Pioneers & power: Industrial Heritage around The Valleys

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Pioneers & power: Industrial Heritage around The Valleys Discover the pioneers and passion that shaped The Valleys and made them the epicentre of global industrial revolution.

1 Pioneers & power: Industrial Heritage around The Valleys Discover the pioneers and passion that shaped The Valleys and made them the epicentre of global industrial revolution. Real stories, thrilling experiences and dramatic Haearnpunk interpretation fuse a pulsating past with a proud present. 1. A day to conquer the world All the elements that made the South Wales Valleys global leaders in 19 th -century coal and iron production come together at Blaenavon World Heritage Site. Experience what it takes to conquer the world in a day. Blaenavon World Heritage Centre gives a great overview, then tour the Ironworks and travel 300 feet underground at Big Pit: National Coal Museum. Ride the Blaenavon Heritage Railway and cruise Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. A day? Make that a whole weekend! From April, the Blaenavon Passport interactive digital guide ups the ante in the fun-and-learning stakes, with e-trails available as apps to download onto smartphones. There are videos, audio clips and augmented reality clips, all accessible from a nifty series of QR codes Haearnpunk hots up Blaenavon Ironworks Okay, Blaenavon Ironworks is at the heart of the World Heritage Site, but the dramatic new Haearnpunk interpretation unveiled from the end of March makes this a highlight all of its own. In 1789 the Ironworks the fiery blast furnaces, cast houses and awesome water balance tower was the most advanced in the world. It was also a noisy, dirty, sweaty vision of hell : a terrible-beautiful behemoth spewing forth ton after ton of the iron that helped to modernise the world. Taking inspiration from Steampunk and twisting it in a feral, ferrous way, the Haearnpunk makeover (haearn is the Welsh for iron) plunges visitors into a multi-sensory, interactive and personal experience of the tempestuous spirit of the times Driving the Rhondda Get a real feel for the whole human vibe that powered our proud coal-mining heritage, on a downloadable day s driving tour of the Rhondda Valleys. This was once the most intensely mined area in the world, with 52 active pits an ex-miner will tell you more on a trip down one at Rhondda Heritage Park. Swoop over mountains to oh-wow views, and clock those iconic rows of terraced houses where miners lived clinging to the hillsides below: still the ultimate in steep valley living, so a recent architectural design competition declared. Find out about the landmark Tonypandy Riots 1910; the historic campaign for pithead baths to give women time off from scrubbing backs (hear, hear!); the continuing community spirit of brass bands and world-famous male voice choirs Our old china

2 We all love the finer things in life and some of the most exquisite in the 19 th century came from Nantgarw China Works. With coal and canal right nearby for cheap fuel and transport, the works produced porcelain renowned for its translucency and the decorating talents of William Billingsley and Thomas Pardoe. Fashionable London shops (nay, the world) were mad for it, though production was sadly short-lived, which of course makes it all the more collectible today. Nantgarw China Works is now the only surviving 19 th -century porcelain works in Great Britain and it s exactly 200 years since its launch in 1813: cue an anniversary visit to Nantgarw China Works Museum to experience conditions under which the porcelain was made and view superb wares What it says on the tin Bet you never thought tin could be so fascinating: here re two pioneering places to prove the point and inspire budding young industrialists (your country needs you). Aberdulais Tin Works and Waterfall is a spectacular site where torrents of water have generated power to mill wheat, smelt copper, hammer iron and produce tin over 400 years. Enjoy the film, Reflections on Tin, and admire Europe s largest electricity-generating waterwheel: Aberdulais Falls is nowadays self-sufficient in environmentally friendly energy. Once a pioneer, always a pioneer! Also get on the tin trail at Kidwelly Industrial Museum, in a locality that once produced around half the world s tinplate. The site is that of the UK s second oldest recorded tinplate works, so the perfect place to polish up your knowledge of hot and cold rolling, pickling, annealing and all the other amazing processes that will make you see tin in a gleaming new light Float through history The good thing about the greed for speed and progress is that it leaves us with a wonderful legacy for leisure, and if there s one thing most people want these days it s to slow down. Take the Neath Canal, which opened in Within decades waterborne traffic was lugging 200,000 tons of goods a year along 13.5 miles between Giants Grave and Glynneath. But soon enough local collieries began to transfer their business to newfangled rail transport. Stroll the Neath Canal Walk between the town centre and Tonna to discover more on the canal s history and wildlife via information boards, as well as interesting features like Tyn-yr-heol Lock. Even better, float through history with Thomas Dadford Canal Boat Trips (2013 sailings commence 30 March). What s the rush? Go loco Cycle or walk the 9-mile Trevithick Trail from Penydarren to Abercynon, following the route taken by the first-ever steam engine locomotive to travel on rails pulling a load 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers, to be exact. The date was 21 February 1804, the journey time 4 hours and 5 minutes,

