Blaenavon

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Blaenavon
Blaenavon Workmen's Hall and War Memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1855042.jpg
Blaenavon War Memorial and Workmen's Hall
Torfaen UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Blaenavon
Location within Torfaen
Area17.83 km2 (6.88 sq mi)  [1]
Population6,055 (2011) [2]
  Density 340/km2 (880/sq mi)
GSS code W04000760
OS grid reference SO 255 095
Community
  • Blaenavon
Principal area
Preserved county
Country Wales
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town PONTYPOOL
Postcode district NP4
Dialling code 01495
Police Gwent
Fire South Wales
Ambulance Welsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
List of places
UK
Wales
Torfaen
51°46′25″N3°04′58″W / 51.77363°N 3.08278°W / 51.77363; -3.08278

Blaenavon (Welsh : Blaenafon) is a town and community in Torfaen county borough, Wales, high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. The population is 6,055.

Contents

Parts of the town and surrounding country form the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, selected as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000.

History

The Church in Wales church of St Peter Blaenavon St Peters Church-20-Oct-2013.JPG
The Church in Wales church of St Peter
The Church in Wales church of St Paul St Paul's Church, Blaenavon - geograph.org.uk - 2135913.jpg
The Church in Wales church of St Paul
The Former Municipal Offices in Lion Street Blaenavon Library - geograph.org.uk - 2136514.jpg
The Former Municipal Offices in Lion Street
Big Pit National Coal Museum Big Pit Mining Museum.jpg
Big Pit National Coal Museum
Rail manufactured in Blaenavon, seen in Sweden Rail Blaenavon Steel 1886.jpg
Rail manufactured in Blaenavon, seen in Sweden
Horeb Baptist church Horeb Baptist Church - geograph.org.uk - 471190.jpg
Horeb Baptist church

Blaenavon literally means "head of the river" or loosely "river's source" in the Welsh language. Blaenavon grew around an ironworks opened in 1788 by the West Midlands industrialist Thomas Hill and his partners, Thomas Hopkins and Benjamin Pratt. The businessmen invested £40,000 into the ironworks project and erected three blast furnaces. Hopkins, as a result of operating the Cannock Wood Forge, Staffordshire, was in contact with skilled and experienced ironworkers, and managed to persuade many of them to migrate to Blaenavon to help establish the new ironworks. In 1836 Robert William Kennard formed the Blaenavon Coal and Iron Company, which subsequently bought the Blaenavon Ironworks.

Blaenavon House, a mansion constructed in 1798 by Thomas Hopkins, was repurposed as a hospital in 1924, supported by the subscriptions of local iron and coal workers. In the 1940s the hospital site was given by the then owners of the site, the National Coal Board, to the UK Ministry of Health; it was run as a cottage hospital until 1985. When the hospital closed the building was sold by the local authority and refurbished as a nursing home for the elderly. In 1995 the building was listed as a Grade 2 listed building. Following the closure of the nursing home in 2007, the building was left empty. It was badly vandalised and stripped of its lead work, slate roof and original interiors, and was placed on the Buildings At Risk register. In 2016 a fire caused severe damage to the ballroom wing and adjoining extension. The House was sold in 2017 to private owners and is currently undergoing restoration as a family home once again.

The Municipal Offices in Lion Street were the home of Blaenavon Urban District Council until local government reorganisation in 1974. [3]

Governance

Blaenavon is a community represented by Blaenavon Town Council and is an electoral ward of Torfaen County Borough Council. Blaenavon is twinned with Coutras in France. [4]

Geography

The town lies near the source of the Afon Lwyd river, north of Cwmbran.

Demography

The population of Blaenavon has declined gradually at each ten-year census since the closure of the ironworks in 1900. It had fallen to 8,451 by 1961 and fell more rapidly after closure of the coal mine in 1980. Part of this decline was not emigration but a decrease in birth rate. [5]

Economy

The Blaenavon Coal and Iron Company developed the Big Pit coalworks with adjoining steel works particularly for rail manufacture. [6] The steel-making and coal mining industries followed, boosting the town's population to over 20,000 at one time before 1890. [7] Since 1988, part of this site has been the Big Pit National Coal Museum. [8]

Culture and community

Government, publishers and mainly Welsh writers sought in 2003 to attract more visitors by introducing Blaenavon as Wales' second "book town" (the first being Hay-on-Wye on the English border). However, the project did not succeed. [9] This can be attributed to a combination of the town's remote location and the established competition from Hay. Many thriving community groups serve and improve the town, including Future Blaenavon, which has helped to create a community garden at the bottom of the town.

Landmarks

Parts of the town and surrounding country form the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, selected as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. Attractions in the town include the Big Pit National Coal Museum (an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage), Blaenavon Ironworks, [10] the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway and Blaenavon World Heritage Centre. The town has a male voice choir, a town band, and many historical walks through the local mountains.

