Pontnewynydd is a predominantly working class suburb of Pontypool, Torfaen, in Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewydd in nearby Cwmbran.
Pontnewynydd is a predominantly working class suburb of Pontypool, Torfaen, in Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewydd in nearby Cwmbran.
It lies in between Pontypool to the south and Snatchwood to the north. The area of Torfaen is historically industrial and the Pontnewynydd Iron Works once employed many people in the area. This works became known as the Partridge Jones and John Paton (PJ & JP) Iron Works. During the Second World War the works produced much of the corrugated iron for the Anderson shelters that were constructed throughout the country as makeshift air raid shelters. It finally closed in 1961, along with a number of other local works when the Llanwern Steelworks opened in Newport.
The Monmouthshire Canal which ran from Newport to Pontnewynydd was authorised by an Act of Parliament on 3 June 1792. The section of canal from Pontymoile to Pontnewynydd was drained in the 1850s and the canal bed used to lay a railway line, which was eventually extended to Blaenavon.
There is a small selection of shops and a car repairs garage. In 2001 the population was 1527 (49.5% Male, 50.5% Female) with an electorate of 1,174. [1]
The main social club built for the workers at the PJ & JP works was located adjacent to the works on Hanbury Road and continued long after the works closed. An example of its prominence in the area is that the club was the official host to the visiting South African Springboks rugby touring team during 1961 when they played at Pontypool. The club hosted regular live entertainment and boxing bouts.
The local Pontnewynydd Sports & Social Club has recently ended a very long association with The Royal British Legion. Membership applications have soared since this happened and it is looking forward to being the premier entertainments centre in the village. Trevethin AFC who play their football in the village, and who head their division, use the Club as its base.
There are regular buses south to Pontypool, Cwmbran and Newport and north to Abersychan, Varteg Hill and Blaenavon. However, there is no longer a train service - the local station (on the Newport - Blaenavon line) having closed in April 1962, which was more than a year before the "Beeching Axe". In financial terms the line was doing no worse than any of the other lines in the South Wales valleys but, like the local ironworks, the closure of the railway line was also linked to the opening of Llanwern steelworks. The amount of freight traffic the new plant generated was causing severe rail congestion in the Newport area and in an era when passenger rail transport was in decline a number of local services in Monmouthshire were withdrawn by the British Transport Commission as an operational measure.
Education in the village was provided by Pontnewynydd Primary School. The school, located in a building constructed in 1901, opened in 1903. It closed in July 2015 [2]
Abersychan is a town and community north of Pontypool in Torfaen, Wales, and lies within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent.
Cwmbran is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales.
Torfaen is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south-west and north-west. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire, and between 1974 and 1996 was a district of Gwent, until it was reconstituted as a principal area in 1996.
Pontypool is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. As of 2021, it has a population of 29,062.
Blaenavon 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.
The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal is a small network of canals in South Wales. For most of its currently (2018) navigable 35-mile (56 km) length it runs through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and its present rural character and tranquillity belies its original purpose as an industrial corridor for coal and iron, which were brought to the canal by a network of tramways and/or railroads, many of which were built and owned by the canal company.
New Inn - - is a village and community directly south east of Pontypool, within the County Borough of Torfaen in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It had a population of 5,986 at the 2011 Census.
Cwmbran railway station is in the northeast of Cwmbran town centre, within five minutes' walking distance. It is part of the British railway system owned by Network Rail and is managed by Transport for Wales, who operate all trains serving it. It lies on the Welsh Marches Line from Newport to Hereford. The station was opened at this site in 1986 to serve the commuter route to Newport and Cardiff, and shoppers to the town centre.
Pontnewydd is a suburb of Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen, south-east Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewynydd in nearby Pontypool.
Griffithstown is a large suburb of Pontypool in the borough of Torfaen, Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in May 1898, from Llanfrechfa Upper and Panteg, and includes Sebastopol, but, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1894, became a separate civil parish.
Sebastopol is the southernmost suburb of Pontypool in the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It is named in honour of the Crimean city Sevastopol that was taken during the Crimean War. It is a working-class area consisting of mainly privately owned terraced houses and a substantial number of local authority/ex-local authority housing.
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.
Cwmavon is a hamlet about 2 miles south of Blaenavon and 4 miles north of Pontypool. The hamlet is part of the community of Abersychan in the county borough of Torfaen in south east Wales, and is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire.
The Pontypool, Caerleon and Newport Railway was promoted independently to relieve congestion on the heavily worked Eastern Valley Line of the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company. The Great Western Railway put up half the capital, making it in effect a GWR subsidiary. It opened in 1874, and most long-distance passenger and goods traffic, especially the heavy mineral traffic, transferred to it. It amalgamated with the GWR in 1876.
Newport Mill Street railway station was one of four stations in central Newport, Wales.
The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company was a canal and railway company that operated a canal and a network of railways in the Western Valley and Eastern Valley of Newport, Monmouthshire. It started as the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and opened canals from Newport to Pontypool and to Crumlin from 1796. Numerous tramroads connected nearby pits and ironworks with the canal.
Cwmbran railway station was a station in the old village of Cwmbran in Torfaen in South Wales, UK.
Upper Pontnewydd railway station in Pontnewydd village, Cwmbran in Torfaen, South Wales, UK was part of the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company's Eastern Valley line from Newport to Blaenavon.
Pontnewynydd railway station served Pontnewynydd village in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire.
Snatchwood Halt railway station served Snatchwood between Pontypool and Abersychan in Torfaen, South Wales, UK. The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1912 on the line it had purchased from the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company in 1880. The Halt lay between Pontypool Crane Street to the south and Abersychan to the north. The Halt lay adjacent to the current A4043 road, between the road and the nearby Afon Lwyd.