When he retired from playing football he returned to Wales and worked in a tool factory in Crickhowell, where he coached the works football team.
Settlements in and around the Black Mountains include Hay-on-Wye, Llangors, Talgarth, Crickhowell, Cwmdu, each in Powys, Abergavenny in Monmouthshire and Longtown in Herefordshire.
It was not until 1795 that Thomas Dadford was appointed as the engineer for the canal itself and construction began in earnest at Penpedairheol near Crickhowell.
The rock was removed by means of a series of tramroads or tramways which linked north via steep inclines to a wharf on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal at Llangattock and south to Brynmawr and the ironworks at Nant-y-glo by two tramroads which contoured the eastern end of the hill.
During the 1990s Lord Crickhowell became a leading figure in the campaign for a permanent home for the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff.
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He served in that position until 1987, when he was given a life peerage as Baron Crickhowell, of Pont Esgob in the Black Mountains and County of Powys.