Ystalyfera Iron and Tinplate Works were built 1838 and by the 1850s claimed to be the largest tinplate works in the world. Its bank of eleven blast-furnaces was second only to that at Dowlais. All the anthracite ironworks went into decline from the 1860s and by 1864 Ystalyfera had only six furnaces in blast. The owner, James Palmer Budd, struggled to keep the works going, both for the sake of the workforce and out of personal pride, but the few remaining furnaces were blown out in 1885. There was also a sixteen-mill tinplate works, where production continued until after World War II. The buildings were demolished in 1946.

Modern single-storey factories now occupy most of the site which lies to the south of the village of Ystalyfera. To their west is the large stone wall of the furnace charging-bank. Much of the works site was reclaimed from the flood-prone valley of the Tawe and impressive iron-slag embankments contain its course to the south of the site. Nearly all the rows of houses which line the hillside between Godre'r-graig and Ystalyfera were built for workers in this business.

Source: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region, by Stephen Hughes and Paul Reynolds, AIA, 1989

RCAHMW, 8 September 2011.