| The landscapes to the north of Blaenavon Ironworks comprise one of the area's most precious historical monuments. It is possible within this area to gain an understanding of the ways in which all the raw materials necessary for making iron were obtained - coal, iron ore, fireclay and limestone. The areas around Garn-yr-erw, Pwll-Du and Pen-ffordd-goch appear at first sight to be wholly disordered, to be nothing more than random dumps of spoil. However, closer examination reveals evidence of the earliest periods of mining and quarrying in the area, phased relationships, and patterns of mineral extraction over several generations. Coal, fireclay and iron ore nodules were found together in the coal measures of the Afon Lwyd valley and the mountain top. Limestone was brought from the escarpment on the north side of Pwll-Du and the Blorenge. | |
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Hill's Pits The mountain north of Blaenavon Ironworks ( 1 ) is dense with man-made features from mineral exploration. Scours and adit mines are visible to the east ( 2 ). Shaft mines sunk in the western area include Hill's Pits of 1844 ( 3), Balance Pit and New Pit ( 4 ) with their larger tips, associated settlement remains, and reservoirs for steam engines and water balances. Ponds and contour watercourses can be seen throughout the landscape ( 5 ). The primitive railway from Hill's Pits |
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| Cwm Llanwenarth Limestone for Blaenavon Ironworks ( 1 ) was obtained from a series of quarries in the narrow Carboniferous Limestone outcrop (shaded green) north of the Coal Measures (shaded brown). Limestone was first carried across the mountain ( 2 ), but by 1817 Hill's Tramroad ( 3) gave access through Pwll-Du tunnel. One of the principal sources of limestone was Pwll-Du quarry ( 4 ) which survives with its associated tips, the tramroad around its head and the water balance lift ( 5 ), which was supplied from reservoirs and watercourses above ( 6 ). Iron ore and coal scourings are also visible ( 7 ). |
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| Pen-fford-goch Blaenavon lies at the north eastern outcrop of the South Wales Coalfield (shaded brown). Scouring with water from temporary ponds and watercourses ( 1 ) took place from the seventeenth century. Datable scouring features are well preserved ( 2 ). Those on the north had ceased by 1817 when the reservoir for Garn-Ddyrys Forge was built ( 3 ). Adit mines were driven into the outcrop before 1812 and their approaches and tips can be seen, together with a collapsed example ( 4 ). Primitive bell pits ( 5 ), and opencast operations for World War Two ( 6 ) are intact. Above Pwll-Du quarry ( 7 ) can be seen the limestone road across the mountain ( 8 ), a tramroad of 1796 ( 9 ), Hill's Tramroad ( 10 ) and the Dyne Steel incline across the mountain ( 11 ). The Carboniferous Limestone outcrop is shaded green. | |
Interpreting the Landscape
The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape illustrates with clarity the early formative stages of the Industrial Revolution with respect to the crucial developments which took place in ironmaking and coal mining in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The development of the landscape historically was specifically in response to the geological conditions and resources available and the constraints of the isolated upland environment.
The completeness and representativeness make it one of the best places in the world to gain an understanding of historic mining processes and of the human experience of coalmining.
These aerial photographs and supporting text and diagrams illustrate the extent and the complex character of the industrial landscape.