Transport

A railway viaduct was constructed in 1790; the structure disappeared and was unearthed in a 2001 episode of the archaeology television programme Time Team . [11] The Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway is a scenic attraction rich in geological and historical interest. Blaenavon lost both of its passenger railway stations Blaenavon High Level station closed in 1941, and the last train from Blaenavon (Low Level) (to Newport via Pontypool Crane Street) ran in April 1962. The lower line had already been closed for more than a year before the Beeching Axe took place. The lower line's passenger service was among many in Gwent (Monmouthshire) which Ministry of Transport de-classified papers reveal were axed because of rail congestion in the Newport area following the newly opened Llanwern steelworks.[ citation needed ]

Education

Following Samuel Hopkins' death in 1815, his sister Sarah Hopkins of Rugeley, who had inherited much money from her late brother, erected Blaenavon Endowed School in his memory. Which has since been permanently closed. [ citation needed ]

Religious sites

St Peter's Church was constructed in 1804, gifted to the parish by Thomas Hill and Samuel Hopkins.[ citation needed ]

Sport

Blaenavon Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1906. The club closed in 1937. [12]

Notable people

Notable people born in Blaenavon include the Broadway and film actor E. E. Clive, award-winning mystery writer Dorothy Simpson, and international rugby union players Mark Taylor, Ken Jones (also an Olympic athlete), John Perkins, Chris Huish and Terry Cobner.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, elected MP for Torfaen in 2015, was brought up in the town.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cwmbran</span> Human settlement in Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torfaen</span> County borough in Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway</span>

The Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) volunteer-run heritage railway in South Wales, running trains between a halt platform opposite the Whistle Inn public house southwards to the town of Blaenavon via a two-platform station at the site of former colliery furnace of the Big Pit National Coal Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blaenavon Industrial Landscape</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site in Wales

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, in and around Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, was inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The Blaenavon Ironworks, now a museum, was a major centre of iron production using locally mined or quarried iron ore, coal and limestone. Raw materials and products were transported via horse-drawn tramroads, canals and steam railways. The Landscape includes protected or listed monuments of the industrial processes, transport infrastructure, workers' housing and other aspects of early industrialisation in South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Pit National Coal Museum</span> Former mine and industrial heritage museum

Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales. A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales. The site is dedicated to operational preservation of the Welsh heritage of coal mining, which took place during the Industrial Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontnewydd</span> Human settlement in Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontnewynydd</span> Suburb of Pontypool, Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontypool Park</span> School in Pontypool, Torfaen

Pontypool Park is a 150-acre (0.61 km2) park in Pontypool, Torfaen, Wales. The park was formerly the grounds of Pontypool House and was laid out in the closing years of the 17th century for John Hanbury, an ironmaster, who is closely associated with Japanware. The grounds were purchased by the local authority in 1920, while the estate house was leased, and later sold, to the Sisters of the Holy Ghost to become St. Alban's RC High School. The former stables now house the Torfaen Museum. The grounds contain a number of structures including a double ice house, the Folly Tower and the Shell Grotto. The park is entered through the Pontymoile Gates. The gates, the grotto and the stables are all Grade II* listed structures, while the former hall and the ice house are listed Grade II. The park itself is designated at Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontymoile</span> Human settlement in Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afon Lwyd</span> River in south-east Wales

The Afon Lwyd or Afon Llwyd is a 13-mile (21 km) long river in south-east Wales which flows from its source northwest of Blaenavon, through Abersychan, Pontnewynydd, Pontypool, Llanfrechfa and Cwmbran before flowing, at Caerleon, into the River Usk, which subsequently flows into the Bristol Channel to the south of Newport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cwmavon, Torfaen</span> Human settlement in Wales

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blaenavon Ironworks</span> Former ironworks transformed into a museum

Blaenavon Ironworks is a former industrial site which is now a museum in Blaenavon, Wales. The ironworks was of crucial importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. It was the site of the experiments by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his cousin Percy Gilchrist that led to "the basic steel process" or "Gilchrist–Thomas process".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waenavon railway station</span> Former railway station in Wales

Waenavon railway station, also known as Waen Avon, was a station on the Brynmawr and Blaenavon Railway in South East Wales. To the south of the station a short line served Milfraen Colliery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pwll Du Tunnel</span>

The Pwll Du Tunnel was the longest horse-powered tramway tunnel to be built in Britain at 1,875 metres (6,152 ft) in length. It started in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales, and was originally a coal mine, running northward almost horizontally into a hillside. Later it was extended right through the hill and used to carry limestone from quarries at Pwll Du and Tyla to the ironworks at Blaenavon, and to carry pig iron from Blaenavon to the Garnddyrys Forge. The tramway was extended past Garnddyrys to Llanfoist Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal. The tramway from Pwll Du to the canal fell out of use when the railway came to Blaenavon and the Garnddyrys forge was closed in 1860, but the tunnel continued to be used to carry limestone to Blaenavon until 1926. It is now a scheduled monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Blaenavon Railroad was a horse drawn tramroad built to link Blaenavon Ironworks with the Monmouthshire Canal in south east Wales.

References

  1. "2011 Census:Quick Statistics:Population Density for Blaenavon". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  2. "2011 Census:Key Statistics:Key Figures for Blaenavon". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  3. Cadw. "Council Offices (Municipal Offices) (15278)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  4. "Town Twinning". Torfaen County Borough Council . Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  5. "Blaenavon". Vision of Britain.
  6. "Geograph:: Blaenavon Ironworks Site © Cedwyn Davies". www.geograph.org.uk.
  7. "Geograph:: Workman's Hall, Blaenavon © Carol Rose". www.geograph.org.uk.
  8. McCrum, Kirstie (7 September 2013). "Going Underground; Big Pit: National Coal Museum Is Celebrating Its 30th Anniversary as a Tourist Attraction and Museum". Western Mail. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  9. the Book Guide: Blaenafon - The Booktown Experiment Fails, 17 March 2006 Archived 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 2 November 2012
  10. Blaenavon Ironworks
  11. Morpeth, Mel (4 February 2001), Blaenavon, South Wales, Time Team, retrieved 31 December 2022
  12. "Blaenavon Golf Club", "Golf’s Missing Links".