SITE OF PLAQUE

The Railway Tavern, Tredegar

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.