23-544: Bedwellty is a small village in Caerphilly County Borough in south Wales . The village stands on a ridge of high ground between the Rhymney and Sirhowy valleys. The village comprises St Sannan's parish church, public house and a few houses. The register of St Sannan's Church dates from 1624, which qualifies Bedwellty as an ancient parish . Historically the parish lay in the county of Monmouthshire ,
46-640: A single community called New Tredegar. The remainder of Bedwellty urban district, comprising the Argoed, Blackwood, Cefn Fforest, and Pengam wards, passed to the Islwyn borough of Gwent , where they became a single community called Bedwellty. The Aberbargoed area was later transferred from New Tredegar community to Bargoed community. Bedwellty community was abolished in 1982, being divided between four new communities called Argoed, Blackwood, Cefn Fforest, and Pengam. Further local government reorganisation in 1996 saw
69-479: A year and employing nearly three thousand people. The coal eventually became depleted and the colliery closed in 1967. Most of the site was cleared but the East Winding House survives and is now a Grade II listed building , and a museum of the coal industry in the area has been opened on the site. All the pits in the valley were closed by the end of the twentieth century; the spoil heaps were removed and
92-438: Is a county borough in the south-east of Wales . It is governed by Caerphilly County Borough Council . Its main and largest town is Caerphilly . Other towns in the county borough are Bedwas , Risca , Ystrad Mynach , Newbridge , Blackwood , Bargoed , New Tredegar and Rhymney . Caerphilly County Borough is in southeast Wales and straddles the border between the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire . It
115-489: Is bordered by Cardiff to the southwest, Newport to the southeast, Torfaen to the east, Blaenau Gwent to the northeast, Powys to the north, Merthyr Tydfil to the northwest and Rhondda Cynon Taf to the west. The northern part of the borough is formed by the broad expanse of the Rhymney Valley . The Rhymney River rises in the hills in the north and flows southwards for about thirty miles, looping round to
138-534: Is fourteenth century and contains six bells. The church was restored in 1858 and repaired in 1882. The exterior is whitewashed. The Bedwellty Poor Law Union was established in 1849, covering the two parishes of Bedwellty and Aberystruth . A workhouse was built to serve the area at Georgetown in Tredegar, opening in 1852. On 19 June 1874, Ebbw Vale , Rhymney and Tredegar local boards of health and local government districts were formed, each including parts of
161-440: Is now home to an ambulance station and various small industries. There are also developments with a new retail outlet in the area where the tip once stood. The large tip at Bedwellty is still there, but has been grassed over and now looks much like the surrounding countryside. Aberbargoed now has an extensive area of grasslands that are protected due to the finding of the rare marsh fritillary butterfly , Euphydryas aurinia in
184-633: Is within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire . Aber refers to a "confluence" or "mouth" of a river and bargod is a "border". Coal mining operations in Bargoed Colliery started in 1897 when the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company started to sink the shaft. In 1901, the "Ras Las" nine-foot seam was discovered at a depth of 625 yards. The north and south shafts were completed. In November 1903, Sir Alfred Thomas , MP for East Glamorgan , started
207-634: The Freedom of the County Borough of Caerphilly. There are many rugby union clubs throughout the county. These are: Aberbargoed Aberbargoed ( Welsh : Aberbargod ) is a town in the County Borough of Caerphilly , Wales . Aberbargoed once contained the largest ever colliery waste tip in Europe, although this has now been reclaimed and turned into a country park . The town
230-573: The civil parish . The remainder of the parish of Bedwellty became a local government district on 29 May 1891. When parish and district councils were established under the Local Government Act 1894 , the Bedwellty Local Government District became Bedwellty Urban District. The 1894 act also directed that parishes could not straddle district boundaries, and so the parts of Bedwellty parish which were within
253-660: The Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Tredegar urban districts became separate civil parishes. Bedwellty urban district included the hamlets and villages of Aberbargoed , Argoed , Blackwood , New Tredegar , and Pengam . In 1926, Bedwellty and Mynyddislwyn urban districts formed the West Monmouthshire Omnibus Board to ensure local control of bus services. In 1935, a County Review Order altered the boundaries between Bedwellty and Mynyddislwyn. Bedwellty Urban District Council established its headquarters at
SECTION 10
#1732780573192276-499: The Rhymney Valley and Islwyn districts united to become the county borough of Caerphilly , bringing the former area of Bedwellty Urban District back within one administrative area. The area of the former Bedwellty Urban District now corresponds to the communities of Argoed, Blackwood, Cefn Fforest, New Tredegar, Pengam, and parts of the communities of Bargoed and Darran Valley . The parliamentary constituency of Bedwellty
