Tredegar facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tredegar
The Town Clock, Tredegar (April 2002)
Tredegar
Population	15,103 (2011)
OS grid reference	SO145095
Community	Tredegar
Principal area	Blaenau Gwent
Ceremonial county	Gwent
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	TREDEGAR
Postcode district	NP22
Dialling code	01495
Police	Gwent
Fire	South Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
EU Parliament	Wales
UK Parliament	Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney
Welsh Assembly	Blaenau Gwent
List of places UK Wales Blaenau Gwent 51°46′39″N 3°14′26″W / 51.77761°N 3.24069°W / 51.77761; -3.24069

Tredegar (/trəˈdiːɡər/; Welsh: [trɛˈdeːɡar]) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in Wales. The relevant wards (Tredegar Central and West, Sirhowy and Georgetown) collectively listed the town's population as 15,103 in the UK 2011 census.

The origin of the name 'Tredegar'

Tredegar was originally part of the Tredegar Estate, the seat of which was in Coedcernyw, outside Newport, and which extended northwards to include almost the entire length of the Sirhowy Valley.

The previous analysis is supplemented by the fact that company's buildings appeared on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map as 'Tredegar Iron Works'. Jones didn't state when the name of the new town was shortened to 'Tredegar'. But when its name was shortened, it resulted in the existence of two Tredegars, one at each end of the estate: one at the top of the Sirhowy Valley and the other outside Newport.

In 1881 Octavius Morgan, the fourth son of Sir Charles Morgan of Tredegar, had published his etymology of the name of his ancestral home, which he had republished in 1886. He divided his etymology into two parts, about the Welsh adjective 'tref' and the noun 'degar'. He began by dismissing four derivations of 'tref': 'the foot of the camp', 'ten plough-lands', 'ten acres' and 'two forts', which he described as 'conjectural'. He then proposed his derivation, which he described as 'most obvious' and 'the true one' – that 'tref' means 'the dwelling place, chief mansion, or homestead of some important person'. Morgan then cited a poem, a manuscript and a pedigree in support of his proposal that 'degar' was derived from an historical personage called 'Teigr', whose name was changed to 'Deigr' to enable euphony (see the entry for the term in Phonaesthetics), which in turn was styled as 'degyr, which then in another context presumably became 'Degar'.

Bartrum (2009, originally 1993) explicitly concurred with Octavius Morgan in the entry for "Deigr ap Dyfnwal Hen (Legendary)" in his A Welsh Classical Dictionary, while Osborne and Hobbs (1992) and Owen and Morgan (2007) implicitly did so.

In the local Welsh dialect known as Gwenhwyseg, the name was often pronounced as Tredecar (with provection of /g/ to /k/). There was also a shortened form Decar.

History

Origin of the name

It is sometimes wrongly claimed that the name Tredegar can be explained as tre deg erw, an adaptation and reduction of "tref y deg erw" or reduction of "tre'r deg erw" ("tref" is an older form of "tre"; "y" is the definite article after a consonant, and "'r" is the definite article after a vowel; in either case in place names the linking definite article is often dropped, hence pairs such as "Glan-y-môr, Glan-môr" (the sea's edge) or "Cae'r Maen, Cae Maen" (the field of the standing stone). Deg erw is Welsh for "ten acres"; "tre" in newer place names in the industrialised valleys means "town", and equates to English names with "town" (usually a grand name for rows of workers' housing) (e.g. Hopkinstown, Rhondda) or "ville" (e.g. Edwardsville, Merthyr Tudful). Historically "tref / tre" was approximately a "homestead, farmstead, hamlet, estate". In this respect we can compare the sense development of Old English "tūn" (= farmstead) to modern English "town". So "tre deg erw" is plausible morphologically, but is not the origin of the name "Tredegar".

Another erroneous explanation, which was also around in the 1800s, is that Tredegar is tri deg erw, which means "thirty acres".

In the case of both "ten acres" and "thirty acres" there is no indication of what this land area might refer to. In the second case, "tri deg erw" could not have resulted in "Tredegar".

