GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

Rhoscrowther: gone but not forgotten

Rhoscrowther was an ancient settlement, the name meaning perhaps 'crwth-player's moor' (the crwth being an archaic Welsh stringed instrument), but for 900 years or so a typical Little-England-beyond-Wales village slumbering amid scenery described in 1833 as "pleasingly varied, and [with] views over the haven and St. George's channel".
In the 1960s this place was selected for the building of the second largest oil refinery in the UK covering 550 acres immediately to the north of the village, operating around the clock. It opened in 1964 and for 27 years the villagers tolerated the smells, noise and fallout from the refinery but in 1992 a massive explosion created an atmosphere of fear and distrust. The Texaco company who owned the refinery bought out most of the villagers (apart for half a dozen who preferred to stay put) and subsequently demolished the empty houses, the pub and the vicarage. The former inhabitants visit and attend occasional services in the church which still stands but the village has a strange and unhappy atmosphere. Former residents feel that their birthright was usurped, and the value of their houses undercut, by the oil company.