The Treforest Trading Estate development circa 1938-9 with the new A470 duel carriageway built through the site. Click on image to enlarge.
The South Wales and Monmouthshire Trading Estate at Treforest was established in 1936, the first such estate in Wales, as a government attempt to stimulate employment by introducing light manufacturing in the Rhondda which was then suffering a serious decline of the coal industry. During World War II, between 1939 and 1944, the government requisitioned many buildings and built and altered many others for the war effort; a peak of 16,000 employees was reached in 1944. Several original factories survive but the estate is now privately owned.