Commemorative plaques funded, produced and displayed by BGHF.
Rhys Davies
REASON FOR PLAQUE
BGHF funded this plaque in recognition of Rhys Davies, an engineer from Tredegar who is said to have changed American history. Rhys left South Wales in 1833 to help build Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia, which was named in his honour. This Ironworks extended the American Civil War by giving the Confederate South a huge arsenal. It later provided materials and jobs to rebuild the South after the war.
CONNECTION WITH BLAENAU GWENT
Rhys is said to have lived and trained in Tredegar from 1800 as an engineer and millwright. Some years later he worked with one of Napoleon’s former marshals in France who was building an ironworks there.
His life story may never have become apparent if it was not for a small article in a Hereford-based newspaper which stated that a Rhys Davies from Tredegar in south Wales had died in Richmond Virginia in 1838.
The American Civil War Centre now stands on the site of the Tredegar Ironworks in Virginia, where Rhys Davies is better known. He died before the civil war started but the Works he designed had a very big impact.
Gwalia Boot Factory
This plaque was unveiled by BGHF to mark where the former Gwalia Boot Factory, which later became the ‘Brynmawr Experiment’ reopened by Peter Scott and the Quakers as the Brynmawr Furniture Factory. The factory was heavily involved in war production for things such the webbing for the Mosquito fighter bomber during the Second World War.
The remains of the factory could be seen until it was demolished to make way for Melin Homes’ Factory Road development.
Photo © Marcus
Daniel Gooch
REASON FOR PLAQUE
BGHF funded this plaque in recognition of Sir Daniel Gooch, the world-famous engineer who received his early training at Tredegar Iron Works and later became Locomotive Engineer for Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway. He employed Brunel’s ‘Great Eastern’ steamship to lay the first Trans-Atlantic telephone cables.
CONNECTION WITH BLAENAU GWENT
In 1831 Daniel’s family moved to Tredegar Ironworks, where his father had accepted a managerial post. It was there that Daniel began training under Thomas Ellis senior, who together with Ironmaster Samuel Homfray and Richard Trevithick pioneered steam railway locomotion.
Daniel wrote in his diaries…
‘Large Iron Works of this kind are by far the best school for a young engineer to get a general knowledge of what he needs in life.’
‘I look back upon the time spent at Tredegar as by far the most important years of my life.’
In 1833, following his father’s death, Daniel left Tredegar and progressed to become an outstanding locomotive designer of his period. His broad gauge engines set standards wherever railways ran.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley
REASON FOR PLAQUE
This plaque, on a piece of four foot quarried stone, was unveiled in remembrance of a wartime RAF bomber crash which killed one of its crew.
The memorial is important because although many of the military aircraft crashes across south Wales have been well documented this one was ‘relatively forgotten’.
Eifion Lloyd Davies of Blaenau Gwent Heritage Forum conducted the ceremony and local historian, Wayne Morris gave a talk on the incident. Cadets and a standard bearer from 2167 (Tredegar) Squadron ATC also attended the ceremony.
PEN BRYN BRITH FARM
Raymond and Betty Rees Hawthorn lived in Pen Bryn Brith farm from 1933 to 1947, and on 13th November 1940 they were to experience an event that would live with them for the rest of their lives. This was when a heavily laden Whitley T4232 bomber crash-landed virtually on their doorstep.
Not knowing the nationality of the aircraft, they bravely took up a shotgun to face the crew head on. Fortunately, it turned out to be an RAF bomber which was on an operations flight to Lorient to seek out German U boats. Mr Hawthorne gave the airmen shelter and took them to Rhymney hospital where Pilot, Sgt Peter Dickens-Goldsmith sadly later died. RAF officials used the Hawthorn’s front room as their headquarters and Raymond Hawthorn slaughtered one of his sheep to provide food for them. The local home guard were given the task of guarding the aeroplane and on the following Sunday they detonated the unexploded bombs. The aircraft remained for some time near the banks fo Bryn Brith pond where many momentos were taken away from it by local residents.
CREW
Although badly hurt, all five crew survived the impact. The wireless operator, Sgt George Christie dragged the others clear of the wreckage as ammunition was exploding in the burning aircraft. Unfortunately, there was also 3 unexploded bombs under one wing and four under the other.
THE MISSION
The Whitley bomber had taken off from RAF Leeming on 12th November 1940 to attack the submarine base in Lorient, southern France. When returning, the aircraft had become lost and struck Rhymney Hill.
THE PLANE
More information to be uploaded – please call back
3rd Mons’ Battalion
BGHF placed this plaque in the grounds of Bedwellty Park, with a dedication ceremony to honour the locally recruited men of the ‘3rd Mons’ Battalion who gave their lives during the 1914-18 ‘Great War’.
The Third Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment – ‘3rd Mons’ – was recruited largely from what is now Blaenau Gwent Borough with the exception of Brynmawr, then in Breconshire. Called to active service in 1914 when WW1 broke out, the regiment was posted to France early the following year, where its Third Battalion would hold Frezenburg Ridge on the Ypres Salient.
In April 1915 the 2nd Battle of Ypres commenced with a German attempt to seize that town. The 3rd Mons began the battle with 1020 men, of whom only 134 survived unscathed.
In 1916, brought back up to strength, the battalion was despatched to the Somme sector where it served both as infantry and tunnellers in preparation for the planned ‘Big Push’. The Battle of the Somme began on 1st July 1916, when the British Army suffered 60,000 first-day casualties, of whom nearly 20,000 were killed. By August heavy 3rd Mons losses and lack of replacements caused its disbandment, with survivors posted to other Welsh units.
Tredegar's Silver Statues
- Aneurin Bevan
- Walter Conway
- Mary Elizabeth Davis
- Samuel Homfray Senior
- Anne Prosser and Mary Jones
- Nora Childs
- David and Ann Williams
- Evan Jones AKA Ieuan Gwynedd
- John Jones
- Thomas Bennett
- Thomas Ellis Junior
- Phillip Gordon Weeks
- John Rees AKA Jack the Fifer
- William Williams
- Sarah Jones
- Margaret and Rebecca Lewis
The Tredegar Trails
Produced by MADE IN TREDEGAR
The Tredegar Trails are 6 interactive audio trails in and around the historic town of Tredegar.
You can find out more about the people listed above by following AUDIO TRAIL 3 – SILVER STATUES
Audio Trail Booklet
Plaques funded, produced and displayed by others
Blaenau Gwent Chartists
Thora Silverthorne
A Purple Plaque, positioned outside Abertillery Museum, has been unveiled for a “pioneering and courageous” nurse, Thora Silverthorne. Thora was a champion of her profession who went on to become one of the first British nurses to volunteer to help the wounded in the Spanish Civil War. The daughter of a miner, Thora spent the first 17 years of her life in Abertillery, until her father, an NUM official, was sacked after the General Strike of 1926. This forced the family to leave Wales as he sought new work.The plaque has been kindly funded by Thora’s family.
PURPLE PLAQUES
The Purple Plaques campaign has been created to improve the recognition of remarkable women in Wales by awarding them with a plaque to commemorate their achievements and cement their legacy in Welsh history.
KEEPING WELSH HISTORY ALIVE