Upper Boat

Upper Boat (Welsh: Glan-bad) is a village on the southernmost outskirts of the town of Pontypridd, within the electoral ward of Hawthorn, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, and comprises part of the Treforest Industrial Estate.

[1] Founded as a ford point across the River Taff, Upper Boat was mainly untouched by the booming coal and steel industry around which much of the industrialised south Wales grew.

[1] In the 1841 census, Upper Boat had a population of around 150, and its industry was clearly connected to the waterways that border it; employing boatmen, lock keepers, and carpenters.

Located on the west bank of the Taff, the coal-fired power station provided employment for several decades, until it was decommissioned in 1972, and then demolished in 1976, following events linked to the nationalisation of the electricity supply industry in Britain.

Prefabricated houses were hastily built, and the village grew, but the decision to build the A470 trunk road in the early 1970s across the north of Upper Boat saw these homes removed via a compulsory demolition order.