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1) An explanation of the initial growth, later transformation, and final demise of iron and steel making at Ebbw Vale in South Wales; consideration of the impact on transport and settlement patterns, employment, and the environment. 2) An assessment of recent attempts at regeneration, and outline of future prospects. 3) An Upland Resource-based Settlement Model derived from Ebbw Vale and other South Wales valleys.
Ebbw Vale - Industrialisation and after:
Physical background
1. Block Diagram showing simplified geology of the east-central part of the South Wales Coalfield.
Location, Geology and Relief (see diagram 1 above):
The B 4560 road from the Usk Valley to Beaufort is one of the highest roads in South Wales, one of only four crossing the impressive Brecon Beacons escarpment. From its summit near Mynydd Llangattock it offers excellent views of the valleys dissecting the northern edge of the South Wales plateau three kilometres to the south. The most prominent of these valleys is that of the Ebbw fawr, and nestling in it is the town of Ebbw Vale (popn 24,500) the industrial, administrative and retail service centre of the Borough of Blaenau Gwent. The deep, narrow valley may look unremarkable now, but 30 years ago it was dominated by smoke perpetually billowing from a huge steel works. After a gentle two mile drive downhill from Mynydd Llangattock the Brecon Beacons National Park gives way to the former South Wales Coalfield, and the landscape changes dramatically from open moorland with wide views and few settlements to an increasingly narrow, crowded and urbanised valley. Here is the start of a continuous built up area extending for five miles north to south from the housing estates at Garnlydan and Rassau, via the former iron smelting centre of Beaufort and steel-making town of Ebbw Vale, to the colliery village of Cwm.
2. Ebbw Vale from the B4560 road near Mynydd Llangattock. Note the contrast in land use between the gritstone moorland in the foreground and Ebbw Vale beyond; the skyline is the Coalfield plateau, Tredegar is in the next valley on the right.
At Garnlydan the B 4560 road we have been following crosses the A 465 ‘Heads of the Valleys` Trunk Road that links Ebbw Vale with Merthyr Tydfil to the west and Abergavenny to the east. The Trunk Road was only completed in 1964, mostly following redundant railway lines along an undulating strike vale carved in Lower Coal Measures at the foot of the Coalfield Plateau. It provides the only continuous link between the industrial towns that occupy the parallel steep-sided tributaries of the Taff and the Ebbw dissecting the northern part of the former Coalfield +.
The Ebbw fawr river rises on Mynydd Llangattock and is fed by streams draining the strike vale before it enters the funnel-shaped mouth of the Vale proper at Beaufort. It provided power and water for the first blast furnaces at Beaufort in 1787, and still supplies domestic and industrial water to Beaufort and Ebbw Vale.
The Vale south of Beaufort is deeply incised into Lower and Middle Coal Measures, which contain most of the productive coal seams and associated ‘blackband’ iron ore that made the Heads of the Valleys the world’s first heavy industrial region. The magnetite ore contained 30-45 per cent pure iron and was low in sulphur and phosphorus impurities; it was easily accessible, and the carbon contained in it helped to reduce fuel and hence production costs. The coal was good quality bituminous coal, ideal for coke-making and firing of blast furnaces, and later on for fuelling steamships and railways around the world. Formed from coastal swamp forests 280 m years ago, the seams varied from a few centimetres to two metres thick. Sandwiched between layers of sandstone and shale representing the marine transgressions that buried and compressed them, coal seams make up about 11 per cent of the total formation. However, geological faults from subsequent uplift frequently interrupt the seams, and water and gases percolate readily along both joints and fissures, shortening the life of individual pits and increasing the costs of production. The Upper Coal Measures have few coal seams and are capped with resistant Pennant Sandstone, which is used locally for building.
Ebbw Vale is one of six deep valleys flowing south across the Coalfield only 3 to 4 kilometres apart, superimposed from a gently sloping plateau surface onto the synclinal (saucer-shaped) structure of the rocks beneath (see block diagram). The dip or tilt of the rocks is greater than the slope of the valley floors, so southwards the most productive coal seams are found at ever greater depths, necessitating costly and dangerous deep mining. Towards Newport the streams cross the narrower southern limb of the South Wales basin, and this time are flowing against the dip of the rocks, forming a gorge-like valley. Finally the Ebbw widens to join the tidal estuary of the River Usk just before it enters the Bristol Channel. The Ebbw is typically stony and fast-flowing, variable in gradient, and unnavigable upstream of Newport.