299-473: The Rhymney Valley which gave the lessees the right to mine coal and iron ore. Other such transactions followed, pit shafts were dug and the coal industry developed. By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were forty coalmines in the valley. One of the pits sunk in the late nineteenth century was the Elliot Colliery. At its peak before World War I, it was producing over a million tons of coal
322-484: The area was landscaped so that it is not now apparent that the valley ever had an industrial past. The county borough was formed on 1 April 1996 by the merger of the Rhymney Valley district of Mid Glamorgan with the Islwyn borough of Gwent . In 2008, as a result of representations from different communities in the borough, a draft plan was put forward proposing various changes to the borders between communities. The following people and military units have received
345-466: The corner of Commercial Road and Bedwellty Road in Aberbargoed. After the council's abolition the building was converted into flats and renamed Blaen-y-Cwm. The urban district was abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974. Its area was split: the wards of Aberbargoed , Cwmsyfiog, New Tredegar , and Phillipstown passed to the Rhymney Valley district of Mid Glamorgan , where they became
368-503: The east just to the north of Caerphilly before reaching the Bristol Channel . Some of the larger towns are Bedwas , Risca , Ystrad Mynach , Newbridge , Blackwood , Bargoed , New Tredegar and Rhymney . The valley also includes the communities of Abertysswg , Fochriw , Pontlottyn , Tir-Phil , Brithdir , New Tredegar , Aberbargoed , Rhymney and Ystrad Mynach , and the towns of Bargoed and Caerphilly. Located on
391-561: The edge of the South Wales Coalfield this area was sparsely populated with livestock husbandry being the main occupation. Farmers in their remote farmhouses on the windswept pastures might dig themselves some bucketfuls of coal for their hearth. Things began to change with the development of the iron industry, the start of the Industrial Revolution . In 1752, a 99-year lease was granted for a parcel of land in
414-489: The engines to raise the first four trams of coal. By 1910, the pit was employing 1,943 miners and was the largest coal mine in the Rhymney Valley . On 10 December 1908, it broke the world record for production when a ten-hour shift produced 3,562 tons of coal . It further broke its own record on 23 April 1909 when 4,020 tons were raised in a ten-hour shift. Bargoed Colliery closed on 4 June 1977. By this time, only 360 men were employed there. The population of Pont Aberbargoed
437-434: The hundred of Wentloog , Tredegar County Court District, the rural deanery of Bedwellty, the archdeaconry of Monmouth and the diocese of Llandaff . Several towns based on the iron industry expanded within the parish boundary, including from west to east, Rhymney , Tredegar and Ebbw Vale , which gradually gained administrative independence from Bedwellty between the 1870s and 1890s. A Bedwellty Local Government District
460-466: Was 351 in the census of 1851. Aberbargoed reached a peak in 1961 of 5,157, and had dropped to 3,882 according to the 1991 Census. The coal-mining waste tip that lay between Bargoed and Aberbargoed once towered to a height of 400 feet in the 1970s. The local school had a Plant a tree in '73 campaign in an attempt to make it more pleasurable on the eye. The tip has now been levelled and the area has been reclaimed with walkways. The colliery has gone and
483-654: Was created in 1918 covering a much larger area. It continued to exist until 1983, when it was replaced by the constituency of Islwyn . The member of parliament for the Bedwellty and Islwyn constituencies from 1970 to 1995 was Neil Kinnock , Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992, who took the title Baron Kinnock, of Bedwellty in the County of Gwent in 2005. Caerphilly County Borough Caerphilly County Borough ( Welsh : Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili )
SECTION 20
#1732780573192506-550: Was established for the rest of the parish in 1891, becoming an urban district in 1894. Bedwellty Urban District was abolished in 1974, being divided between the Rhymney Valley and Islwyn districts. A community called Bedwellty was then created for the part of the former urban district which lay within Islwyn. The community of Bedwellty was abolished in 1982, being divided into the four communities of Argoed , Blackwood , Cefn Fforest , and Pengam . The original ancient parish
529-417: Was very large, including most of the upper Ebbw and Sirhowy valleys. The first census, of 1801 documented that 619 people lived in the parish, which then included Rhymney and Tredegar . A number of coal mining communities grew up in the parish, and in the 19th century these became separate local government units. The church of St Sannan was built in a thirteenth century Gothic style. The church tower
#191808