Blaenavon Ironworks

Upon entering the site and proceeding through the ticket office, you are presented with a cast iron model of what the ironworks would have looked like during their heyday in 1863. It gives you a preview of what you will see during your visit. Notice the 6 tall blast furnaces against the cliff with the casting houses below. This is connected by pipes that blew air from the blowing engine opposite the great chimney stack behind, surrounded by workers’ cottages.

Head over to the two surviving casting houses. This is where molten iron would have been tapped from the blast furnaces behind and run into the casts pressed into oily sand. The iron is cooled and then removed for delivery or further processing.

As you head towards the entrance of the casting houses, notice the ruined remains of the blowing system. Hot air was blown along these pipes into the furnaces by a blowing engine. This blast of hot air is required for the chemical reaction and to maintain the required temperature in the furnace to produce molten iron. The bricks of the pipes are lined with silica bricks made by S. J. Graigddu of Cwmnantddu. Such bricks are known for their ability to withstand high temperatures and were commonly used to line furnaces and other equipment that was constantly hot.

As you enter the first casting house, you will see an assortment of items strewn around the edges exhibiting what was commonly made at the ironworks, such as rails, wheels, bolts, rods, braces, and other items.

Enter the second casting house for a visual exhibition of the casting process. The key raw materials for creating iron for casting are on display: iron ore, coke, and limestone. Also, on display are the products of this process, namely finished iron ingots and slag, a waste product that would have been dumped in the surrounding valley.

Exit the casting houses and head to furnaces 4 and 5 to the right. Take note of the two cast iron columns on the way. They were erected in 1850 to carry the blast main pipe from the blowing engine house opposite to the rear of the furnaces.

Furnaces 4 and 5 were built in 1810 and modified in 1881 to cast iron ingots for a new method of steel production that resulted in a significantly higher quality of product. What you see is the furnaces in their modified form; however, much of the stone was removed in 1911 to build a church.

Approach furnace 4 for a closer look at its hearth or tympe. You may also poke your head through the arch for a view of the furnace core shaped like a tall cone.

As you exit furnaces 4 and 5, you can make out the remains of rails running off through what would have been the adjacent casting house. Wagons would have run on these rails transporting finished iron, cast products, and waste slag away from the ironworks for delivery or dumping.

Next to furnaces 4 and 5 is the gigantic balance tower. This is where wagons of raw materials entering on rails at the top would have been lowered 80 feet by a hydraulic lift to the bottom, ready for loading into the ironworks. We will head up to the top of the tower later and talk more about this ingenious mechanism that operated solely via the weight of water.

Head back to the entrance and take the path to the left that leads up to the balancing tower. On the way, you will pass the foundations of the blowing engine house. This engine was powered by steam created by burning coal. The steam moved a piston through an air cylinder. As the piston moves, air in the cylinder is blown out through a pipe, which is connected to the blast furnaces opposite, providing the oxygen required to produce iron.

Historically, oxygen was blown into furnaces via large bellows called tuyeres, which were powered by waterwheels; however, Blaenavon Ironworks was the first in the world to use a steam-powered blowing engine in 1789. It was manufactured by Boulton & Watt; however, the remains you see today are of a later engine that was installed in 1860. Notice the wheel pit in front, which would have been connected to the vertical piston and cylinder above.

Take the path up the hill through the arch of the balance tower. Head towards the top of the furnaces for a look at the calcining kilns. This is where lumps of iron ore were roasted to remove sulphur and moisture before it was then loaded into the top of the furnace in front.

Continue up the path to the top of the balance tower. This is where a tramway, a railway where horse-drawn wagons were pulled, terminated. The rails would have run from the quarries and mines in the surrounding hills to the tower in front. The tower was built in 1839, as part of a modernisation programme by James Ashworth, managing director of the Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company. Originally linked to the high ground behind by a wooden bridge; later replaced by the surviving stone bridge.

Located at the top of the path are five sculptures of ponies made out of cast recycled iron. They were designed by Sally Matthews and represent the animals that were used in the iron and coal industries around Blaenavon, working in the mines and pulling wagons along the tramroads, such as the line that terminated at the Balance Tower. Ponies were brought up from the mines for their annual holiday roaming in the fields.

Head towards the top of the Balance Tower. The cast iron frame supported a wheel and chain linked to a pair of lift cages below. The rails would have run into these cages. Each cage had an iron water tank underneath. A pipe at the top would have delivered water into each cage, filling the tank.

Once filled, the weight of the tank would have lowered the cage down the tower via a chained pulley, delivering wagons from the tramway terminus at the top 82 feet (25 m) to the ironworks at the bottom. Very few balance towers survive, so this structure is a great reason to visit Blaenavon Ironworks.

