In this section we update local heritage news and information as it comes into us from local history and heritage societies. News items are updated monthly and kept on here for 2 years.
CLICK ON the boxes you are interested in to open up the news updates inside
Abertillery Community Council is holding a bilingual day in Six Bells park on May 16th. A full day celebrating Welsh language and culture!
Wales in Bloom – one of last year’s displays. Image: Abertillery and Llanhilleth Community Council
Abertillery will be taking part in this year’s ‘Wales in Bloom’ competition. It has been entered in the catagory for ‘Town’. Two new planters are being made for this, one which will be featuring featuring Guardian. Six Bells has also been entered in the category for ‘Village’.
(This film is on Youtube so you wil be leaving this website)
Mural painted by Andy O’Rourke
Open the HERITAGE NEWS Tab for Llanhilleth Heritage Society at the top of this page to find out more.
Sir David Brunt – Plaque ready to go up
Michael Foot – Plaque refurbished and ready to go up
Bevan Stones – Plaque ready to go up
Steve Jones – Mural in preparation
A new Destination Management Plan is being developed.
Brynmawr is not continuing with the accreditation system, Abertillery has accreditation in place until 2029, no reply from Blaina, Links made with Tredegar Museum to support their application. Ebbw Vale Works Museum is being supported by Gwent Archives
Sir David Brunt – Plaque ordered, Mural agreed painting to start this week.
Michael Foot – Plaque fully refurbished and will go back up soon.
Moose/James Davies – Discussions and planning have started for a mural and plaque for (where is Fifth Row)
Steve Jones – Mural preparation work started.
Nye Bevan – New plaque to be placed at the Memorial Stones highlighting the site and Bevan’s oratory.
16 new trail leaflets – looking for volunteers to walk them. One is Sirhowy Hill Woodlands which has a History Points Trail.
BWH site are looking for new walk leaders – the information notes have already been prepared and written.
Request for images of Tafarnuabach 40 years ago.
A nice St Davids Day event took place with 2 story tellers and 3 living history enactors. The historical figures included Walter Conway and Lord Tredegar.
This will be taking place between 17th to 23rd November
Steve Jones – image Blaenau Gwent CBC
A steel statue of one of Wales’s greatest sporting heroes, Steve Jones MBE, OLY and Freeman of Blaenau Gwent, was unveiled by the man himself in front of Ebbw Vale Sports Centre last month. The statue commemorates Steve’s legendary achievements and was unveiled in the presence of a proud community of local and national dignitaries, top names from the world of running, Welsh sporting organisations, children and young people and representatives from the RAF and local ATC Cadets.
Steve was a part of Ebbw Vale Squadron 1158 Ebbw Vale, who first gave him the opportunity to showcase his talents. He later went on to serve in the RAF, combining military life and his blossoming athletics career, often running wearing the RAF vest.
Watch the ITVx video of the statue unveiling
Nye Bevan and NHS
Several new murals are in place around Tredegar to celebrate it being the home of the NHS.
15th August – VJ Day – see What’s ON page.
New Digital Walking Trail has been launched in Ebbw Vale
A new Digital Walking trail exploring the history of the town has been launched in Ebbw Vale. Pupils from Pen-y-Cwm School were the first visitors to walk it.
June 2025
Mosaic on Abertillery Institute removed for safe keeping.
Repair of Roy Francis statue is now complete.
Moose Lodge is 100 years old
Two Denbigh plum trees and an Abergwyngregan damson have been selected to be planted in memory of Eifion. They will be planted after half term.
This training in Abertillery has been completed and the graduation event will take place in the New Year.
This training programme has been launched. It offers free online training; the first 3 modules are now available with more to follow shortly. 30 Bronze Ambassadors have already completed the course including 3 from the BGHF.
The new town trails for Ebbw Vale and Abertillery are now complete. Tredegar and Brynmawr are 50% complete.
Tai Calon wish to link to local heritage. Could anyone with any exhibitions or artefacts they could loan please let Alyson know.
New visitor information racking has been put in the Premiere Inn and Tai Calon
Contributions are required for TVTCTW, HOTNHS and Pride.
