Aerial photograph showing Treforest trading estate at the start of construction in 1937, taken by Aerofilms Ltd for Pritchard, Wood & Partners.

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.