Blaenavon Industrial Landscape

• Official name: Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
• Location: Wales, United Kingdom
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 2000

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in South Wales. It is one of more than thirty World Heritage Sites located throughout the United Kingdom (UK). The town of Blaenavon was one of the world’s largest producers of coal and iron in the nineteenth century and the best-preserved iron town in the UK. Visitors to the site can see preserved mines, transportation systems, homes and cottages, railways, canals, and other structures. The production of iron and coal in Blaenavon during the Industrial Revolution helped drive technological change throughout the world. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is in Torfaen County Borough, Wales. The site is roughly 8,100 acres (3,300 hectares) and includes many important historical buildings in and around the town of Blaenavon.

One of the most important features of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is the Blaenavon Ironworks, which helped create the town. The ironworks is made of locally produced stone and has the remains of blast furnaces and cast houses. It also has the remnants of a water tower. The ironworks was the first location in Blaenavon to be protected because of its historic value.

The Big Pit National Coal Museum is also a significant part of the site. Big Pit was an active mine that has been transformed into a tourist attraction. People can travel into it and tour the mine. The museum provides background information about the mine and the rest of Blaenavon. The mine has guided tours and exhibits about the coal miners who worked in the pit.

Blaenavon Industrial Landscape also has other important sites that were built to help facilitate iron production in the town. The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal—which began as two separate canals—was first constructed in the late 1700s to help transport the iron produced at the ironworks. The canal still flows through the site today. Part of the Blaenavon and Pontypool Railway has also been preserved at the site. The railway transported coal, iron ore, and other materials in the area.

The Blaenavon World Heritage Center was built from the former St Peter’s School, which was built in the early 1800s to educate the ironworkers’ children. The center has educational workshops and hosts activities for visitors. It teaches about the history of the area from prehistory to the present.

History

Before the Industrial Revolution, the area of southern Wales, which is now Blaenavon, was a sparsely populated valley with little human development. The only common building in the area was a church built in the Middle Ages that sat on a hill overlooking the valley where the town would be located. However, the area’s natural resources—which included iron ore and coal—would eventually help create the town.

In the late 1700s, the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and brought with it technological advances and cultural changes that would change world history. The invention of the steam engine and other new technologies drove a demand for metal and fuel. Steam engines were powered by coal and often built with iron. Therefore, coal and iron production became integral parts of the Industrial Revolution.

Great Britain developed factories and industries that produced everyday goods as well as machines that other companies used to make goods. As Great Britain became known as the “workshop of the world” and produced more and more products, transportation infrastructure had to be developed to ship goods to be sold. New technology was invented to make transportation more efficient on rivers, canals, and railroads. The steam-powered trains and ships required coal for fuel, and some of their parts were constructed from iron. Therefore, any locations with iron ore or deposits began to be heavily mined in the late 1700s.

Historians believe that iron ore was extracted from the hills around what would become Blaenavon beginning in the late 1600s. However, at first, the iron ore was used locally for small-scale production. By the late 1700s, demand for iron ore had become extremely strong throughout Great Britain, and three businesspeople, Thomas Hill, Thomas Hopkins, and Benjamin Pratt, saw an opportunity to make money in the area. They built the Blaenavon Ironworks, which was the second-largest ironworks in Wales when it was completed. The ironworks produced large amounts of metal, and production increased over time. By the end of the 1700s, the ironworks produced more than approximately 5,400 tons of iron a year.

The construction of the ironworks resulted in a huge demand for labor in the region. Jobseekers moved to the region from England, Ireland, and other parts of Wales. This increased the demand for houses and infrastructure. Houses for workers and coal mines and quarries were built. Canals, primitive railways, and paths were built to help transport resources and goods. The town of Blaenavon grew quickly.

Demand and production continued to increase throughout the early 1800s. The ironworks added more blast furnaces to increase production. By the mid-1810s, Blaenavon ironworks produced about 14,000 tons of iron each year. In 1817, the Garnddyrys Forge was built to convert pig iron to wrought iron by reducing the amount of carbon in the metal. Eventually, the ironworks produced steel from the pig iron.

