Nantyglo Towers

“Rational thoughts never drive people's creativity the way emotions do.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Dropped in at Nantyglo Round Tower today on my way back from a not entirely successful visit to Brynmawr. Still, I had an interesting wander around to photograph the towers, having been invited by the owner (the towers are on private farmland), as long as I kept the gates closed to keep the ponies in.
The two Martello-type towers, complete with iron doors and musket loop-holes, were built as a fortified retreat by Nantyglo ironmaster Joseph Bailey in the early 19th century, fearful after riots following his brother Crawshay's threat to cut ironworkers wages. The foundations are all that remain of Ty Mawr, the ironmasters mansion, the farm and stable block remain, where soldiers could be barracked in time of need. In the event they were not put to the test, even during the Chartist Uprising of 1839. The fittings to the towers were in cast iron, one of the earliest uses of structural cast iron, and although used as a residence until the 1930’s, the tower was partly demolished to extract the cast iron for wartime use during the 1940s.
Contemporary opinion favoured Crawshay Bailey as “a kindly man”, in contrast to the rapacious ogre ironmaster portrayed in historical novels, and many former workers walked over the hills from Nantyglo to Llanfoist to attend his funeral.
Driving back later I caught a Radio 4 programme, Victory March, featuring Alice Planel-Frederiks talking about creating a “painful and funny graphic novel about taming grief, defeating depression and conquering motherhood”. To me the programme described how artistic creativity can be cathartic in processing grief and other deeply felt emotions, often beyond the reach of other means of expression. I have a sense of this in making photographs at times, particularly when the Spirit of Place seems strong.