Blaenavon Ironworks

 
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Stack Square 1840s Kitchen

Blaenavon Ironworks

Facilities

  • Designated coach and car parking opposite site entrance. 
  • Toilets with hand washing facilities on site 
  • Visitor centre with gift shop 
  • Free site map & guide to the cottages & company shop 
  • Free teacher guide 
  • Education Discovery Room with 30 large ‘puzzle cubes’ and five ‘discovery stations’ 
  • Site interpretation which includes: 
    • five audio posts (information in Welsh and English) 
    • ten information panels 
    • exhibition with interactive models and information displays 
    • fully fitted 1840s ‘truck’ or company shop 
    • furnished cottages dressed in four periods - the 1790s, 1840s, 1920s and 1940s.

The Education Discovery Room is suitable for groups with up to 30 pupils – five adults are required to supervise activities and to ensure that the interactive stations are used appropriately. It is suggested that small pupil groups move around each station at ten minute intervals. Information and suggestions for ways of using each station are provided to teachers. Please allow one hour for discovery station activities.

The five discovery station activities and themes are:

  1. Delving Box - materials (coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, slag, cast iron, wrought iron)
  2. What’s in the cupboard? - 1840s food for the rich and poor
  3. What’s in my pocket? - 1840s playthings for poor children
  4. Who am I? - 1840s hats for rich and poor men, women & children
  5. How do we know about history? – lift the floorboards to find out about aspects of the 1840s

The puzzle cubes can be used as seating for pupils to eat lunch or can be assembled into two large images as a short self-led activity or as a ‘compare and contrast’ teaching resource. There are 12 images in total, two of which can be seen together at any time. Please allow up to 30 minutes for use as a self-led activity and up to 90 minutes as a teaching resource. Teaching ideas are supplied.

To fully understand the importance of Blaenavon Ironworks and to gain an insight into the lives of the people who worked there, we recommend visiting the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre on the same day. The World Heritage Centre is located about two minutes walk from the Blaenavon Ironworks.

 

 
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