Young Sherlock, part-filmed in Trefil, another film shot in Beaufort. Sunday’s ITV drama, ‘Out There’ shot in Trefil and locally.
Spring Journal Issue 27
Our latest Journal has just been published and is available for purchase. It looks very good in its new A5 format and is an extremely interesting read. It can be bought through our online shop as a physical copy for £10 (£7.50+£2.50p&p) or downloaded in A4 format for £6.00. It can also be bought through our shop at our monthly talks in Bedwellty House, Tredegar.
Tredegar Town Council has purchased seven copies of our recently reprinted Evan Powell’s ‘History of Tredegar’ and yesterday we proudly presented them to Cllr. Alyson E. Tippings who is also Tredegar Town Mayor.Tredegar Town Council have recognised what a valuable resource Evan Powell’s ‘History of Tredegar’ is, and have expressed an interest in buying copies of to present to all schools in Tredegar
Our next Journal, issue 27, is currently at the printers and will be available to buy very soon.
October 21st this year, will mark the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. Nick Nedsky, an enthusiastic and active member of our Forum has recently had a poem published on ‘The People’s Collection Wales’ website recalling this tragic, yet preventable, event. He wrote it following the death of his father-in-law, who had been personally involved with the disaster, having driven a huge caterpillar for several days in an attempt to stem the flow of slurry.
If you would like to read Nick’s powerful poem, please click on the link below.
‘Aberfan: to remember David’, a poem by Nickolas Nedaschkivskij (Nedsky) 2016
Christmas Meal 2025 – Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum
Our convivial Christmas meal at the Tredegar Arms Hotel, was a very tasty and enjoyable event.
History of Tredegar – Evan Powell
‘Powell’s History of Tredegar’ has been printed and is available on our website, in our monthly shop at our Talks, Cottons, Tredegar and Ebbw Vale Works Museum.
Dr. Robert Richards F.R.S.C., F.I.M.M.M.
It is with great sadness that we share the news that in September, Dr. Robert Richards suddenly passed away. He was a committed and much valued member of Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum and shared his extensive knowledge freely and with great enthusiasm.
Robert was extremely gifted and experienced in the fields of Materials Science and Engineering with many credits and qualifications to his name. He was particularly passionate about ferrous metallurgy. Amongst his many other citations he worked for the Government, the Cabinet Office, BEA Systems and the Senydd.
Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum wish to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends. He was our friend and we all miss him greatly.
We’ve ordered some new mugs sporting our brand new logo. You can buy one at our pop up shop which opens at our monthly talks.
We’ve updated our logo and chosen a design which we feel embodies the different societies which contribute to the Forum.
September 2025
The Chapel in Rhymney (Penuel) will be holding a Macmillan coffee morning with harp music played by Eleri Darkins on the Thursday 25th September.
February 2025
St Davids Day celebrations in Penuel Rhymney will take place at the coffee morning on Saturday 28th February when Elari Darkins will be playing the harp.
A public meeting will take place to discuss where the new plaque commemorating those who lost their lives in the Marine colliery disaster should be placed.
Sadly, the heritage group have been unsuccessful in their first bid to secure funding from HLF to set up the museum but will be resubmitting their application very soon.
The visit of school children to the library to hear about, and discuss, the mining disaster of 1927 with members of Cwm Heritage Centre went really well. The pupils were engaged and very interested in the upcoming events planned for this year to commemorate those who sadly died.
An application for a grant to set up the museum has been sent in.
2027 will mark the centenary of the Cwm Colliery disaster and among other remembrance events it is planned that a plaque with all the names of the disaster victims will be created and unveiled.
A committee has been formed to set up a museum. A room given to the group by the Institute. Chris has visited Glamorgan archive which has a great deal of information about Cwm.
Cwm and Waunlwyd Community Archive have plans to organise a plaque to Victor Spinetti who was born in Cwm. The archive has support from Mike Young of ‘Super Ted’ fame who was also born in Cwm. Money needs to be raised to go towards the £800 needed to obtain and fix a plaque.
It is hoped that in the future a museum can be set up for Cwm in a room in the Institute. Conversations are taking place about this
The archive will also be putting on another photo display in the library. A lot of photographs have been donated by Rodger Burchell and it is hoped that an event in the library will help to identify the people in them.