In both of the above interpretations it is supposed that "erw" has been reduced to "er" through the loss of the final vowel "w", and the resulting final syllable "er" has become final "ar". This would be consistent with features of south-eastern Welsh, or Gwentian, which is the variety of Welsh spoken historically in Tredegar. South-eastern field names show this reduction – Dwyar, a field name in Penderyn (dwy erw = two acres > dwyer > dwyar).

The resulting form would be Tredegar, but this supposes that this is an altered form of tri-deg-ar. "Tri-deg" (three tens) is thirty, but as a numeral is a recent innovation in Welsh, since "deg-ar-hugain" (ten on twenty) is the traditional numeral. In addition, "tri-deg" would hardly change to "tre-deg".

In fact, the town of Tredegar is so called because in 1800 Samuel Homfray, who had married into the Morgan of Tredegar family, formed a company to produce iron which was named the Tredegar Iron Company – the land where he extracted and treated the ore belonged to his father-in-law and was a part of the Tredegar Estate. The company’s buildings appeared on an 1832 Ordnance Survey map as Tredegar Iron Works.

The Tredegar in the name of the company and its ironworks referred to the original Tredegar, which is in Coedcernyw by Newport, and is nowadays more usually known in English as (in order to avoid confusion) Tredegar House (or Tredegar Park). Older forms of the name show it to be Tredegyr (this form is found in 1550) (by the modern Welsh period generally this final "y" would have become "e", and in Gwentian this would have in turn become "a", as with Gwentian "Merchar" (Wednesday), standard Welsh "Mercher", from older Welsh "Merchyr").

Tredegyr is "farmstead of Tegyr" (tre, a form of tref = farmstead) + soft mutation (t > d) + Tegyr. A Brythonic form *Tecorix (fair king) might be supposed, as such a form would have resulted in Welsh "Tegyr" following normal processes in the development of Welsh from Brythonic. There is a similar name in Denbighshire – Botegyr, meaning "Tegyr’s dwelling", < Bod Degyr < (bod = dwelling) + (soft mutation t > d) + (Tegyr).

The local form of the name was in fact Tredecar (with “c” [k] instead of “g”). This feature, typical of south-eastern Welsh, or Gwentian, is known as “provection” (calediad in Welsh) and involves the devoicing of stops. In this way “b > p”, “d > t” and “g > c”. The form is to be found in the title of the folk song “Ar Ben Waun Tredecar” (= at the top of Waun Tredegar or Tredegar Mountain) by the group Yr Hwntws.

There was also a shortened form Decar – the loss of a pretonic syllable is not unusual in Welsh and a number of place-names show this feature. Examples in spoken Welsh are ceffyle > ffyle (horses), afale > fale (apples), ysgubor > sgubor (barn), ystafell > stafell (room), eisteddfod > steddfod.

Pre-industrialisation

Tredegar grew as a developed town thanks to the natural resources it had within the Sirhowy Valley, namely:

• Iron ore
• Coal with which to produce coke
• Power, from the fast-flowing Sirhowy River
• Wood, which could be cut for buildings and pit props, and burnt for fuel

Hence by the start of the 1700s, the upper Sirhowy Valley was a natural well wooded valley, consisting of a few farms and the occasional small iron works where iron ore and coal naturally had occurred together.

Industrialisation

The first recorded iron works in the Sirhowy Valley was Pont Gwaith Yr Hearn, developed by two Bretons and worked by men from Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil. The Sirhowy Iron Works was erected in 1750 by Mr Kettle of Shropshire. In 1778 Kettle sold this ironworks to Thomas Atkinson and William Barrow, who came to the area from London. They developed it as the first coal fired furnace, so men were employed to dig coal at Bryn Bach and Nantybwch, the first small scale coal mining operation in the area. The furnace and hence the business failed in 1794.

Tredegar Ironworks

In 1797, Samuel Homfray, with partners Richard Fothergill and the Matthew Monkhouse built a new furnace, leasing the land from the Tredegar Estate in Newport. This created the new Sirhowy Ironworks, that were in 1800 to become the Tredegar Iron Company, named in honour of the Tredegar Estate at Tredegar House and Tredegar Park in Newport in the south of the county.

