Tredegar Iron and Coal Company

Last updated

For the ironworks in the US state of Virginia, see Tredegar Iron Works.

Tredegar Iron and Coal Company was an important 19th century ironworks in Tredegar, Wales, which due to its need for coke became a major developer of coal mines and particularly the Sirhowy Valley of South Wales. It is most closely associated with the Industrial Revolution and coal mining in the South Wales Valleys.

Contents

Background

In 1778 an iron furnace was built in the upper Sirhowy Valley by Thomas Atkinson and William Barrow, who came to the area from London. [1] Fuel was needed for the furnace so men were employed to dig coal at Bryn Bach and Nantybwch, the first small scale coal mining operation in the area. The furnace failed in 1794, and hence also the business.

Sirhowy Ironworks

In 1797, Samuel Homfray, with partners Richard Fothergill and the Matthew Monkhouse built a new furnace which they called the Sirhowy Ironworks, leasing the land in Bedwellty, Newport from the Tredegar Estate. [2]

In 1800, the company was renamed the Tredegar Iron Company, named in honour of the Tredegar Estate at Tredegar House and Tredegar Park in Newport. The company was taken over by the Harfords of Ebbw Vale in 1818. [3]

It was expanded in the late 1830s and early 1840s, producing significant volumes of rails, largely for export. The works was purchased by the Tredegar Iron Company Limited in 1873 and nine years later began to produce steel.

Operations

The company ironworks were developed on a single site, which later became known as Whiteheads, after that company took over the southern section of the site in 1907. By 1850, TICC employed between 2,000 and 3,000 people at its nine furnaces, mills shops and ancillary plants. [3]

However, all of this production on such a vast scale had a price. When John Gooch John Gooch, a manager of an iron foundry in Bedlington, Northumberland, took a managerial post in the Tredegar ironworks in 1831:

'Tredegar was a strange place to go, voluntarily .... Utterly remote at the head of the Sirhowy valley in Monmouthshire, the town was a man-made hell. Men and children worked killing hours in the smoke and filth of the foundries and were maimed by molten metal. Their only medical help was that administered by the "Penny Doctor". Wages were paid in Homfray's private coinage — banks were not allowed in the town — so workers spent their coins in Homfray's shops, buying food at Homfray's prices. Poverty and malnutrition followed and disease followed both.' [4]

With many people in such a small area, and with poor sanitation provision, there were several cholera epidemics in the town in the 19th century. A dedicated cholera burial ground was later established at Cefn Golau. [5]

1875-1946

In 1875, the company renamed itself the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, to allow development of additional coal mining capacity. [3]

In 1891, the company ceased production of iron, but continued to develop coal mines and produce coal. The former Tredegar Ironworks were effectively abandoned, with Whiteheads taking over the southern section of the site from 1907. In 1931, they also closed down their operations, moving everything to their Newport works. [3]

TICC continued to develop coal mines and work pitts, until it was nationalised in 1946, becoming part of the National Coal Board. [3] Its last chairman was Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway. [6]

During the 1910's and 1920's Aneurin Bevan worked for the Company at the Ty-Trist Colliery, Bedwellty pit and from where he was fired for being a union leader. The poor conditions in the pits and collieries of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company motivated Bevan to create the National Health Service.

Though now almost entirely redeveloped, traces of the terracing of the valley sides at the site can still be noted at OS grid reference SO 155093. [7]

Mines developed by the company

Related Research Articles

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

Rhymney is a town and a community in the county borough of Caerphilly, South Wales. It is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. With the villages of Pontlottyn, Fochriw, Abertysswg, Deri and New Tredegar, Rhymney is designated as the 'Upper Rhymney Valley' by the local Unitary Authority, Caerphilly County Borough Council. As a community, Rhymney includes the town of Rhymney, Pontlottyn, Abertysswg, Butetown and Twyncarno.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tredegar</span> Town in Wales

Tredegar is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in Wales. The relevant wards collectively listed the town's population as 15,103 in the UK 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackwood, Caerphilly</span> Town in Caerphilly, Wales

Blackwood is a town, community and an electoral ward on the Sirhowy River in the South Wales Valleys administered as part of Caerphilly County Borough. It is located within the historic county of Monmouthshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal</span> C18-19 canal network in South Wales

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.

