Forge Side ( Welsh : Ger yr Efail ) was the site of an ironworks started in 1836. The development was soon abandoned, but resumed in 1859. A settlement of houses was built for the workers.
33-552: The rows of workers' cottages, a chapel, and a few other buildings are all that remain. The small village is 0.5 miles south-west of Blaenavon 0.5 miles south-east of Big Pit, and is in the community of Blaenavon, in the north of Torfaen county borough, in South east Wales . The Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company was formed in 1836, and purchased the Blaenavon Ironworks . The new managing director, James Ashwell , started to build
66-599: 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 , 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. A railway viaduct was constructed in 1790;
99-415: A new ironworks, to be called Forgeside, on a pocket of freehold land, so that the new company would be free of the rents, royalties, and insecurity of the leasehold of the old ironworks. Foundations were built for blast furnaces, forges and rolling mills. Within a few years there was a downturn in the industry, Ashwell was forced to resign in 1841, and the new works abandoned. Building eventually resumed when
132-657: A rugby team, Forgeside RFC, which currently (as of 2016) play in the Swalec National League Division 3 East D. The club also has under 7's, under 9's, and under 10's teams. Forgeside AFC was formed as a new football club in 2015. The team includes a number of former players from Blaenavon Blues and received a grant of £500 for kit and training equipment from Blaenavon Leisure and Sports Trust (BLAST). 51°46′12″N 3°05′44″W / 51.77006°N 3.09556°W / 51.77006; -3.09556 Blaenavon Blaenavon ( Welsh : Blaenafon )
165-586: A slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and a row of houses. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees. The NCB's Coal Research Establishment (CRE) at Stoke Orchard in Gloucestershire was founded in 1950 with Jacob Bronowski as Director of Research. It closed following privatisation of
198-680: 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 . 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. St Peter's Church
231-609: 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. Parts of the town and surrounding country form the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape , selected as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000 . Blaenavon literally means "head of
264-475: Is an electoral ward of Torfaen County Borough Council . Blaenavon is twinned with Coutras in France. The town lies near the source of the Afon Lwyd river, north of Cwmbran . 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
297-557: The First and Second World Wars. The Sankey Commission in 1919 gave R. H. Tawney , Sidney Webb and Sir Leo Chiozza Money the opportunity to advocate nationalisation, but it was rejected. Coal reserves were nationalised during the war in 1942 and placed under the control of the Coal Commission , but the mining industry remained in private hands. At the time, many coal companies were small, although some consolidation had taken place in
330-480: 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. Parts of the town and surrounding country form the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape , selected as
363-525: The Forgeside work was sold for scrap in 1934. Very little remains of the works, although an electricity power house, built for the works in 1920, survives, and is now a Grade II listed building. Two of the terraced rows of cottages, Rows A and B, were demolished in the late 1970s. The Zion Baptist Chapel, built in 1875 with a schoolroom added in 1885, and Coity House, built for the manager of the works around 1860 are both Grade II listed buildings. Forge Side has
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#1732905301209396-693: The NCB and the formation of its successor, the British Coal Corporation . On 21 October 1966, a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip above the Welsh village of Aberfan , near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales caused the Aberfan disaster . The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village and overlaid a natural spring. Heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as
429-604: The NCB employed nearly 800,000 workers which was four percent of Britain's total workforce. Its national headquarters were established in Hobart House, London. The formal duties of the National Coal Board (defined by section 1 of the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946) were: (a) working and getting the coal in Great Britain, to the exclusion of any other person; (b) securing the efficient development of
462-488: 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
495-399: The aftermath of the 1972 miners' strike envisaged that the coal industry would replace 40 million tons of obsolete capacity and ageing pits while maintaining its output. By 1983, the NCB would invest £3,000 million on developing new collieries. In 1984, it was alleged that the NCB had a list of collieries earmarked for closure and its chairman, Ian MacGregor indicated that the board
528-531: The coal mining industry. The Stoke Orchard library was safeguarded after closure and is now held by the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers . The Mining Research and Development Establishment was formed in 1969 by merger of the Central Engineering Establishment and Mining Research Establishment to undertake research into and testing of mining equipment and procedures. It
561-401: The coal-mining industry; and (c) making supplies of coal available, of such qualities and sizes, in such quantities and at such prices, as may seem to them best calculated to further the public interest in all respects, including the avoidance of any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage. In 1947, about half the collieries were in need of immediate attention and a development programme