The Vale, like all the South Wales Valleys, provides relatively easy movement down to the coast, but journeys are much slower and more costly up valley, and almost impossible to west and east because of the depth of the valleys and steepness of the slopes – hence the importance of the ‘Heads of the Valleys’ corridor at the northern end. To appreciate more readily the difficulties of transport and settlement in Ebbw Vale, consider the following:-
1. The Ebbw fawr river is about 300 m above sea level (900 ft) at the former steelworks, but the interfluve (summit ridge) bounding the valley only 1 km to the west reaches 500 m (1550 ft), and the eastern interfluve is even higher at 550 m (1700 ft).
2. No road provides access to the neighbouring valleys for 9 km (6 miles) between Ebbw Vale town centre and Aberbeeg, the confluence of its main tributary, the Ebbw fach.
3. The valley is so narrow, difficult of access and empty that there are no minor roads or even side streets joining the A 4046 for 4 km (2½ miles) south of Cwm.
Environment:
There is therefore little flat land in Ebbw Vale, and its narrow floor is already likely to be built on where it is not marshy or liable to flood. The river was formerly heavily polluted, but it has greatly improved, especially since the clean up that accompanied the Garden Festival Project in 1990. The glacial soils are acidic and nutrient-poor, mantling steep slopes that are sometimes unstable, especially below former quarries, tips and springs. The valley sides used to be mainly unimproved grazing, with remnants of oak, ash and birch woodland (one area remains as a local Nature Reserve near Festival Park), but they are now often infested with scrub and bracken or are planted with conifers, as in ‘Little Switzerland’ south of Cwm. The ridge tops mainly consist of poorly drained grazing and moorland.
The higher ground is exposed to the prevailing rain-bearing south-westerly winds, producing a cool damp climate all year, with a shortage of sunshine. A temperature inversion commonly occurs in the valley, particularly in autumn and winter, which limits the vertical mixing of air, and produces frost, poor visibility and fog. Smog (fog plus smoke, dust and acid particles from industry) has caused a high incidence of endemic lung disease.
Resources (other than iron, coal and water):
Construction materials are widely available (sandstone, sand and gravel for building, aggregate for road construction, clay for brick and tile making). Limestone was quarried at Blaen Onneu to the north – formerly for fertilizer and blast furnace flux, now mainly for cement, building stone, railway ballast, and road metalling. Silica was used to make heat-resistant refractory bricks for lining furnaces, especially at the lower end of the steelworks site. Basic slag from blast furnaces is a source of fertiliser (potash), and can still be quarried from the valley sides for road metalling.
Coal by-products have included coal gas, tars and resins, naphtha and other chemicals.
Hardwood timber was used for construction, charcoal production, pit props and tools; now softwoods are used for fencing, furniture, pulping, hardboard and laminates.
Historical background (see figure 3 below)
1. Pre-industrial base – The very poor semi-subsistent upland livestock economy resulted in a sparse hamlet and farm rural settlement pattern, with a population of only a few hundred in the entire valley. Transport was at the speed of horse and cart along tracks and poorly maintained roads. It was an isolated area: the nearest produce markets were at Brynmawr and Tredegar, and down valley at Abercarn. Some small forges and furnaces produced wrought and cast iron for local farmers, farriers, hauliers etc.
3. Diagrammatic sketch maps showing Ebbw Vale's changing form and functions from the start of the Industrial Revolution in Wales to the present day.
2. Primary production and bar iron phase – 1779 to 1830 - Local raw materials plus fast-flowing water and cheap land led to blast furnaces being set up at Beaufort in 1779 (linked with the Sirhowy works near Tredegar), then one mile down Ebbw Vale in 1789 (later to become the Victoria works). Initially charcoal fired, they quickly converted to coke, producing pig and bar iron mainly for working up and finishing elsewhere. Industrial housing was put up around each works, and then spread to the road junction between them (the modern A 4047 - the A 465 did not exist until the mid 20th century). Site constraints encouraged archetypal ‘rows’ parallel to contours on the lower valley slopes as demand for housing increased, then ribbon development along the valley roads producing an elongated ‘T’ shape. The population of Ebbw Vale in 1830 was over a thousand and growing fast.
