Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, near Cardiff. From an electoral and administrative perspective Nantgarw falls within the ward of Taffs Well, a village some south, but historically fell within the boundaries of Caerphilly, which is a major town located less than to the east. The original village was almost entirely destroyed by the development of the A470 trunk road, which was situated at the location of the current A468 junction. Located close to the A470, Nantgarw is within easy reach of the town of Pontypridd ( to the northwest) and Cardiff City centre (around further south). Nantgarw is the home of the Nantgarw tradition of folk dancing. History Nantgarw lies on the River Taff. It is known for its porcelain, produced in between 1813 and 1814, and later between 1817 and 1820 at the Nantgarw Pottery, commemorated at the Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum. The potter and painter William Billingsley is credited with starting the porcelain trade here. After the building of the Glamorganshire Canal, by the 1841 census of the 300 residents, about 60 owed their living to work associated directly with the canal. But the development of drift mines and the development of the Taff Vale Railway, meant that by 1875 the majority of the villages residents were colliers. The development of the village stopped until the 1910 development of the Nantgarw Colliery, but various geographical problems resulted in a series of stalled developments of the colliery until post World War II, when new workings and a coking coal plant were developed by 1951. A new village settlement was then built on the hillside behind the colliery. Nantgarw was formerly served by two railway stations: Nantgarw (High Level) Halt on the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway, which opened in 1904, and Nantgarw (Low Level) Halt on the Cardiff Railway, which opened in 1911. The Low Level station did not last long after the 1921 Railways Act, and closed in 1931 (though the line continued to serve Nantgarw Colliery until the late 1980s. The High Level station closed in 1956. Nantgarw Colliery Craig Yr Allt Colliery was situated south of Nantgarw village. However, whenever the Taff River flooded, water frequently entered its workings, and it was abandoned in 1878. Thomas Taylor of Pontypridd began the development of Nantgarw colliery in May 1910, near the base of the Caerphilly Syncline seam. The sinking of