In 1891, the company ceased production of iron, but continued to develop coal mines and produce coal. The former Tredegar Ironworks were effectively abandoned, with Whiteheads taking over the southern section of the site from 1907. In 1931, they also closed down their operations, moving everything to their Newport works. TICC continued to develop coal mines and work pits, until it was nationalised in 1946, becoming part of the National Coal Board.

Welsh language

According to the 2011 Census, 5.4% of Tredegar Central and West's 6,063 (328 residents) resident-population can speak, read, and write Welsh. This is below the county's figure of 5.5% of 67,348 (3,705 residents) who can speak, read, and write Welsh.

Riots

The town is known for its three major riots. In 1868 there were the election riots, which took place after the locals' favourite candidate, Colonel Clifford, was not elected.

Secondly in 1882 there was a major anti-Irish riot in Tredegar. There had been a large Irish community in Tredegar since the 1850s, and for a while there had been tensions. Reports from the time vary, however where they all concur includes the fact the riot began with stone throwing and quickly escalated with Irishmen's homes being destroyed and furniture burned in the streets. The Irish were run out of Tredegar and some were beaten. Troops from Newport and Cardiff had to be called in to quell the violence

Thirdly, there were the anti-Jewish riots of 1911, which some called a pogrom, when Jewish shops were ransacked and the army had to be brought in. Though Jewish businesses and property were attacked, nobody was killed in this riot.

Foundation

Samuel Homfray and his partners needed accommodation for their workers, and so needed to develop a suitable town. The land on the eastside of the Sirhowy river was owned by Lt.Col. Sir Charles Gould Morgan who granted a lease in 1799 to build Tredegar Ironworks Company. In 1800, Homfray married Sir Charles daughter Jane, and hence improved his lease terms. The west bank of the river was owned by Lord Tredegar, and hence in the short term remained undeveloped.

Homfray was a hard task master. He sold franchises to business people who wanted to operate within his town, from which he would take a percentage. He paid his workers in his own private coinage, so that they could not easily spend their wages outside the town. However, the opportunity to work created a boom town, which with a parish population of 1,132 in 1801 had boomed to 34,685 by 1881, in part boosted by the laying of the 24 miles (39 km) stretch of horse drawn track to Newport in 1805.

But all of this development came at a price.

There were several cholera epidemics in the town in the 19th century, and a dedicated cholera burial ground was established at Cefn Golau.

Governance

Links with the Labour Party

Tredegar has strong links with prominent Labour MPs and the history of the Labour Party and the Labour Movement in Britain as a whole. It was the birthplace of Aneurin Bevan, who was responsible for the introduction of the British National Health Service (NHS), and who in the 1920s was involved in the management of Tredegar General Hospital. Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992, was born in Tredegar in 1942 and lived there for most of his early life, attending the town's Georgetown Infants and Junior Schools between 1947 and 1953. His predecessor as leader, Michael Foot, was Labour MP for the local constituency — Ebbw Vale — during his time as party leader. As part of the once safe Labour constituency of Blaenau Gwent, Tredegar was for a period represented by the independent left-wing politician Dai Davies until the general election of 2010, when it reverted to Labour.

Architecture

Bedwellty House

Bedwellty House is a Grade II listed house and gardens. Originally a "low thatched-roof cottage", the old house was renovated in 1809. The present Bedwellty House was built in 1818 as a home for Samuel Homfray, whose Iron and Coal Works were the main local employers for much of the 19th century. The surrounding 26-acre (11 ha) Victorian garden and park, designed originally as a Dutch garden around which one could walk or ride without being confronted by gate, fence or outside features, contains the Long Shelter, also a Grade II listed structure built for the Chartist Movement.

Town Clock

One of Tredegar's main attributes is the Town Clock, dominating the southern part of the town centre. The clock was made by JB Joyce & Co of Whitchurch, Shropshire and was the idea of Mrs. R. P. Davies the wife of the Tredegar Ironworks manager, who had decided that she wanted to present a "lofty illuminated clock" and it was she who decided that it would be erected in the Circle.

