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Sirhowy Valley
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 unitary area of Blaenau Gwent. The valley initially heads 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 unitary area 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. History The valley's industrial history began with ironworks before evolving to meet the demand for coal and the expansion of coal mining. This process was led by companies such as the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company. Coal mines used to be located throughout the valley, including: Wy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeries when blast furnaces replaced former methods. An integrated ironworks in the 19th century usually included one or more blast furnaces and a number of puddling furnaces or a foundry with or without other kinds of ironworks. After the invention of the Bessemer process, converters became widespread, and the appellation steelworks replaced ironworks. The processes carried at ironworks are usually described as ferrous metallurgy, but the term siderurgy is also occasionally used. This is derived from the Greek words ''sideros'' - iron and ''ergon'' or ''ergos'' - work. This is an unusual term in English, and it is best regarded as an anglicisation of a term used in French, Spanish, and other Romance languages. Historically, it is common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ynysddu
Ynysddu is a small village and community in the Sirhowy valley of south-east Wales. It is part of the district of Caerphilly within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It lies between to Cwmfelinfach and Wyllie, north of the town of Risca and south of the market town of Blackwood. It is about 10 minutes by road from the M4 motorway and 20 minutes from the Second Severn Crossing. The population in 2008 was 2,905, increasing to 3,948 at the 2011 Census. The community includes the settlements of Cwmfelinfach, Wyllie and Wattsville. History Ynysddu was founded in the early 19th century by the enlightened local colliery owner John Hodder Moggridge, who lived at nearby Woodfield Park. It got its name from Ynsyddu Farm, which was built by Moggridge in 1804. Ynysddu comes from the Welsh descriptive words 'Ynys' ('island' or 'river meadow') and 'ddu' ('black'). 'Black river meadow' is appropriate for the landscape of the area. After he became alarmed at the terrible livin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argoed, Caerphilly
Argoed is a village, community and an electoral ward in the Sirhowy Valley between Blackwood and Tredegar in Caerphilly County Borough in south Wales. The population of the community and ward at the 2011 census was 2,769. As a community, Argoed also contains the villages of Markham and Hollybush. Argoed is . Before 1960 the village was served by Argoed railway station. This was initially a stop on the Sirhowy Tramroad, which opened in 1822. The tramroad was converted to a conventional standard gauge railway in 1865, the Sirhowy Railway. The station closed in 1960 and the railway has been converted into a cycle path. Zephaniah Williams, prosecuted for his part in the Chartist Newport Rising in 1839, was born in the village in 1795. Suspected murder On 6 November 2014 Cerys Yemm was killed in The Sirhowy Arms Hotel, Argoed, which was providing accommodation to released prisoners as an 'approved premises'. The suspected murderer, Matthew Williams a recently released prisoner, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirhowy Railway
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. In 1860 the Sirhowy Railway was incorporated to modernise the tramroad; it followed a similar alignment but with several modifications, and opened in 1863, between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point. A short extension northward to Nantybwch, joining the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, was opened shortly afterwards. The Sirhowy Railway was acquired by the London and North Western Railway, for which it formed a useful route to access Newport Docks. The dominant traffic on the line was minerals: at first iron ore and later coal; the Great Western Railway used the lower part of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes'' (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board. The first report identified 2,363 stations and of railway line for closure, amounting to 55% of stations, 30% of route miles, and 67,700 British Rail positions, with an objective of stemming the large losses being incurred during a period of increasing competition from road transport and reducing the rail subsidies necessary to keep the network running. The second report identified a small number of major routes for significant investment. The 1963 report also recommended some less well-publicised changes, including a switch to the now-standard practice of containerisation for rail freight, and the replacement of some services wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oakdale Colliery
Oakdale Colliery was a coal mine located in the Sirhowy Valley, one of the valleys of South Wales. In the early years of the twentieth century the need for coal was growing both in America and Europe, and local business men in Wales were looking for new opportunities to fill the demand. Among these were a group known as the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, made up of wealthy industrialists from the Maclaren, Markham, Pochin, Whitworth and Wyllie families. They decided to create a group of collieries in the Sirhowy Valley, which explorations had told them contained rich seams of " black gold." One of these was at the small rural hamlet of Rhiw Syr Dafydd. Work began clearing the site for the new colliery at Ty Mellyn, Oakdale, with the sinking of the pit in 1907. Waterloo shaft followed in 1911. The shafts, North (upcast), and South, were 626 and 650 yards deep respectively, and were the largest diameter shafts in South Wales at the time. Opened in 1911, the colliery was owned by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nine Mile Point Colliery
Nine Mile Point colliery was a coal mine at Cwmfelinfach in the South Wales Valleys, originally known as "Coronation Colliery", and constructed between 1902 and 1905. The deepest shaft was 1,176 feet deep. Seven men were killed on 13 August 1904 during the establishment of the mine. It was renamed Nine Mile Point as that was the distance of the tramroad from the edge of Lord Tredegar's boundary in Newport to the colliery. At its peak it employed 2,105 men, who lived mainly in the surrounding villages of Wattsville and Cwmfelinfach. In 1935, 164 men "stayed down" in a "sit in" protest, the first ever in the South Wales coalfield, over the use of scab labour. In 1929 riots broke out at the colliery. The reasons for the riot were to be found in the employment of blackleg labour A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wyllie Colliery
Wyllie Colliery was located in the Sirhowy Valley, South Wales. The coal mine was sunk by the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company and opened in 1926. The colliery was named after a director of the company, Alexander Wyllie. Wyllie Wyllie is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adrian Wyllie (born 1970), American political activist, radio personality, and investigative journalist * Alex Wyllie (born 1944), New Zealand rugby union player and coach * Andrew W ... village was built to house many of the miners working at the pit. There were two shafts, North and South, both deep. The colliery remained open for only 42 years before closing in 1968. References {{coord, 51.639, -3.190, display=title, region:GB_scale:100000 Collieries in South Wales Buildings and structures in Caerphilly County Borough Underground mines in Wales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tredegar Iron And Coal Company
: ''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. 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."A look at Old Tredegar in photographs" Volume 1 Philip Prosser Old Bakehouse Publications 1990 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 S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine is called a 'pit', and the above-ground structures are a 'pit head'. In Australia, "colliery" generally refers to an underground coal mine. Coal mining has had many developments in recent years, from the early days of men tunneling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts to large open-cut and longwall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks and shearers. The coal mining industry has a long history of significant negative environmental impacts on local ecosystems, health impacts on local communities and workers, and contributes heavily to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some iron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