3 the hero of the hour (or 4) Richard Trevithick, an engineer at Penydarren Ironworks. There s plenty to look at en route, like the new Puddlers Bridge (named after puddlers who turned pig iron into wrought iron) and Trevithick s Tunnel, one of the oldest railway tunnels in the world: ceramic art on the wall at the back tells the story of 19 th -century Merthyr Tydfil, the famous loco journey and the wager that went with it Join the master classes Here s an eye-opener to the them and us world of 19 th -century Valleys life: three homes of the allpowerful Ironmasters who expected rather greater comforts than their terraced-house dwelling workers. They re strung below the Heads of the Valleys road (A465), so you can visit all three in a day. Castellated Cyfarthfa Castle was home to the Crawshay family and is a supreme expression of the wealth generated when Merthyr Tydfil was the Iron Capital of the World. The museum unpacks the seething hotbed of social and industrial heritage in the area. Bedwellty House, a listed Regency villa, also kept masters and managers of Tredegar Iron Works in fine style, but Nantyglo Roundhouses sound a warning note: built circa 1816 by the Ironmasters of Nantyglo, they were a defensive refuge in case disgruntled workers kicked up a revolt and the luxury life turned a bit ugly Time for another pit stop For a down-to-earth, unpretentious, even grittily humorous take on coalmining life, the volunteerrun South Wales Miners Museum in the beautiful Afan Forest Park is a must. Explore a replica miner s tunnel and get the low-down on hardships faced by adults and children alike in their toils to extract black gold. Try on cap lamps and helmets and see if the kids like the dark room emulating conditions underground. You might also whiz over to Cefn Coed Colliery Museum in the Dulais Valley to gen up on what was once the deepest anthracite coal mine in the world and the grim reasons for its nickname, The Slaughterhouse. Download an mp3 audio tour for heartfelt stories and insights Salute to courage The Guardian sculpture quite simply stops you in your tracks, towering 20 metres tall over the site of the former colliery at Six Bells, Abertillery, where in men lost their lives. Sebastien Boyesen s memorial to the disaster, constructed from over 20,000 strips of steel, commands a plinth recording

4 the dead including, at the request of the families, their nicknames. A reminder of the dangers and courage at the core of our coalmining story Victorian wind-up At the heart of Caerphilly County Borough s striking new Winding House museum is, well yes, an original Victorian winding engine. The remarkable machinery was used to operate the cages that transported men and coal between the surface and mine below the museum is built on the site of the former Elliot Colliery. Keep an eye out to see when the engine is running and also for the latest events and exhibitions, many of them tapping into the rich seams of local industrial heritage Horsepower into the 21 st century By the end of the 19 th century, some 2,000 horses were working in Britain s coalmines, crucial to getting the black stuff to the surface, and they continued toiling in the dark world of the mines well into the 20 th century. You can still meet the last few (retired) Welsh pit ponies at The Welsh Pit Ponies Centre on Fforest Uchaf Farm, in fresh air and green pastures overlooking the Taff Valley. Meanwhile in Parc Penallta near Ystrad Mynach you ll find Sultan the pit pony, the UK s largest figurative earth sculpture. It was carved from a former coal tip and is best viewed from the Highpoint observatory. ENDS Notes to Editors If you would like further details or receive a bespoke itinerary to visit The Valleys, please get in touch with Laura Brown or Colette Walker of Blue Sail Marketing. We also have images for the South Wales Valleys Laura Brown: laura.brown@bluesail.com Colette Walker: colette.walker@bluesail.com Stay in You can also find further press releases, images, features and suggested itineraries in the media room of our website The South Wales Valleys are very easy to reach. Travel times from major English towns and cities to the central area of The Valleys are as follows (examples for car access to Pontypridd): Bristol under 1 hour Birmingham 2 hours 10mins

5 Reading 2hours 10mins Oxford 2 hours 20 mins Bath 1hour 20 mins Worcester 1hour 45mins About The Valleys Heart and Soul campaign: The Valleys Heart and Soul of Wales is a campaign led by partnership organisations from the Western Valleys, Heads of the Valleys and The Valleys Regional Park. The aim is to change perceptions of The Valleys, attract more tourists and bring long-term economic benefits to the area. The area has undergone major transformation with a total investment of 42 million and is now a flourishing tourism destination waiting to be explored.

The Valleys that Changed the World. Ruth Taylor-Davies For ERIH October 2017

The Valleys that Changed the World Ruth Taylor-Davies For ERIH October 2017 1 Not the biggest industrial heritage sites, but some of the oldest and most influential in the world. 2 Where The Valleys that