Climate

Culture and leisure

The Tredegar Town Band, which takes part in national competitions, was founded in 1849.

Tredegar Orpheus Male voice choir, which takes its name from Orpheus, the Greek god of music, was founded in 1909.

Tredegar is home to rugby union teams Tredegar Rugby Football Club who play in the Swalec League Division Two East and Tredegar Ironsides Rugby Football Club. The club was formed in 1946. There is also the nearby Tredegar and Rhymney Golf Club.

Tredegar is home to Bryn Bach Park, a country park.

Home of the Blaenau Gwent film Academy which gives young people (7-18) opportunity to learn how to produce films and build up confidence, which has gone to produce both multi award-winning films Life of a Plastic Cup and Stationary Bike based on the short story by Stephen King.

Local schools

• Two dame schools prior to 1828
• The Town School opened in 1837
• Earl Street mixed Junior & Infants Schools in 1876
• Georgetown schools in 1877. First Headmistress in 1878
• Georgetown Senior Boys School in 1904
• Sirhowy School
• Tredegar Grammar School
• Tredegar Secondary Modern
• Thomas Richards Centre
• Tredegar Comprehensive school
• Deighton primary school
• Glanhowy primary school
• Georgetown primary school (rebuilt 2004)
• St. Joseph's R.C school
• Brynbach primary school

Transport

The need for transport development came from Tredegar's industrialisation. By 1805, a joint venture between the Tredegar Iron Company and the Monmouthshire Canal resulted in the early development of what became the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, connecting Tredegar to Newport Docks through 24 miles (39 km) of tramway. Originally powered by horses, in 1829 Chief Engineer Thomas Ellis was authorised to purchase a steam locomotive from the Stephenson Company. Built at Tredegar Works and made its maiden trip on 17 December 1829. In 1865 the railway was extended north to Nantybwch to meet the LNWR. The railway declined with the industrial works, and Tredegar railway station closed with the Beeching Axe in 1963. The closest railway stations now are in Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Abergavenny.

The proposed South Wales Metro includes a station in Tredegar, using the line closed by the Beeching Axe.

For much of the 20th Century Tredegar was served by two bus companies: Red & White Services Ltd (based Chepstow) and Hill's of Tredegar (local family-owned business). Red&White had a large depot in the town and built a brand new Bus Station (in front of the depot building) which was opened 30 January 1959 by then local MP Aneurin Bevan.

Carreg Bica Isaf

In October 2013, a local farmer was jailed for ten months after he permitted 4,700 loads of waste to be illegally dumped on his land, earning £283,000. A spokesmen for Natural Resources Wales hoped the case would show that people could not profit from illegal dumping.

Filming location

Tredegar has been used for numerous TV and film locations, including The District Nurse starring Nerys Hughes. In 1982, a televised version of the A.J. Cronin novel, The Citadel, was filmed in Tredegar, starring Ben Cross. The series was based partly on Cronin's experiences as a doctor in the town, where he had worked for the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in the early 1920s. This society contributed the model which established the British National Health Service. Aneurin Bevan who launched the Health Service in 1948 said ""All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain the benefits we had in Tredegar for a generation or more. We are going to 'Tredegarise' you"

Just north of Tredegar lies the Trefil region. Trefil found new fame in 2005 when it was used as a location for the alien Vogon homeworld in the film of Douglas Adams's book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In 2011 the Trefil Region was once again used as a filming location for a major Hollywood production when parts of a sequel to Clash of the Titans was filmed there.

In the Doctor Who universe, Trefil has featured as the Ood home planet and in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

On 13 May 2008 the car crash scene for short film Cow was filmed on the Tredegar bypass. 'Cow' was produced by Gwent Police and Tredegar Comprehensive School to highlight the dangers of texting while driving. The movie was made available online and received widespread attention, featuring on TV news programs, in newspapers and internet forums worldwide.

