Blaenau Gwent. Geographically it is made up of three valleys - the Sirhowy, Ebbw Fach and Ebbw Fawr. Industrially – it has a fierce history forged in iron, coal, and steel over more than 200 years. Its people are proud, industrious, friendly and independent-minded.
Deep high-sided valleys, rural and mountainous to the north, more mellow to the south and west. It is a place dotted with hidden lakes, echoes of the clash of Chartism, and skies which once ran blood-red with belching smoke from its many iron-furnaces.
Blaenau Gwent is now in another period of great transition as it remakes and re-finds a purpose for itself with the loss of those once all-powerful industries.
The story of Blaenau Gwent is one of change. Welcome to our story, and welcome to our challenge.
As you click on the various areas of the map of Blaenau Gwent you will be able to see for your self how its character, and that history, changes from place to place.
The fact that there are now 70,000 people living here best reflects the way the industrial revolution swept right across this area.
Two hundred years ago there were barely 140 people living in the larger Ebbw Valley (the Fawr) then came wave after wave after wave of heavy industry.
The great ironworks at Ebbw Vale in 1778. A rush of coal mines up and running within a decade to serve it. And then its eventual transformation into the largest steelworks in Europe, so important to Britain that it was targetted by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
Gone. All gone now. Where the German bombers failed, cutback after cutback succeeded – in sweeping away every trace of the former Iron and Steel ‘Works’.
Razed to the ground, new building is taking place and with it another fresh start, with training, education, clusters of new work, alongside a new hospital and leisure facilities.
Then and Now - Blaenau Gwent:
+ In 1801 the population was 1,606. By 1911 it was 51,656. Now it is just short of 70,000 people.
+ In 1871 159 babies in each 1000 died in their 1st year. By 2001 it was 5 in 1000.
+ In 1951 26% of households had no toilet. By 2001 that had fallen to 0.2%.
+ In 1841: 94% of men were ‘working class’. By 2001 47% were in working class jobs.
Then and Now facts: with thanks to: www.visionofbritain.org.uk.
There may be tens of thousands of Beaufort bricks in the structure of the Empire State Building; there may be miles of steel rails all over Britain from the Ebbw Vale ‘Works’ (as was); and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in all its glory may be testament to the steel and iron which came out of these Blaenau Gwent valleys; but that was then, this is now, and our challenge is to create a new future for ourselves.