Although there was intense competition between rival iron masters trying to get established in a new and fast-developing industry with a limited range of products and markets, intra-industry links also developed because of their close proximity and their shared difficulties, particularly with regard to markets,transport and labour. Markets were mainly accessed westwards via Merthyr Tydfil, and eastwards via Brynmawr and Abergavenny because of poor transport southwards down the valleys. Initially access to navigable water was critical, provided by tramroads often built by canal companies, such as the Brinore and Bailey’s Tramroads leading to the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal.
3. Iron manufacturing phase – 1830s to 1860s - After the success of Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive at Penydarren in 1830, railways increasingly supplanted tramroads and canals. They were quicker, more direct, easier to build and maintain than canals, and used cheap local coal. This led to increased development down the Coalfield valleys. The rapid increase in demand for cast iron sheets, plates and rails and coal for machines, locomotives and iron-clad ships - especially when Britain ‘ruled the waves’ after the Napoleonic Wars - led to increasing scale and volume of iron and coal production, and shipment direct to Newport. By 1830 South Wales was responsible for over one half of the world’s iron trade: Ebbw Vale was growing in importance, but not as quickly as Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenafon. Some iron ore had to be imported up valley from overseas to cope with demand. The Victoria works now had a relative advantage over Beaufort and other strictly Heads of the Valleys locations, and so the Vale became dominant for production and settlement. Ironworks, collieries and railways occupied the limited flat land along the Ebbw river, and roads and terraced houses grew along the lower valley sides, served by chapels, meeting halls, schools, shops and a market. This was the peak period of the Welsh iron industry, led by Dowlais and three other large plants at Merthyr Tydfil. The other Heads of the Valleys towns were not far behind: Ebbw Vale had become a boom town, and its population more than doubled in 30 years.
4. Bessemer steel-making phase – 1860s to 1930s – The spread of the Bessemer Converter made it possible for steel to be made from pig iron in large quantities, and steel was stronger and more versatile than iron. This development made large integrated iron and steel plants necessary (“convert to steel or perish” was the cry), and the older Heads of the Valleys works found themselves in difficulties. Half of them closed almost immediately, including Beaufort, but Ebbw Vale, Dowlais, Blaenafon, Cyfarthfa (Merthyr), Tredegar and Rhymney survived using Bessemer converters. But the local blackband iron ore proved to be ill-suited to the Bessemer process, in spite of the pioneering work of Sidney Gikchrist Thomas at Blaenafon, and supplies were not able to meet the growing demand anyway. Increasingly ore had to be imported, and inland sites were now at a serious disadvantage compared with coastal ones such as Cardiff, Llanelly, and Margam, and later Port Talbot and Llanwern. The giant Dowlais works was moved lock, stock and barrel to East Moors near Cardiff, and most of the other Heads of the Valleys plants closed in the early 20th century, or converted to tin plating and other finishing industries. There was a brief respite for local steel and coal production in the run-up to the Great War (1914-1918), but that was followed by inexorable economic decline, and, in a ‘single industry town’ such as Ebbw Vale, savage unemployment and hardship. By 1930 two thirds of the town’s workforce was unemployed.
Richard Thomas and Baldwin wanted to close their Ebbw Vale Steelworks during the Great Depression of the 1930s and relocate in Lincolnshire, but the government persuaded them to redevelop the existing works (with huge subsidies, mainly on social grounds). All the other inland works closed. Coal was now brought up valley by rail from new deep collieries at Cwm, Llanhilleth etc., and the Bessemer Converters increasingly used pig iron brought in from the expanded coastal works at Margam. Continuous cold and hot strip mills were extended along the valley floor, and tin-plating was added to steel-making.