On 25 January 2010 the independent movie A Bit of Tom Jones? premiered at Leicester Square, London. Filmed in and around Tredegar, using local people and professional actors, the film was funded by local businesses.

The Doctor Who episode The Hungry Earth was filmed in Bedwellty Pits in 2010.

In 2018 the news of Blaenau Gwent film Academy (based in Tredegar's Little Theatre) was set to adapt the Stephen King's short story 'Stationary Bike' spread literally around the world, all of which would be filmed in Tredegar and the nearby Trefil region

Notable people

The Aneurin Bevan Stones were erected to commemorate where he held open air meetings with constituents.

See also Category:People from Tredegar

• Anterior, five-piece melodic death metal band
• Aneurin Bevan, Labour statesman, founder of the National Health Service and Member of Parliament for Ebbw Vale (1929–60)
• Mark Colbourne, gold and silver medallist at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
• Walter Conway, Secretary of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, the model which established the National Health Service
• George Cording, cricketer who played as a wicket-keeper for Glamorgan County Cricket Club
• Vincent Cronin, historical, cultural, and biographical writer, especially of the Renaissance period
• Alun Davies, Labour Assembly Member for the Mid and West Wales region
• James Davis, United States Secretary of Labor, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, founder of Moose International, the Grand Lodge of Moose in Great Britain
• Edward Donelan PhD, barrister-at-law, Dublin and London, parliamentary counsel, Office of Attorney General Dublin, also had a successful career with the OECD and later as an independent consultant during which he became a world expert on Better Regulation, advising 30 countries on how to improve their regulatory management and building capacities in policymaking and legislative drafting.
• Bradley Dredge, professional golfer on the PGA European Tour
• Jonathan Evans, Conservative former Member of Parliament for Cardiff North
• Bert Gray, footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers and the Welsh national team
• Mark Jones, dual-code rugby player who played for both Welsh national teams and Great Britain in rugby league
• Patrick Jones, poet, playwright, and filmmaker, known for collaborating with the Manic Street Preachers
• Neil Kinnock, Member of Parliament for Bedwellty and Islwyn (1970–95), Leader of the Labour Party, European Commissioner and Life Peer as Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty.
• Stephen Kinnock, Labour Member of Parliament for Aberavon (2015 to date), business executive and husband of Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt
• Stuart Lane, rugby union player for Cardiff RFC, Wales, and the British and Irish Lions
• John Lewis, footballer for Cardiff City and Newport County
• Douglas McKie FRSE (1896-1967) chemist
• Nicki McNelly, Anglican priest, former Provost of St John's Cathedral, Oban
• Christopher Meredith, poet, novelist and faculty of University of Glamorgan
• Tracey Moberly, artist, author and radio show host, best known for her politically-focused work
• David Morgan, cricket administrator, former President of the International Cricket Council and chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board and Glamorgan County Cricket Club
• Glyn Parry, historian and faculty of Victoria University of Wellington
• Garyn Preen, footballer who currently plays for Merthyr Town
• Berwyn Price, gold and silver medallist at the 1974 and 1978 Commonwealth Games
• Ray Reardon, six-time World Championship-winning snooker player
• Moses Russell, football player for Plymouth Argyle and the Welsh national team
• Nick Smith Labour Member of Parliament for Blaenau Gwent (2010-)
• Jason Strange, rugby union player for many clubs, currently at Ebbw Vale RFC
• Philip Weekes, mining engineer and manager of the National Coal Board's South Wales coalfields
• Bryan White, former Mayor of Tredegar and senior member of the Loyal Order of Moose in Great Britain
• Arthur Henry Williams, trade union organiser and Member of the House of Commons of Canada for Ontario
• Denzil Williams (born 1938), Rugby Union player for Wales and the British and Irish Lions
• Phil Williams, scientist and Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for the South Wales East region (1999-2003)
• Cliff Wilson, World Amateur Championship-winning snooker player
• Nicky Wire, lyricist, bassist and occasional vocalist of the Manic Street Preachers

Twin towns

Tredegar has been twinned with Orvault in south-east Brittany since 1979.

See also

In Spanish: Tredegar para niños