Present-day Wales may be known for its green landscapes (and the forward-thinking policies that help protect them), but it is the coal industry that has dominated the country’s recent history, with the South Wales Valleys a hub of the UK’s coal and iron production during the British Industrial Revolution.
Much of the infrastructure from this period has long disappeared, but the preserved buildings and machinery in the former mining town of Blaenavon, in the county of Monmouthshire, stands as a monument to this seminal Welsh industry, providing visitors with a window into coal’s impact on the Welsh landscape, and the lives of those who spent long days underground mining it.
The centrepiece of the UNESCO site, which also encompasses the town of Blaenavon itself and its heritage railway line, is the former ironworks. Here, great stone structurers, including colossal blast furnaces and the remains of the giant water balance tower (which cleverly used water-filled weights to lift wagons of iron onto the adjoining tram track), loom over visitors.
A particularly popular part of the site is the award-winning Big Pit National Coal Museum. A working mine until 1980, the museum’s clanking lifts are now loaded up with tourists rather than workmen, who are lowered 300ft underground into the town’s preserved mining tunnels. Once inside, guided tours by torchlight offer a first-hand insight into the gruelling daily routines of those who were tasked with retrieving the fuel that powered Britain’s industrial boom.
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