Cwm and Waunlwyd Community Archive has a new web controller, Chris Parfitt, who will be answering queries and working with a team of volunteers to add new material to the archive. The team will be based in Cwm Library where archiving sessions will take place.
Our next Saturday opening will be on SATURDAY 13th JUNE
Our next Saturday opening will be on SATURDAY 9th MAY
This is proving to be very popular with many visitors travelling long distances to visit the museum. The number of visitors is also increasing significantly.
Joining the scheme and becoming a ‘Friend of the Museum’ costs just £10 a year and benefits include an article on a historical subject about the works and 2 free newsletters – which is a good way of keeping up to date with what is happening within the museum.
Simon Gregory has been trying to contact the family of Arthur Gray Jones author of ‘The History of Ebbw Vale’ with a view to republishing it. Discussions are also taking place regarding seeking permission to reprint Fred Ball’s essays on historical aspects of Ebbw Vale. These documents would fill a large gap in the published history of Ebbw Vale.
The museum is going to trial opening on Saturdays during January and February. If you find it hard to visit on a weekday, try visiting on one of the dates below:
The new Saturday opening dates are:
A representative from Ancestry will be visiting the archive soon to look at digitising some of the employment records.
The archive is planning to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the closure of the steelworks and also the anniversary of the Marine Colliery disaster of 1927.
Congratulations to Alfie Evans, from Tredegar, and a volunteer at the museum who won a prestigious JUDGES’ PICK prize in the recent ‘Young Railway Photographer of the Year’ competition
Ebbw Vale Works Museum and Gwent Archives
Ebbw Vale Works Museum was involved in something very different recently, when it supported an initiative to celebrate World Poetry Day! This initiative, culminating in ‘Words at the Works Museum’ was supported by Transport for Wales, Blaenau Gwent Council and the Ebbw Vale Works Museum and saw two South Wales poets , Zillah Bowes & Jonathan Edwards regale passengers with their poetry on the 4.45pm train from Cardiff to Ebbw Vale. On arrival at the town station, they were met by Simon Gregory, Chairman of the museum, who gave passengers, who had booked the event, a rundown of the history of the General Offices before they had the opportunity to tour the museum before the poetry reading session held in the wonderful foyer of the General Offices. The foyer was full with circa 45 in the audience and the feedback was very positive.
Ron, ‘Ginger’ Parsons, the oldest miner alive, has just celebrated his 103rd birthday. From Cwm, near Ebbw Vale, he started in the pit just before his 14th birthday and spent 50 years working at the coal face.
The possibility of having a bat box put in the belfry is being considered and the graveyard is being looked at regarding the feasibility of removing the ivy from the graveyard and surrounding buildings.
St Illtyd’s will be opening on Sundays in March and for the rest of the summer. This will be dependent on having enough volunteers and it may still not be open every Sunday.
There is a lot of interest in the Flora and Fauna of the graveyard at the moment and it is hoped that a study of it will be undertaken.
The public entrance for the General Offices has now moved. When visiting Gwent Archives, you must now enter the building from Fford Billy Collins – not Steelworks Road. The staff on reception will greet you and will direct you to the Gwent Archives Research Room.
The archive is working with Newport library to set up a geo-caching app. This will contain information on local individuals of note.
There have been a few school visits to the archive
Women’s stories are often forgotten in histories and when women are present in archives it is often only the stories of women of the upper classes that get told. In this lunchtime talk Gwent Archives explores the stories of forgotten women from the Usk Gaol books. Exploring these women’s lives not only unearths forgotten stories of women from Gwent, it touches on important themes such as immigration, female servants, the occupations held by women in the 1800’s and young girls convicted of crimes
This talk went down really well and has now been turned into a blog that can be read by those unable to attend the event.
Gwent Archive will be trialling Saturday opening for the next 6 months on the second Saturday of every month. The Archive will be looking at new visitor figures to see if there is a need for Saturday opening. The 6 Saturdays will be: Saturday 10 January, Saturday 14 February, Saturday 14 March, Saturday 11 April, Saturday 09 May, Saturday 13 June.