In the town itself, older housing rows and terraces were knocked down and replaced, there was infill on previously undeveloped land, and some new and expanded settlement up the valley sides (Willowtown, Briery Hill, Glyncoed, Newtown, Waun Lwyd etc). Beaufort stagnated and became an impoverished satellite town. Cwm had grown as a classic pit village around its deep shaft colliery. The population of the valley had now reached 20,000 plus. The settlement pattern was one of high density ‘beads on a string’ in an almost continuous ribbon for 8 kilometres (5 miles) from Beaufort to Cwm. The population density was over 3000 per square mile in the built up area (and that included the steelworks), but it was still almost empty on the steep valley sides, on the interfluves, and in the valley below Cwm.
4. The Ebbw Vale integrated iron and steelworks in 1966, viewed from the B4468 perimeter road.
5. Integrated Iron and Steel phase – 1939-1980s – Bessemer steel was successively improved and replaced by Nielsen’s Hot Blast, Siemens-Martin and electrolytic processes. These depended on a progressively smaller and more adaptable workforce, and imported materials, including pig iron and steel ingots from the Abbey works at Port Talbot, and coke and scrap steel from wherever it was cheapest. The whole works occupied 4km (2 ½ miles) of Ebbw Vale in 1980 (see aerial sketch, fig. 4), and included the longest single strip mill in Europe at that time (over ½ mile). The products were mainly coiled steel strip for vehicle bodies (sold on to Birmingham and Oxford) and domestic appliances, and for tin plating and galvanising. Initially privately owned but heavily subsidised, it was later nationalised within the British Steel Corporation, but it still struggled to compete. Local coal mining and pig iron production ceased, and Cwm and Llanhilleth collieries closed. Road transport increasingly replaced rail for movement of products and even some materials, with the new Heads of the Valleys Trunk Road paramount. The latter largely followed former railway lines, but note that it was only built as a single three lane carriageway, and not finally completed until 1964, by which time it was already barely coping with increased weight and volume of traffic.
There was increasing unemployment from 1918 onwards. It reached a peak in the 1930s, but it remains well above the national average to this day. Ebbw Vale is a classic example of a single-industry town, with all the problems that entails. The steelworks employed 8,000 directly (mainly men) at its peak, but whole families were totally dependent on it because there was little alternative employment. Shops and services in the town also suffered, since their trade depended on the disposible incomes of local families. The collapse of the traditional economy based on iron, coal and steel in Ebbw Vale was therefore catastrophic socially and economically (see population pyramid below).
It was also catastrophic environmentally. The valley was highly polluted – there were slag heaps still burning alongside the B 4468 perimeter road in the 1970s. There was smog in the air; there were metals and chemicals in the river water and the soils; scrap metal, tailings, old coal tips, rusty machinery, and blast furnace slag were evident everywhere - all this produced a sterile, dangerous, and unsightly environment. The steelmaking operation closed in 1980, with tinplating and galvanising continuing into the 1990s before that too closed and was dismantled (1998 to 2002).
5. The steel rolling mills and galvanising plant in about 1990. Note the land use and the atmospheric conditions.
6. The Post-industrial era – attempts at regeneration:
Special Development Area status in the 1970s and ‘80s led to increased inward investment. This was mainly through government agencies (including the Welsh Development Agency) and the EU Regional Fund. There was limited local capital, and foreign investors and multinational firms inevitably showed more interest in locations with better access to the coastal cities and the M4. Regeneration projects included:-
1. a new Civic Centre for Blaenau Gwent at Glyn Coed, with a Leisure Centre, Tertiary College, and administrative services;
2. Ebbw Vale Garden Festival (1988) on reclaimed steelworks land opposite Waun Lwyd and Victoria Park. Now called Festival Park, it has housing, factory outlet shopping, and an enterprise area; also there is an Education Centre and Nature Reserve nearby;
3. neighbourhood housing refurbishment, and improved parks and public spaces;
4. a Starter Business area built on a brownfield site at Cwm;
5. reopening of Ebbw Vale Railway in 2005 – this could be critical for the declining south end of the town, and for the Vale as a whole;
6. pedestrianisation of Market Street, and improved bus access;
7. Roseheyworth Industrial/Business Park on the reclaimed steelworks site;
8. light industrial and housing estates on both sides of the Heads of the Valleys Road - especially Rassau.
9. dualling of the A465 Trunk Road – Merthyr to Tredegar is complete, Brynmawr to Abergavenny is under construction, and the Ebbw Vale stretch will follow (2010?).
