Geography of Blaenau Gwent - Brecon Beacons National Park, Abertillery, Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Black Mountains, Wales, Clydach Gorge (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 25. Chapters: Brecon Beacons National Park, Abertillery, Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Black Mountains, Wales, Clydach Gorge, Fforest Fawr Geopark, A465 road, South Wales Traverse, Nantyglo, Mynydd Llangatwg, Beacons Way, Coity Mountain, Mynydd Llangynidr, Sarn Helen, Beaufort, Ebbw Vale, Blaina, Sirhowy Valley, Cwm Clydach National Nature Reserve, Cefn Manmoel, Mynydd Carn-y-cefn, Aberystruth, Mynydd Bedwellte, Rassau, Brecon Beacons Park Society, River Clydach, Monmouthshire, Ebbw River, Sirhowy River, Long Drag. Excerpt: Tredegar (pronounced ) is a town situated on the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in south-east Wales. Located within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales. The historic Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, United States was named in honour of the town. The name Tredegar can be explained as tref deg erw. Deg erw is Welsh for "ten acres" or "ten-acre"; tref means "town," although its original meaning was "farm" or "estate." Tredegar grew as a developed town thanks to the natural resources it had within the Sirhowy Valley, namely: Hence by the start of the 1700s, the upper Sirhowy Valley was a natural well wooded valley, consisting of a few farms and the occasional small iron works where iron ore and coal naturally had occurred together. The first recorded iron works in the Sirhowy Valley was Pont Gwaith Yr Hearn, developed by two Bretons and worked by men from Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil. The Sirhowy Iron Works was erected in 1750 by Mr Kettle of Shropshire. In 1778 Kettle sold this ironworks to Thomas Atkinson and William Barrow, who came to the area from London. They developed it as the first coal fired furnace, so men were employed to dig coal at Bryn Bach and Nantybwch, the first small scale coal mining operation in ...