After completing the review stage, three years after their initial 2022 award, Gwent Archives has retained its National Accreditation. They are, justifiably, very proud of this achievement.
Upcoming Talks – 20th October a talk on Mental Health Records held by the archive and on Tuesday 4th November a talk on the Chartist Records that the archive holds. The annual Christmas talk will take place in December.
The postponed January Talk will now take place on March 21st and the subject will be on the 75th anniversary of the creation of Cwmbran New Town.
Lyn Malony presenting Christine Bailey with the Journal on behalf of Llanhilleth Heritage Society.
It was a pleasure for Lyn Maloney to present Christine Bailey with a copy of Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum’s Spring Journal, on behalf of Llanhilleth Heritage Society. The journal contains a history of the parish of Llanhilleth written in 1947 by Christine’s uncle W. H. Bailey (Bill) originally of Aberbeeg. Christine received the journal on behalf of his family.
The Forum’s vice chair, Rodger Burchell, has painstakingly transcribed Mr. Bailey’s original document, redrawn some diagrams/maps and included clearer photographs, provided by the Heritage Society. This original document has now been donated to Gwent Archives.
The original document cover.
W.H.Bailey (Bill) – Photo credit: Rodger Burchell
All proceeds from sales of the journal go towards the charitable objectives of the Forum. If you would like to buy a copy click on the links below to go through to our online shop.
CLICK HERE Spring Journal issue 27 – A5 book
CLICK HERE Spring Journal issue 27 – A4 download
Copies are also on sale via Llanhilleth Heritage Society based in the Heritage Centre in Llanhilleth Miners’ Institute, on Tuesdays between 2pm – 4pm. You can make contact bycopying and pasting the mailing address below.
mailto:[email protected]
Mural painted by Andy O’Rourke
This fabulous mural of Sir David Brunt, who was raised in Llanhilleth, was recently painted by Andy O’Rourke. The finished result is incredible and the residents of Llanhilleth are delighted with it and very grateful to Alyson Tippiings for her involvement in bringing the initial idea to fruition.
Members of the Heritage Centre, Llanhilleth are trying to trace relatives of David’s, so if you have a connection, or know someone who does, please get in touch using the email address below. They would love to hear from you.
Graham Oats has produced a small booklet containing information on evacuees from Rochester. The booklet is called, ‘A Scholar in Exile’ and is the writing of Mr Holiday, or Mr Rochester, as he was called.
Colin Weaver who was born, bred and lived all his life in Llanhilleth and is surely one of Llanhilleth’s most successful athletes has been commemorated in our heritage archive. He started his professional training at just 9 years of age and became a ‘Powder Hall’ sprinter who, during his professional career, competed in eight ‘Powder Hall’ finals.
The Blaenau Gwent Planning Department has passed plans to demolish the old Pithead baths building. It will be be replaced by an area of green space containing signage to commemorate the baths and the place it held in the community.
This is now finished and the QR codes have been installed.
Read more …
outoftheblueartifacts.com – The story of the A467 main road underpass mosaic
Moose have been supporting the community and raising money for local and national charities for100 years.
In 1926 the first Lodge in Great Britain was established in Tredegar. This was the birthplace of James J Davis who is considered by many to be the founding father of Moose, UK. Did you know that out of an initial 144 lodges established in the UK there are now only 22 lodges left? Did you also know that Tredegar No.1 Lodge is the largest in the country?
Congratulations to Mrs.Jean Gardner of Moose Lodge No.1, Tredegar on becoming the first female National President of Great Britain, in this their centenary year.
Image: Moose International, No 1 Lodge Tredegar’s facebook page
Mrs Jean Gardner and Mrs Amanda Davies recieving a Town Clock from Tredegar Town Council, in recognition of Tredegar No1 Moose Centenary this year 2026. Tredegar
Moose are celebrating 100 years as an organisation this year.
The ‘Museum and Archive Society’ has reproduced two delightful photographic booklets: Tredegar’s History in Photographs, volumes1 and 2. They are on sale in the museum at £7 each.
The ‘Museum and Archive Society’ has brought out a calendar for 2026 containing old photos from around Tredegar – cost is around £7.50 and can be bought from the museum. SOLD OUT