Woolly says – The month hadn’t started well with our oven being condemned, a new one on order,  I’d hoped to have a really good catch up with my bestie Sion but due to carer error he was left at home and I had to contend with two women talking the hind legs off me instead. Then the boiler broke which wasn’t really what we wanted with the temperatures at minus 7, new part on order and heaters going full blast to try and stop us from freezing, sadly the water hadn’t got the memo on this and promptly froze as well. Ovenless, boilerless and waterless, I felt it was time to get out and do something to cheer us both up.

Although bitterly cold the winter sunshine made a pleasant change as we drove towards our destination. Sitting in the shadow of the dam at the southern end of Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, Bryntail Lead Mine was once a bustling site of industry. During the 19th century this was a noisy, smoky place as lead was extracted and processed, before being transported to nearby Llanidloes and shipped down the River Severn. The mine closed in 1884 as the local mining boom came to an end and the buildings turned into ruins.

We left the car in a small parking area and wandered through the woods towards the former mine, crossing the bridge over the river Alfie the Dog raced ahead as Jo tried to keep her footing in the icy conditions. As I looked down at river below a shout of pain reached my ears and I realised that my human had slid down a bank and was now hobbling around clutching her back, I trotted over to see what the damage was and after a few minutes of moaning it appeared that my carer was ready to look round even if it was going to take longer as she wasn’t going anywhere quickly.

A small cottage presented itself and I stood looking at the tiny space wondering how a family had managed to live in it. Barking boy took his time in sniffing around the former waterwheel pit which would have driven the machinery once upon a time.

As we slowly hobbled towards the vast dam the site looked quite small, when opened in 1708 there had been ere were three shafts, named the Gundy, Western, and Murray shafts. We were stood on the remains of Gundy’s Shaft. Western Shaft now lies beneath Llyn Clywedog reservoir, built to control flooding on the upper Severn whilst Murray’s Shaft has simply been swallowed up by the undergrowth.

The drying building consisted of a number of small tunnels, ideal for me and furry paws to disappear in and out of, so we did leaving the human to try and find us, it made for an excellent game.

A plague told us that the next area along had once been the dressing building which seemed strange as the workers could have got dressed in the cottage! Outside some of the pipework and former workings of the site lay.

Behind it sat some large concrete tanks which would have held the water for the processes, I wondered if they had ever had no water like us.

The ore bin was empty, and the pump was no longer in place just the channels where water would have once flowed.

The entrance to Grundy’s shaft was now covered by bars and before I was able to investigate further the women called me back suggesting that we head to the top of the reservoir to have a look round. This proved to be a very silly idea as she drove very slowly across the ice climbing higher and higher to the top of the dam we suddenly found ourselves going backwards and back down again on a thick sheet of ice. Having managed to stop the car from sliding any further back down, I looked at my carer who was looking a little shaken before suggesting that we just leave the car and have a look at the water from where we were.

Llyn Clywedog is a manmade reservoir formed by the construction of the Clywedog Dam between 1963 and1967. In 1963 an Act of Parliament authorised a dam across the Clywedog Valley to create a reservoir to supply water to Birmingham and the English Midlands, the River Clywedog is a tributary of the River Severn and by creating a dam across the Cylwedog Valley water levels in the Severn could be more easily managed. Some 615 acres of farmland were flooded, along with several farms. Llyn Clywedog does not supply water at all; in fact it plays no part in any water supply system. Instead, it helps regulate the flow of water into the River Severn during the dry winter months and to keep water flow to a minimum during the summer.

We stood looking across the beautiful view as I imparted a number of facts and figures that I knew Jo would be equally fascinated by. The lake is 66m deep and 9.5km long, it has a surface area of 6.25km (about 630 football pitches) and holds 11 million gallons of water kept in by the dam which is 72m high and 230m long being one of the largest concrete structures in Wales. She seemed most impressed.

I was impressed but with my back screaming in pain and the need to navigate the rest of the icy roads I felt it was time to head back and see if by some miracle our pipes had defrosted enough to fill the kettle.

Woolly says- They hadn’t but we now had a new cooker in place so Christmas dinner was back on, the Christmas tree looks amazing and Santa will be here soon, there is always a bright side to life.

Festive greetings to you all and have a wonderful Christmas.