Ebbw Vale - Iron, Steel & Now

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About Ebbw Vale - Iron, Steel & Now

A group to document the history of industry & the changing Ebbw Vale scene:

* from the early iron industry
* to Steel Town heyday
* and today's new landscapes of regeneration



Join in the conversation and add photos from your family albums & photo archives & current day photos that record Ebbw Vale's changing scene!

* Allied industries - anything that was a part of the wider industrial landscape - collieries, railways, quarries.
* Workers were at the heart of The Works, of course, so any photos recording work activities are especially welcome!
* The social & cultural life of the town are also to be included as part of the Steel Town scene.



In a town beyond Industry, new landscapes of regeneration are emerging. Remember the Garden Festival. Today the massive site of the steel works is undergoing regeneration, and a whole new "town" is in the making with hospital, schools, college, leisure centre & other developments.



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The Ebbw Vale Steel Iron & Coal Co.,Ltd. by alanlorduk on Flickr

Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire, 1901 | "The works of the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company Limited occupy a large portion of the valleys of the Ebbw and Sirhowy rivers; here railway iron, Bessemer and other steel rails, and every description of manufactured iron and steel are produced in immense quantities; the company are brick makers and also the owners of very large collieries, and ship coal to all parts of the world. They have now six 60 feet blast furnaces, intended to produce together 3,900 tons of pig iron weekly".


Ebbw Vale Steelworks by Ben Cooper on Flickr

Wikipedia: Ebbw Vale (Accessed Feb 2012) | "Originally a rather insignificant spot in rural Monmouthshire with only about 140 inhabitants at the end of the 18th century, Ebbw Vale—and the whole valley—was transformed by the Industrial Revolution. The Ebbw Vale Iron Works, later to become the Ebbw Steel works, opened in 1778, followed by the opening of a number of coal mines around 1790. At its height (1930s — 40s) the steel works in Ebbw Vale was the largest in Europe (...) Ebbw Vale suffered from the decline of the steel and coal industries and there are now no steelworks or mines left in or around the town. In 2003 work began on demolishing the long-standing steelworks, and currently around one to two miles of the valley stands empty awaiting development." [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebbw_Vale#History ]