Return down the path to the workers; housing arranged in a courtyard known as ‘Stack Square’ built between 1789 and 1792. Its name derives from a tall chimney stack that once stood in the centre, only the base survives to this day. The houses have been furnished according to different eras of the ironworks to display how workers lived throughout the decades. They are a rare survival of early company housing and also the setting of the BBC series Coal House.

We start with No. 1, Engine Row on the south side, representing when these cottages were first built and occupied in 1790. This example demonstrates occupation by a relatively well-paid labouring family who were attracted to the area by good work prospects and decent housing. They came from the West Midlands and included an experienced ironworker and his wife, plus their small baby. Walls and woodwork are coloured with ‘red raddle’ limewash, and its interior is furnished with modest prosperity.

The family are about to sit down to a hearty meal featuring a boiled leg of Welsh mutton based on a traditional joint from Radnorshire rather than lamb, served with a jug of caper sauce and a side of samphire. This naturally salty plant, which grows wild in coastal salt marshes, was once a common vegetable throughout Wales and Britain. Thanks to its preserving qualities, it was used both inland and along the coast. The meal has been prepared on the well-equipped range, original to the site though extensively restored, complete with its sway, pot-ratchet, and bronze pans.

Next is No. 2, Engine Row representing the decline in status of these cottages 50 years after they were built. Better-off skilled workers had moved away from the works into the expanding town of Blaenavon, whilst less prosperous labouring families had crowded in. This cottage had nine occupants; some had even more, many emigrated from Ireland. Many of the furnishings are second-hand.

The Irish heritage of the occupants is suggested by several distinctive pieces, including an original corded Sogar chair from County Mayo and a traditional Irish dresser from County Clare, repainted in its characteristic bright colours. Catholic religious items are also present, representing their cultural and spiritual background. Sticking cheap newspaper on the wall to aid with insulation was a common practice at the time.

Next to the cottage is a small exhibition hall detailing ironworks history and showcasing historical items, including a bar (or pig) of pig iron produced at the furnaces you saw earlier. The name ‘Blaenavon’ was pressed into the casting mould, so buyers knew exactly where it came from. The ironworks had accumulated a global reputation, and bars like this would have sold around the world.

A section of the original Blaenavon Company Shop has been recreated to reflect its appearance around 1840, when it occupied the entire middle row of Stack Square before relocating to North Street in 1843. Established shortly after the ironworks began in 1790, the shop was essential for supplying workers with basic goods in a previously uninhabited area, but also generated significant profit for the owners, sometimes up to 36% of total earnings.

Company shops were often criticised for high prices, poor goods, and exploitative credit systems known as ‘truck,’ which kept workers in debt and resentment high, contributing to unrest like the Merthyr Rising of 1831. However, records from 1837 and 1843 suggest the Blaenavon shop was fairer than most, with modest profit margins, no forced use of exclusive tokens, and even losses during economic downturns.

The shop usually has volunteers in period clothes giving talks about what life was like in the ironworks.

We move back to Stack Square for the next cottages representing the years 1927, 1944, and 1955. Notice changes in interior decoration, such as printed wallpaper, the introduction of devices like the radio, hairdryers, and wooden framed beds with mattresses and quilts offering more comfort.

The final cottage on Stack Square represents the housing in 1967 during the last years of use. The kitchen now has modern appliances and kitchenware.

Stop by the outside toilets as you leave Stack Square. A reminder that the occupants of the cottages for most of their history did not have access to running water and shared communal toilets that had to be emptied by hand.

Although the ironworks were constructed to produce pig iron in the 1790s, the disadvantages of this material had become apparent. Pig iron has a very high resistance to compression; therefore, it is great for bearing loads like columns holding up flooring; however, cast iron is also very brittle, making it a poor choice for objects under tension such as rods, beams, or railway tracks. Steel, on the other hand, is stronger and less brittle; however, limitations in historic production methods made steel expensive to produce.

A new method was introduced in 1856 by Henry Bessemer, which created better quality steel so long as iron lower in phosphorus was used; however, most ironmasters, including those at Blaenavon, did not have access to this type of ore. The breakthrough came in 1878 when two chemists and cousins called Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Carlyle Gilchrist discovered that lining the steel production furnaces at Blaenavon (called a Bessemer Converter) with lime or magnesium limestone removed phosphorus. This opened the way for mass-produced high-quality steel.

Andrew Carnegie, the infamous American industrialist, invested $250,000 for the right to use the process in the United States. The process also had a huge effect on the development of steel industries in Europe. By 1882, fourteen ironworks in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Russia, and the Habsburg Empire had invested in the new process. This increase in the number of competitors eventually made Blaenavon Ironworks unprofitable. Sidney achieved wealth from his discovery with Percy; however, he died in 1885, aged 34 years old due to the effects of his experiments damaging his lungs. Percy went on to a long career before dying in 1935.

On the way out, take note of the steam-powered hammer in the car park, which was used at the Forgeside works on the other side of the valley. It is 6 metres high and was made by R. J. Massey Ltd of Manchester.