When it was completed in 1788, Blaenavon Ironworks was one of the most advanced in the world. Its three huge coal-fired blast furnaces were provided with air powered by a steam engine, making them much more powerful than older, smaller furnaces fired with charcoal and blasted with air from waterwheel-powered bellows. Within a few years it was the world's second-biggest ironworks, after Cyfarthfa at Merthyr Tydfil. Innovation and development continued here until 1904, when the last furnace was finally shut down.
Today the site is one of the best-preserved of all the Industrial Revolution ironworks. You can follow the whole process of production, from the charging of the furnaces to the casting of molten iron in the casting sheds. Also on display are the ironworkers' tiny terraced cottages. The surrounding hillsides are pitted with old tramlines, mines, tunnels and 'scouring' sites, where water was released from holding ponds to wash away topsoil and expose ore seams.