Cwmfelinfach is a small village located in the Sirhowy valley of south-east Wales. It is part of the district of Caerphilly within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is located north of Wattsville, about 5 miles north of the nearest town Risca, and south of Blackwood. To the east the valley is bordered by the hills of Pen-y-Trwyn. To the west is Mynydd y Grug.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pochin</span> British industrial chemist

Henry Davis Pochin was a British industrial chemist. He invented a process that enabled white soap to be made and a means of using china clay to create better quality paper. He owned several china clay pits in Cornwall, and a mine at Tredegar in South Wales, and was briefly a Liberal Member of Parliament. His wife was Agnes Pochin who was a leading suffragist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedwellty</span>

Bedwellty is a small village in Caerphilly County Borough in south Wales. The village stands on a ridge of high ground between the Rhymney and Sirhowy valleys. The village comprises St Sannan's parish church, public house and a few houses. The register of St Sannan's Church dates from 1624, which qualifies Bedwellty as an ancient parish. Historically the parish lay in the county of Monmouthshire, the hundred of Wentloog, Tredegar County Court District, the rural deanery of Bedwellty, the archdeaconry of Monmouth and the diocese of Llandaff. Several towns based on the iron industry expanded within the parish boundary, including from west to east, Rhymney, Tredegar and Ebbw Vale, which gradually gained administrative independence from Bedwellty between the 1870s and 1890s. A Bedwellty Local Government District was established for the rest of the parish in 1891, becoming an urban district in 1894.

The Sirhowy Valley is an industrialised valley in the eastern part of the Valleys region of Wales. It is named from the Sirhowy River which runs through it. Its upper reaches are occupied by the town of Tredegar within the county borough of Blaenau Gwent. The valley initially runs south-southeast between the ridges of Cefn Manmoel to the east and Mynydd Bedwellte to the west before turning to a more southerly direction. Its central section is one of the least populated of the Welsh coalfield valleys. The valley enters the county borough of Caerphilly, which contains the towns of Blackwood and Pontllanfraith. It then turns east and joins the valley of the Ebbw River, Ebbw Vale at Crosskeys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining in Wales</span> Overview of the mining industry in Wales

Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early to mid twentieth century. It was key to the Industrial Revolution in Wales, and to the whole of Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cefn Coed Colliery Museum</span> Mining museum in Neath Port Talbot, Wales

Cefn Coed Colliery Museum is a former coal mine, now operating as a museum. It is located at Crynant near Neath in the South Wales Valleys.

Oakdale is a large village in Caerphilly county borough, Wales, 9½ miles north of Caerphilly itself, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. Situated in the Sirhowy valley, it is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Blackwood, with which it forms a conurbation. At the 2001 census Oakdale had a population of 4,478.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oakdale Colliery</span>

Oakdale Colliery was a coal mine located in the Sirhowy Valley, one of the valleys of South 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedwellty House</span>

Bedwellty House is a Grade II-listed house and gardens in Tredegar, in the Sirhowy Valley in south-east Wales. It was built in the early 19th century on the site of an earlier building and subsequently enlarged into its present form by mid-century. The owners donated the house and its grounds to the public at the beginning of the 20th century. They were restored at the beginning of the 21st century. The grounds are included on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, the only estate so listed in Blaenau Gwent.

The Sirhowy Tramroad was a plateway built to convey the products of ironworks at Tredegar to Newport, South Wales. It opened in 1805 between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point, a location west of Risca, from where the Monmouthshire Canal Company operated a tramroad to Newport. The Sirhowy Tramroad was operated at first by horse traction, but early locomotives were used, and a passenger service was operated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Conway</span>

Walter Conway was the longstanding secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in South Wales. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebbw Vale Steelworks</span>

Ebbw Vale Steelworks was an integrated steel mill located in Ebbw Vale, South Wales. Developed from 1790, by the late 1930s it had become the largest steel mill in Europe. It was nationalised after World War II. As the steel industry changed to bulk handling, iron and steel making was ceased in the 1970s, and the site was redeveloped as a specialised tinplate works. It was closed by Corus in 2002, but is being redeveloped in a joint partnership between Blaenau Gwent Council and the Welsh Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedwellty Pits Halt railway station</span> Disused railway station in Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent

Bedwellty Pits Halt railway station was a station on the Sirhowy Railway. It was initially spelled Bedwelty, then known as Bedwellty Pits, and finally Bedwellty Pits Halt. It consisted of 2 wooden platforms to serve the workforce of the local colliery, which is 2 miles south of Tredegar in the Sirhowy Valley.

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

Sirhowy is a village in the Sirhowy Valley and the county of Blaenau Gwent.

References

  1. ↑ "A look at Old Tredegar in photographs" Volume 1 Philip Prosser Old Bakehouse Publications 1990
  2. ↑ B. Gardner's History of Tredegar and other information Archived 19 February 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "History". tredegar.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  4. ↑ Vaughan, Adrian (1985). Grub, water & relief Tales of the Great Western 1835-1892. London: John Murray. p. 3-4. ISBN   0-7195-4176-X.
  5. ↑ "Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council: Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery". Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  6. ↑ "Tredegar Iron and Coal Company". Durham National Coal Mining Museum. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Roberts, R. 2005 Southeast Wales Industrial Ironworks Landscapes, Year 1: the core ironworks areas Report for Cadw by GGAT p65
  8. ↑ "Welsh Coal Mines".
  9. ↑ "Pochin Colliery, Tredegar (33580)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 30 September 2021.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.