Tredegar Iron and Coal Company was an important 19th centuryironworks inTredegar,Wales, which due to its need forcoke became a major developer ofcoal mines and particularly theSirhowy Valley ofSouth Wales. It is most closely associated with theIndustrial Revolution and coal mining in theSouth Wales Valleys.
In 1778 anironfurnace was built in the upper Sirhowy Valley by Thomas Atkinson and William Barrow, who came to the area fromLondon.[1] Fuel was needed for the furnace so men were employed to digcoal at Bryn Bach and Nantybwch, the first small scalecoal mining operation in the area. The furnace failed in 1794, and hence also the business.
In 1797,Samuel Homfray, with partnersRichard Fothergill and theMatthew Monkhouse built a new furnace which they called theSirhowy Ironworks, leasing the land in Bedwellty,Newport from theTredegar Estate.[2]
In 1800, the company was renamed theTredegar Iron Company, named in honour of the Tredegar Estate atTredegar House andTredegar Park inNewport. The company was taken over by the Harfords ofEbbw Vale in 1818.[3]
It was expanded in the late 1830s and early 1840s, producing significant volumes of rails, largely for export. The works was purchased by the Tredegar Iron Company Limited in 1873 and nine years later began to produce steel.
The company ironworks were developed on a single site, which later became known as Whiteheads, after that company took over the southern section of the site in 1907. By 1850, TICC employed between 2,000 and 3,000 people at its nine furnaces, mills shops and ancillary plants.[3]
However, all of this production on such a vast scale had a price. When John GoochJohn Gooch, a manager of an iron foundry in Bedlington, Northumberland, took a managerial post in the Tredegar ironworks in 1831:
'Tredegar was a strange place to go, voluntarily .... Utterly remote at the head of the Sirhowy valley in Monmouthshire, the town was a man-made hell. Men and children worked killing hours in the smoke and filth of the foundries and were maimed by molten metal. Their only medical help was that administered by the "Penny Doctor". Wages were paid in Homfray's private coinage — banks were not allowed in the town — so workers spent their coins in Homfray's shops, buying food at Homfray's prices. Poverty and malnutrition followed and disease followed both.'[4]
With many people in such a small area, and with poor sanitation provision, there were severalcholera epidemics in the town in the 19th century. A dedicated cholera burial ground was later established atCefn Golau.[5]
In 1875, the company renamed itself theTredegar Iron and Coal Company, to allow development of additional coal mining capacity.[3]
In 1891, the company ceased production of iron, but continued to develop coal mines and produce coal. The former Tredegar Ironworks were effectively abandoned, with Whiteheads taking over the southern section of the site from 1907. In 1931, they also closed down their operations, moving everything to their Newport works.[3]
TICC continued to develop coal mines and work pitts, until it was nationalised in 1946, becoming part of theNational Coal Board.[3] Its last chairman wasHenry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway.[6]
During the 1910's and 1920'sAneurin Bevan worked for the Company at the Ty-Trist Colliery, Bedwellty pit and from where he was fired for being aunion leader. The poor conditions in the pits and collieries of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company motivated Bevan to create theNational Health Service.
Though now almost entirely redeveloped, traces of the terracing of the valley sides at the site can still be noted at OS grid reference SO 155093.[7]
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