OUR TOWN
Welcome to Blaenavon, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site and among the most historically and geographically fascinating towns in the UK.
At almost 420m above sea level, it is a contender for the title of Wales’s highest town. The hills to the west of the town contain the source of the Afon Lwyd, the main river running through the county borough of Torfaen, South Wales’s easternmost valley.
The name Blaenavon literally means ‘front of the river’ or, loosely, ‘river's source’.
It is unique in having both one of the best-preserved late 18th century ironworks in the world and also a coal mining museum providing underground tours. In the words of UNESCO:
‘The area around Blaenavon is evidence of the pre-eminence of South Wales as the world's major producer of iron and coal in the 19th century. All the necessary elements can still be seen - coal and ore mines, quarries, a primitive railway system, furnaces, workers' homes, and the social infrastructure of their community.
‘Taking all these elements together, [Blaenavon] provides one of the prime areas in the world where the full social, economic and technological process of industrialisation through iron and coal production can be studied and understood.’ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/984
Officially, Blaenavon’s population peaked was at 12,469 in 1921, according to the census. However, by this point the town was entering into the post-war economic slump so may have already experienced some outward migration - which continued at a dramatic pace through the 1920s and 1930s and then steadily in the late C20th.
The period 1911-19 was relatively prosperous for Blaenavon, with the Welsh coal industry reaching its peak in 1913 and the First World War fuelling a demand for coal and steel. While hundreds of Blaenavon men left the town to fight, there was also inward migration from people working at the mines and steelworks and an influx of Belgian refugees.
The 2011 census shows the population as 6,055, which was the first census to show an increase for 90 years. And the construction over the past decade of hundreds of new houses means that by the next census, the population is likely to have risen quite a bit more.
The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000, one of only two Welsh World Heritage Sites along with the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. The third Welsh WHS is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which was inscribed in 2009.
BLAENAVON IRONWORKS
Blaenavon Ironworks is the most historically significant feature in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Blaenavon Industrial Landscape. Having begun production in 1789, the ironworks is the best-preserved blast furnace complex of its period and type in the world and one of the most important monuments to have survived from the early part of the Industrial Revolution.
Blaenavon may be small in terms of the number of shops and services it offers, but punches well above its weight when it comes to quality.
Broad Street and its vicinity has a number of niche traders alongside the sort of shops you’d expect to see on the local high street - but it also features several award-winning businesses.
INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE
UNESCO inscribed Blaenavon Industrial Landscape as a World Heritage Site in 2000. The Ironworks and Big Pit - together with the wider landscape with its relicts of mineral exploitation, manufacturing, transport and settlements – all tell the story of the iron and coal industry in South Wales in the 19th century.
Blaenavon’s Heritage Railway steam and diesel locomotives run at the highest altitude of any standard gauge preserved railway in England and Wales.
GARN LAKES
We see every challenge as an opportunity, and this initiative helps us ensure that our partners are better prepared to manage the unique situations they find themselves in. We are invested in an innovative approach that empowers our community and delivers the support they need, when they need it.