Tredegar

Tredegar is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, situated in SE Wales. Located within the boundaries of Monmouthshire, In South Wales, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution. The famous Tredegar Iron Works located in Richmond, Virginia, US was named in honour of the town.

Pre-industrialisation:

Tredegar established as a modern town due to the natural resources existing there in the Sirhowy Valley. Some of the Natural resources are as follows:

• Iron ore
• Power production from the fast-flowing Sirhowy River
• Coal which used to produce coke
• Wood which could be cut for buildings, pit props, and burnt for fuel

By the start of 1700, the upper Sirhowy Valley was a natural well-wooded valley, consists of a few farms and the small iron works where coal and iron ore naturally had occurred together.

Governance

Relations with the Labour Party

It has very strong relations with Labour MPs. The history of the Labour Movement and Party in the UK. It is also famous as a birthplace of Aneurin Bevan who introduces the British National Health Service and who in the 1920’s was involved in the management of Tredegar General Hospital. Neil Kinnock born here in 1942, who was a leader of the Labour Party starting from 1983 to 1992, and lived there in his early life, also attended Georgetown Infants and Junior Schools between of this town from 1947 and 1953.

Architecture

Bedwellty House

It is a Grade II listed house and gardens. Initially a "low thatched-roof cottage", the old house was renovated in the year 1809. The present Bedwellty House was constructed in 1818 as a home for Samuel Homfray, whose Coal and Iron Works were providing most of the jobs.

The surrounding 26-acre Victorian garden and park, designed initially as a Dutch garden around which one could walk or ride without being opposed by the gate, and fence, cover the Long Shelter, also a Grade II listed structure constructed for the Chartist Movement.