Pontypool

Pontypool (Welsh: Pont-y-pŵl [ˌpɔntəˈpuːl]) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. As of 2021^[update], it has a population of 29,062.^{[republished census data verification needed]}

It is situated on the Afon Lwyd river in the county borough of Torfaen. Located at the eastern edge of the South Wales coalfields, Pontypool grew around industries including iron and steel production, coal mining, and the growth of the railways. A rather artistic manufacturing industry which also flourished here alongside heavy industry was Japanning, a type of lacquer ware.

Pontypool covers several areas, hamlets, villages and towns including New Inn, Griffithstown, Sebastopol (Panteg.) Abersychan, Cwmffrwdoer, Pontnewynydd, Trevethin, Penygarn, Wainfelin, Tranch, Brynwern, Pontymoile, Blaendare, Cwmynyscoy, Talywain, Garndiffaith, Pentwyn, and Varteg.

The name of the town in Welsh – Pont-y-pŵl – originates from a bridge ('pont') associated with a pool in the Afon Lwyd. The Welsh word pŵl is a borrowing from English pool and is found in other place-names in Gwent. Pontypool is an anglicised form of the Welsh name.

Pontypool has a notable history as one of the earliest industrial towns in Wales. The town and its immediate surroundings were home to significant industrial and technological innovations, with links to the iron industry dating back to the early fifteenth century when a bloomery furnace was established at Pontymoile. During the sixteenth century, largely due to the influence of the Hanbury family, the area developed its association with the iron industry and continued to consolidate its position in the seventeenth century, when the development of the town began in earnest. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the metallurgical and extractive industries of the area, along with the development of the canals and railways, provided the impetus to the expansion of Pontypool and its surrounding villages and communities.

The Afon Lwyd valley, in which Pontypool is situated, provided an abundance of resources for the manufacturing of iron, including coal, iron ore, charcoal and waterpower. The wider technological developments of the Tudor period, such as the utilisation of blast furnaces to produce iron, allowed for the greater exploitation of the mineral resources of south Wales. A blast furnace was in use at Monkswood, near Pontypool, from as early as 1536 and was followed by the erection of other blast furnaces in the area surrounding Pontypool. An ironworks was established in what later became Pontypool Park in c. 1575. Forges, where cast iron could be converted into wrought iron, were also developed and included Town Forge within Pontypool, which was in operation during the last quarter of the sixteenth century, and the Osborne Forge, near Pontnewynydd, which produced the renowned Osmond iron.

Richard Hanbury of Worcestershire, a notable entrepreneur, developed interests within the Pontypool area during the 1570s, acquiring and developing forges and furnaces in Monkswood, Cwmffrwdoer, Trosnant, Llanelly and Abercarn. Hanbury acquired leases and rights to utilise the raw materials of the wider area, including a large expanse of woodland to produce charcoal and some 800 acres of land to extract coal and iron-ore at Panteg, Pontymoile and Mynyddislwyn. Furthermore, he secured the rights to extract coal and iron-ore on Lord Abergavenny's Hills in and around Blaenavon. The Hanburys were also active at Cwmlickey, Lower Race and Blaendare during the seventeenth century as the demand for coal was met.

Major John Hanbury (1664–1734) acquired a reputation as an industrial pioneer and through the endeavours of Hanbury and his leading agents, Thomas Cooke, William Payne and Thomas Allgood, significant developments within the British tinplate industry were made in Pontypool, including the introduction of the world's first rolling for the production of iron sheets and blackplate at the Pontypool Park works in 1697. Tinplate was being produced at Pontypool from c. 1706, with an important tin mill in operation at Pontymoile during the early eighteenth century.