6. Ebbw Vale, looking north from Cwm in 2005. Recent municipal housing flanks the new by-pass road and refurbished railway line leading down valley from Victoria Park and the Garden Festival site (in the background) to Crumlin and Newport.
Population Trends and Future Prospects (see Fig. ):
There are still major environment, infrastructure, fabric and image problems – how can Ebbw Vale attract new jobs? Access – internal and external – is still the major problem, in spite of concerted efforts over many years. The steep gradients with little flat land also limit building. Larger and more accessible sites are now becoming available as a result of the closure of traditional industries, but clearing, levelling and draining them is often expensive, particularly where they are polluted. The workforce needs retraining – the traditional mining and metal working skills are no longer needed. Also there are no obvious heritage or environmental features to attract visitors (unlike Merthyr Tydfil or Blaenafon).
Town growth has shifted back towards the Heads of the Valleys (the north end of the town). The south end has been stagnating or even declining, despite the Garden Festival etc. Access to the A 465 Trunk Road is seen to be vital for industry, while access to Newport and the M4 via the road down the Ebbw valley is still relatively slow. The recent reopening of the Ebbw Vale Railway may slow the decline, but is unlikely to reverse the trend, since it will primarily be for passengers (commuters?), not freight. As we have seen, Ebbw Vale has always been at a relative disadvantage in relation to the main routes in and out of South Wales – (1) via Merthyr to Cardiff or Swansea, & (2) via Abergavenny to the M50 or the M4. It may be halfway along the A465 (T), but without tourist attractions, accommodation, catering services or even a filling station there is little to encourage drivers to stop. 
7. Cwm High Street, looking south towards the former site of Cwm Colliery.
Settlement and functions:
Ebbw Vale is like most South Wales valley towns – it has a 19th century high density core, with more recent lower density 20th housing estates on the fringes. The core street pattern is linear (because of the relief), and is not strongly nucleated, since it grew up rapidly in response to the urgent need for basic accommodation at production sites, rather than piecemeal around a market or road junction. The former valley-bottom Steelworks site still dominates settlement form. Conventional (largely American) Urban Models and the concepts of the Central Business District and Peak Land Value Intersection seem hardly to apply here+, hence the need for a new Upland Resource-based Settlement Model, which I shall outline below. While based on the development of settlements in South Wales, including Ebbw Vale, it should be applicable, with minor modification, in other upland regions too.
The main street in each part of the settlement consists of low order services such as pubs#, cheap fast food outlets, betting shops, general stores, chapels, hairdressers and so on. These are often interspersed (almost randomly) with dwellings, vacant buildings, and derelict or unused space. The houses are terraced, often fronting the street direct, with just a yard at the back; there are few gardens, trees, or tended open spaces. The side streets are often just short cul de sacs leading to a tip, or up to the next terrace along the valley side, most notably in Cwm.
8. A typical Cwm side street, from the High Street.
The newer housing estates (Garnlydan, Rassau, Willowtown, Hilltop) are more spacious, but at around 400m OD they are among the highest residential areas in South Wales, and therefore in Britain – not ideal for carrying shopping and pushing the pram!
As part of the post-steel regeneration process Ebbw Vale has become the main service centre for the unitary authority based on the Borough of Blaenau Gwent. The Civic Centre, Police Ambulance and Fire Stations, Leisure Centre and library were built on reclaimed land along the main road in Glyn Coed. Nearby, the Secondary School has been expanded and the College of Further Education upgraded to University College status (specialising in vocational courses, skills and retraining). At Waun y Pound a Retail and Business Park was built to serve Ebbw Vale, Rassau, Beaufort and Sirhowy (Tredegar), with a Tesco Superstore at Willowtown. These developments have done little to alleviate the chronic unemployment, while the new retail outlets have undoubtedly accelerated the decline of smaller shops in the town.
+ The prime site at the north end of Market Street (formerly the railway station) was occupied from the 1960s by a concrete multi-storey car park. Unloved and unwanted, it was nevertheless designated a listed building, so it could not be knocked down!
# There are many social clubs in Ebbw Vale associated with rugby, ex-servicemen’s and working men’s associations, and the former subsidised Steelworks facilities; there is also a ‘County Hotel’, but it is striking that there are no conventional pubs or inns in the town.