Blaenavon ( cy, Blaenafon) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Torfaen Torfaen (; cy, 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 ...

county borough,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, high on a hillside on the source of the

Afon Lwyd The Afon Lwyd or Afon Llwyd ( en, 'grey river') is a 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 R ...

. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

and the

preserved county The preserved counties of Wales are the eight current areas used in Wales for the ceremonial purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty. They are based on the counties created by the Local Government Act 1972 and used for local government and othe ...

of Gwent. The population is 6,055. Parts of the town and surrounding country form the

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape 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 or ...

, inscribed as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

History

''Blaenavon'' literally means "head of the river" or loosely "river's source" in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

. Blaenavon grew around an

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 bloomeri ...

opened in 1788 by the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

industrialist, Thomas Hill, and his partners, Thomas Hopkins and Benjamin Pratt. The businessmen invested £40,000 into the iron works project and erected three blast furnaces. Hopkins, as a result of operating the Cannock Wood Forge in

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

, 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 iron works. 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 re-purposed as a hospital supported by the subscriptions of local iron and coal workers in 1924. In the 1940s the hospital site was given by the then owners of the site, the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

, to the Ministry of Health; it was run as a

cottage hospital A cottage hospital is a semi-obsolete type of small hospital, most commonly found in the United Kingdom. The original concept was a small rural building having several beds.The Cottage Hospitals 1859–1990, Dr. Meyrick Emrys-Roberts, Tern Publicati ...

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 Historic 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 re-organisation in 1974.

Governance

Blaenavon is a

represented by Blaenavon Town Council and

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

Torfaen County Borough Council Torfaen County Borough Council () is the governing body for Torfaen, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. History The borough council was created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 as a lower-tier district council with borough status ...

. Blaenavon is twinned with

Coutras Coutras () is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Coutras station has rail connections to Bordeaux, Angoulême, Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges. History The Battle of Coutras, one of the mo ...

in France.

Geography

The town lies near the source of the

river, north of

Cwmbran Cwmbran ( ; cy, Cwmbrân , also in use as an alternative spelling in English) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales. Lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbran was designated as a New Town in 1949 to pro ...

Demography

Following twenty years after the closure of the

in 1900 the population has declined gradually at each ten-year census, including rapidly after closure of the

coal mine 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 ...

in 1980; it had however already fallen to 8,451 in 1961. Part of this decline was not emigration but a decrease in birth rate.

Economy

The Blaenavon Coal and Iron Company developed the Big Pit coalworks with adjoining steel works particularly rail manufacture, part of which since 1988 is the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

. The

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

-making and

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 ...

industries followed, boosting the town's population to over 20,000 at one time before 1890.

Culture and community

Government, publishers and mainly Welsh writers sought in 2003 to attract more visitors by introducing Blaenavon as Wales' second "

book town A book town is a town or village with many used book or antiquarian bookstores. These stores, as well as literary festivals, attract bibliophile tourists. Some book towns are members of the International Organisation of Book Towns. List of boo ...

" (the first being

Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the t ...

on the English border). However the project did not succeed. 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

, inscribed as a

in 2000. Attractions in the town include the

Big Pit National Coal Museum Big Pit National Coal Museum ( cy, Pwll Mawr Amgueddfa Lofaol Cymru) 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 ...

(an Anchor Point of ERIH, The

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The a ...

Blaenavon Ironworks 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 ...

, the

Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway The Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Pont-y-pŵl a Blaenafon) is a volunteer-run heritage railway in South Wales, running trains between a halt platform opposite the Whistle Inn public house (famed for its collection of mi ...

, Blaenavon World Heritage Centre, Blaenavon Male Voice Choir, Blaenavon Town Band and many historical walks through Blaenavon's 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 ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

''. The

is a scenic attraction rich in geological and historical interest. Blaenavon lost both of its passenger railway stations —

Blaenavon High Level Blaenavon High Level is a railway station on the preserved Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway, serving the World Heritage Site and town of Blaenavon, south Wales. It is currently the southernmost terminus of the P&BR, reopened thanks to an Order ...

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 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 ...

took place. The lower line's passenger service was among many in Gwent (Monmouthshire) which

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

de-classified papers reveal were axed because of rail congestion in the Newport area following the newly opened

Llanwern steelworks Llanwern steelworks is located in Llanwern, east of the City of Newport, South Wales. History Built for Richard Thomas & Baldwins Ltd, the works was originally referred to locally as "The RTB", before being called Spencer Works and later Lla ...

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.

Religious sites

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

Sport

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

Notable people

Notable Broadway and film actor

E. E. Clive Edward Erskholme Clive (28 August 1879 – 6 June 1940) was a Welsh stage actor and director who had a prolific acting career in Britain and America. He also played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood movies between 1933 and his death. Biog ...

, award-winning mystery writer Dorothy Simpson, and international rugby union players Mark Taylor (

), Ken Jones (Wales and British Lions and also Olympic athlete), John Perkins (Wales), Chris Huish (

)

Terry Cobner Terence John Cobner (born 10 January 1946)
Scrum.com is a former

Nick Thomas-Symonds Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (born 26 May 1980) is a British academic, barrister and politician who has been Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tor ...

, elected MP for Torfaen in 2015, was brought up in the town. The artist David Parfitt grew up in Blaenavon. Well known for his portraits and paintings of the River Thames, the influence of the hybrid rural-industrial Welsh valleys of the 1950s and early 1960s is clear in his early work, and continues to inspire his painting today.

References

External links

Old photos of BlaenavonWelsh Coal Mines - all the pits, all the historiesBlaenavon Town CouncilAerial photograph of Blaenavon in 1999Blaenavon Local History Society website
* {{authority control Towns in Torfaen World Heritage Sites in Wales Communities in Torfaen Electoral wards of Torfaen