Welsh Journals

Cwmbran 'The New Town of Cwmbran' is, of course, a modern concept which springs out of the New Towns Act 1946 and the first house built under its authority was completed on 2 February 1952. (It occurs to me that the word 'modern' may have a slightly different meaning in this context for a man of 20 years than one of 70). The word 'Cwmbran' as indi- cating a built-up area is of comparatively rec-nt origin though, oddly enough, long before 1946 'Old Cwmbran' included a district known as 'Newtown'. There was no municipal authority named Cwmbran before 1935, when the urban district councils of Llantarnam and Llanfrechfa Upper were amalgamated to form the new 'Cwmbran Urban District Council'. (This was the time when the Abersychan, Pontypool and Panteg authorities were joined together to become 'Pontypool Urban District Council'.) The ecclesiastical parish of Cwmbran dates from 1971 while that of 'Llanfrechfa Upper', i.e. Pontnewydd, was formed in 1885. Before 1935 the word 'Cwmbran' signified a somewhat indeterminate area. The Year Book of 'The Free Press of Monmouthshire' for as late as 1923 carried the headline 'Cwmbran (Llantamam)' above its two pages of information regarding that area, the bracketed word apparently intended to clarify the location described. In the same year J. A. Bradney, in Vol. 3 Part 2 of his 'History of Monmouthshire', in a section dealing with the parish of 'Llanvihangel-Llantamam' devoted 16 lines to 'Cwmbran' Cwmbran ("The Dingle of the Crow") is a large and scattered village of modern growth, having its origin from (sic) the industrial works there established. Up to the year 1860 there were only a few mountain farms but by 1865 the iron and wire works of Messrs. James Charles Hill & Co. had been establish d, as well as brick- works by Cyrus Hanson, nut and bolt works by James Gibbs, and iron works by Messrs. Roper. (Bradney must have been nodding when he wrote that paragraph, a habit to which he seems to have been prone: I am no authority on the early industrial history of Cwmbran but I believe some industrialisation had taken place before 1860 e.g. there is in the local authority repair yard in Oldbury Road an industrial relic in the form of a bridge girder bearing the notation 'R. J. Blewitt Esq., 1847-Cwmbran Iron Works'. (We will meet Mr. Blewitt later in my story.) Bradney further comments Llanfrechfa Upper includes the comparatively new villages of Upper Cwmbran, Pontnewydd and Pontrhydyryn Pontnewydd, where a town is now springing up, takes its name from the bridge over the Avon Llwyd. I will be surprised if there are not local historians better informed than me on Cwmbran's industrial history and better informed than Bradney seems to have been: it is a pity that a historian of his stature could write as he did above. The first Ordnance Survey map of Monmouthshire, based on a survey made in 1813 and published in 1833, does show the word 'Cwmbran' a little to the north of 'Five Locks Bridge' over the canal in the district