Blaenavon Ironworks was established in 1789 and was the first purpose-built multi-furnace site which pioneered coal-fired, steam powered smelting processes. This enabled poor quality, high sulphur iron ores to be used - a technology which spread across the globe. Myths from Torfaen include Gwynllyw Filwr (‘Woolo the soldier’), who pirated along the Wye until he dreamt of, and then found, a white bull with a black star on its forehead standing on Stow Hill. Chastised, he repented and established Saint Woolo’s Cathedral. Twmbarlwm, a hill near Cwmbran, contains buried treasure over which swarms of bees and wasps regularly fight. Its Llys (‘court’) was a place of judgement, with the condemned thrown downhill to their deaths. Grizzled mischievous pixies, the Bwca, live underground here. The Bwca supposedly colonised Wales before humans and inspired both JRR Tolkien’s (1892-1973) dwarves and George RR Martin’s (1948-) ‘Children of the Forest’. The Bwca taught people how to mine and often play tricks - immediately before a collapse, you can hear them knocking on the mine walls. In The Mabinogion, Lord Teyrnon lived in Gwent Iscoed (the plain south of Wentwood). He discovered the baby Pryderi after cutting the arm from a giant claw which tried to steal his foal.
Painting - copyright Pete Fowler / Literature Wales
Written piece - copyright Jonathan Edwards / Pete Fowler / Literature Wales
Blaenavon Ironworks
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- Region : South East Wales
- Grid Ref : SO 24948 09184
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Blaenavon Ironworks was established in 1789 and was the first purpose-built multi-furnace site which pioneered coal-fired, steam powered smelting processes. This enabled poor quality, high sulphur iron ores to be used - a technology which spread across the globe. Myths from Torfaen include Gwynllyw Filwr (‘Woolo the soldier’), who pirated along the Wye until he dreamt of, and then found, a white bull with a black star on its forehead standing on Stow Hill. Chastised, he repented and established Saint Woolo’s Cathedral. Twmbarlwm, a hill near Cwmbran, contains buried treasure over which swarms of bees and wasps regularly fight. Its Llys (‘court’) was a place of judgement, with the condemned thrown downhill to their deaths. Grizzled mischievous pixies, the Bwca, live underground here. The Bwca supposedly colonised Wales before humans and inspired both JRR Tolkien’s (1892-1973) dwarves and George RR Martin’s (1948-) ‘Children of the Forest’. The Bwca taught people how to mine and often play tricks - immediately before a collapse, you can hear them knocking on the mine walls. In The Mabinogion, Lord Teyrnon lived in Gwent Iscoed (the plain south of Wentwood). He discovered the baby Pryderi after cutting the arm from a giant claw which tried to steal his foal.
Painting - copyright Pete Fowler / Literature Wales
Written piece - copyright Jonathan Edwards / Pete Fowler / Literature WalesMore Weird & Wonderful Wales locations