Aerial view showing Treforest Industrial Estate in 2007
The Treforest Industrial Estate was originally the South Wales and Monmouthshire Trading Estate, established in 1936. It was the first such estate in Wales, built 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.