Editing Machen (section)

== Industrial history ==
From the 17th century onward Machen was a village rooted in the iron and coal industries.<ref>[http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1277425/llgc-id:1281340/llgc-id:1281428/get650 A Welsh Ironworks at the Close of the Seventeenth Century], L J Williams, National Library of Wales journal. 1960, Summer Volume XI/3</ref> Though little trace remains, the village was the site of the Machen Forge and several coal mines. A local history trail visits some of these sites.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/countryside/english/walking/machentrail.htm|title=Caerphilly – Main}}</ref> Machen Forge was an early adopter of the [[Osmond process]] for the production of wrought iron.

[[Machen railway station]], which closed in 1964, was an important junction on the [[Brecon and Merthyr Railway]], with a branch to Caerphilly on the [[Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway]], closed to passengers in 1956. A multiple-arch railway viaduct can still be seen where it used to carry the eastbound branch of the Caerphilly Branch line over the river. It was built to allow the heavy trains out of Caerphilly to bypass the 1 in 39 incline up into Machen. The westbound branch crossed the Rhymney river at Fountain Bridge before rejoining the eastbound branch at Gwaun-y-Bara. The 'Fountain Bridge' where the main road between Trethomas and Machen crossed the railway was so named because, for many years, prior to road alterations, there was a free-running spring at the roadside close to the site of the bridge. The point where the spring emerged was fashioned into a stone 'fountain well' which was regrettably demolished during the road works to improve the road.

A residual branch of the B&MR remains open{{when|date=September 2023}} to service the [[Hanson plc|Hanson Aggregates]] quarry at Machen.

At Waterloo there was a Tinworks that supplied materials to the aircraft factory that once stood near the foundry above Royal Oak at Machen. Close to the Waterloo Tinworks, but on the other side of the railway became the factory that was Coates Brothers Paint Works, which later evolved into the Valspar paint division and later again became associated in the production of Inks and dyes. Nothing remains of the now demolished factory buildings, but plans for housing developments are in place.