under and overground. It will be of great interest to students of metal mining in mid West Wales and to those who see, from the road or the narrow gauge train, the broken walls and piles of rock which mark, on these beautiful hillsides, the graves of long departed industries.
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Ioan Lord's book can be purchased via the following link, and its publication was one of the first steps towards establishing Mid Wales Mine Adventures.
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https://shop.rheidolrailway.co.uk/products/rich-mountains-of-lead-ioan-lord
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"Ioan Lord’s book is superb, complementing David Bick’s volumes on Mid Wales which are great as guide books to the area, but this goes much further and interprets the mining archaeology, the layouts of the mines and the working and processing of the ore. Ioan has also included details of the people and their families that worked these mines.
The volume contains superb colour photographs, plans and layouts which, due to the A4 format, are clear and easy to understand. Ioan is also a mine explorer, and there are grid references and excellent site descriptions which make it so much easier for visitors to the mines, especially as the sites can be remote and involve a long trudge across open moorland. The book helps the visitor to navigate and prepares you for exploration of the sites as they are today. This is a superb volume, which is not only a good read but also a well-researched document." - 2018