Subject: Pontypridd UDC 71 (UTX 492)
Chassis: Guy Arab IV 6LW
Body: Roe H33/25R
Location: Rhydyfelin, Fairfield Lane
Date: 9-Mar-1973

71 has turned from Poplar Road into Fairfield Lane and will soon go under the A470(T) and pass the Hawthorn Leisure Centre. Rhydyfelin Methodist Church is to the right.

Poplar Road was built on the line of the former Doctor’s Canal, a short branch canal off the Glamorganshire Canal which ran to Treforest and then connected with the Doctor’s Tramway which ran along Broadway and eventually as far as Dinas. This was the route used for much of the early coal mined in the Rhondda.

Poplar Road almost became a tramway, as Pontypridd obtained powers to extend the tramway from Treforest to Upper Boat and much of the route would have been along the canal, purchased in 1923 and filled wish ash from the power station at Upper Boat. Despite renewal of the powers in 1927 the tramway was not built.

Photograph by courtesy of John Jones