Untitled

There does not appear to have been a formally constituted mineral estate. Indeed, it is not clear from the records listed below that there ever was a separately accountable Tredegar mineral estate. There is a mineral account cash book for the period 1853-1870, but the sums involved appear to have been sent to the appriopriate county estate accounts. By 1880 Alexander B. Bassett, Lord Tredegar's mining engineer, was issuing letters and receipts headed 'Tredegar Mineral Estate Office', and his successors, Bassett, Walker & Herdman, mining engineers of Cardiff, were using 'Tredegar Mineral Estate Office'-headed note paper until at least 1934. In 1918 Bassett & Walker were receiving royalties from the South Wales Anthracite Co. in respect of Breconshire minerals. However, the mineral estate letters that are preserved in the letter files of other Tredegar agents do not give the impression of a separate estate, but of a consultant acting for the county-based agents.

Among the Breconshire estate correspondence are two letters dated July 1934 from J. H. Thomas of Bassett, Walker & Herdman at the Tredegar Mineral Estate Office, stating that he was compiling a history of the mineral estate, and enquiring about the early exploitation of minerals on the Breconshire estate. There are two copies of J. Hopkins Thomas's completed typescript 'The developement of the Tredegar mineral estate' at NLW Misc. Vols 207-208.