In the late 1800s, the demand for iron and steel decreased, while the demand for exported coal increased. Coal from the area was shipped throughout the world. Because of this, the town continued to have a demand for workers and resources. Coal production peaked in Wales in the 1910s. In 1913, approximately one in four adult men in Wales worked in coal production. However, by the 1940s, coal production began to decline, and the Bit Pit mine—the last remaining large coal mine—closed in 1980. Steel production at the ironworks had ended in 1938.

In the 1970s, the people of Blaenavon worked to preserve the original ironworks, which was threatened by new development. In the 1980s, the town center received conservation status, so many other historical buildings and sites were saved from being replaced by new construction. Because so many of the area’s historic buildings and sites were preserved, the area was named a World Heritage Site in 2000.

Significance

UNESCO World Heritage Sites are chosen for their cultural, historical, and scientific importance. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape became a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its cultural and historical significance in helping to propel the Industrial Revolution and change world history. When UNESCO names a World Heritage Site, the organization requires the site to meet at least one of ten criteria related to significance. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape site meets two of the ten criteria. It meets criterion ii, which states that a site bears “a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization.” The site in Blaenavon does this as it provides visitors with information about the culture and society of the 1800s. For example, the site shows the class differences between the workers and the industry owners. Its features, such as the ironworks and the Bit Pit coal mine, also indicate what the economy and society were like in the 1800s in Wales. The features, such as the canals, mines, quarries, and railroads, also show how natural resources were required to produce products that spurred the economy.

The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape also meets criterion iv, which states that the site is an “example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.” The site meets this criterion because of its many preserved buildings and sites. The ironworks, worker homes, coal mines, canals, railroads, and other features comprise an example of industry and life during the Industrial Revolution, a time that significantly changed how people lived.

The site also meets the UNESCO standards for integrity and authenticity. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is authentic because it has preserved the elements and monuments that made its industry prosper. The ironworks, mines, quarries, worker houses, canals, and railroads were all necessary for the industrial processes. However, the site required a great deal of conservation work after its inscription in 2000 because many of its features were not properly conserved at that time.

The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is protected by numerous laws and policies. The UK has several laws, such as the Planning Act (1990) and the Ancient Monuments Archeological Areas Act (1979), that help protect historic sites. Local governments and organizations also work together to protect the site from new development. The site also has a management plan to ensure that it can host visitors while maintaining its integrity. Officials have also continued conservation efforts throughout the site and in adjoining areas. Through a comprehensive management plan and the cooperation of the Welsh government and heritage organizations, the preservation and protection of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape continued in the 2020s. A multimillion-dollar plan, called the Townscape Heritage Programme, running from 2019 to 2025, aimed to make further improvements.

Bibliography

“Blaenavon: Historical Processes, Themes and Background.” Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, www.ggat.org.uk/cadw/historic‗landscape/blaenavon/english/Blaenavon‗Features.htm. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

“Blaenavon Industrial Landscape.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whc.unesco.org/en/list/984. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

“Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site.” Welsh Government, cadw.gov.wales/advice-support/historic-assets/other-historic-assets/world-heritage-sites/blaenavon-industrial. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

“Blaenavon Townscape Heritage Programme 2019-2025.” Torfaen County Borough, 24 Jan. 2024, www.torfaen.gov.uk/en/PlanningAndDevelopment/Regeneration/Blaenavon-Townscape-Heritage-Programme/Blaenavon-Townscape-Heritage-Programme-THP-2019-2025.aspx. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Bruxelles, Simon de. “Blaenavon: Out of the Pits.” UNESCO Sources, no. 131, Feb. 2001, p. 6. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=4263342&site=ehost-live. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Hudson, Pat. “British History - The Workshop of the World.” BBC, 29 Mar. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/workshop‗of‗the‗world‗01.shtml. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Sardar, Ziauddin. “So Close and Yet So Despised.” New Statesman, vol. 129, no. 4516, Dec. 2000, p. 21. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=p3h&AN=3885015&site=ehost-live. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

“World Heritage Site Status.” Visit Blaenavon, www.visitblaenavon.co.uk/en/world-heritage-site-status. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.