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Blaenavon
Blaenavon (Welsh: Blaenafon) 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 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 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 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 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 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 was not emigration but a decrease in birth rate.
Blaenavon
Blaenavon (Welsh: Blaenafon) 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 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 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 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 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 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 was not emigration but a decrease in birth rate.
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