594-495: The country read, "This colliery is now managed by the National Coal Board on behalf of the people". Opencast operations were taken over on 1 April 1952. The NCB acquired 958 collieries, the property of about 800 companies. Compensation of £164,660,000 was paid to the owners for the collieries and £78,457,000 to former owners and for other assets such as 55 coke ovens, 85 brickworks and 20 smokeless fuel plants. The collieries it had acquired varied considerably in size and output. Coal
627-643: The end of the 1950s, and in 1957 the coal industry began to contract. Between 1958 and 1959, 85 collieries closed. In 1960, Alf Robens became the chairman of the NCB, and he introduced a policy concentrating on the most productive pits. During his ten-year tenure, productivity increased by 70%, but with far fewer pits and a much reduced workforce. In 1967, the NCB reorganised its structure into 17 new areas each employing about 20,000 men. In 1956, 700,000 men produced 207 million tons of coal; by 1971, fewer than 290,000 workers were producing 133 million tons at 292 collieries. The 1974 Plan of Coal produced in
660-442: The mid 1970s, the activities of Coal Products Division were transferred to two new companies; National Smokeless Fuels Ltd and Thomas Ness Ltd, although they remained wholly owned by the NCB. In 1952, the NCB established a film unit. The board was keen to train its staff and new recruits and initiated a scheme to produce technical films as well as commissioning films from outside companies. More than nine hundred films were made before
693-598: 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
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#1732905301209726-422: The puddling forge was opened in 1859 and engines for the rolling mills were bought in 1860. The terraced cottages for the workers were built on a grid plan, unimaginatively called Row A, Row B, Row C, Row D, and Row E. typically indicative of the attitude of the 19th century employers to their workers. The works closed in 1911, re-opened for munitions work in 1914–18, and briefly re-opened again in 1924–5. Much of
759-733: 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
792-541: The structure disappeared and was unearthed in a 2001 episode of the archaeology television programme Time Team . 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
825-401: The years before the war. The NCB was one of a number of public corporations created by Clement Attlee 's post-war Labour government to manage nationalised industries. The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 received royal assent on 12 July 1946 and the NCB was formally constituted on 15 July, with Lord Hyndley as its chairman. On 1 January 1947 a notice posted at every colliery in
858-638: Was based in Bretby, Derbyshire. Following the rationalisation of the NCB from 1985, the MRDE merged with the Mining Department. The NCB operated extensive industrial railway systems at its collieries, employing steam traction until autumn 1982 when Bold Colliery ended regular use of steam locomotives. NCB subsidiaries managed coal based chemical products (Coal Products Division) and the production of helmets and other mining equipment (Tredomen Engineering Ltd). In
891-474: Was begun. Between 1947 and 1956, the NCB spent more than £550 million on major improvements and new sinkings, much of it to mechanise the coal-getting process underground and by 1957 Britain's collieries were producing cheaper coal than anywhere in Europe. The Plan for Coal produced in 1950 aimed at increasing output from 184 million to 250 million tons by 1970. Competition from cheap oil imports arrived in
924-695: Was brought up in the town. 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 "vesting day", 1 January 1947. In 1987, the NCB was renamed the British Coal Corporation , and its assets were subsequently privatised. Collieries were taken under government control during
957-598: Was constructed in 1804, gifted to the parish by Thomas Hill and Samuel Hopkins. Blaenavon Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1906. The club closed in 1937. 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,
990-461: Was looking to reduce output by 4 million tons, a contributory factor in the 1984-85 miners' strike . The strike was one of the longest and most bitter in history and caused great suffering for the striking miners. During the strike, the NCB lost markets and 23 collieries had closed before the end of 1985. On 5 March 1987, the Coal Industry Act 1987 received royal assent, signalling the end of
1023-603: Was mined from seams that varied from 20 to 200 inches thick and the average pit produced 245,000 tons annually. More than a third of collieries produced less than 100,000 tons and 50 collieries produced more than 700,000 tons. The coal board divided the country into divisions, corresponding to the major coalfields, and each division was divided into areas with an output of approximately 4 million tons. The board also took over power stations at some collieries and railway sidings. It managed an estate of more than 140,000 houses and more than 200,000 acres of farmland. At its inception
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1056-613: Was not emigration but a decrease in birth rate. The Blaenavon Coal and Iron Company developed the Big Pit coalworks with adjoining steel works particularly for rail manufacture. The steel-making and coal mining industries followed, boosting the town's population to over 20,000 at one time before 1890. Since 1988, part of this site has been the Big Pit National Coal Museum . 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
1089-565: 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. Blaenavon is a community represented by Blaenavon Town Council and
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