Visit Tredegar Places

Welcome to Visit Tredegar Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Tredegar

  

Tredegar Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Tredegar

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Tredegar history

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Origin of the name

The original Tredegar is in Coedcernyw by Newport, and is nowadays more usually known in English as (in order to avoid confusion) Tredegar House (or Tredegar Park). Older forms of the name show it to be Tredegyr (this form is found in 1550) (by the modern Welsh period generally this final “y” would have become “e”. In south-eastern Welsh, or Gwentian, which is the variety of Welsh spoken historically in Tredegar, this would have in turn become “a”, as with Gwentian “Merchar” (Wednesday), standard Welsh “Mercher”, from older Welsh “Merchyr”). In 1800 Samuel Homfray, who had married into the Morgan of Tredegar family, formed a company to produce iron which was named the Tredegar Iron Company – the land where he extracted and treated the ore belonged to his father-in-law and was a part of the Tredegar Estate. The company’s buildings appeared on an 1832 Ordnance Survey map as Tredegar Iron Works. Tredegyr is “farmstead of Tegyr” (tre, a form of tref = farmstead) + soft mutation (t > d) + Tegyr. A Brythonic form *Tecorix (fair king) might be supposed, as such a form would have resulted in Welsh “Tegyr” following normal processes in the development of Welsh from Brythonic. There is a similar name in Denbighshire – Botegyr, meaning “Tegyr’s dwelling”, < Bod Degyr d) + (Tegyr). The local form of the name was in fact Tredecar (with “c” [k] instead of “g”). This feature, typical of Gwentian, is known as “provection” (calediad in Welsh) and involves the devoicing of stops. In this way “b > p”, “d > t” and “g > c”. The form is to be found in the title of the folk song “Ar Ben Waun Tredecar” (“At the Top of Waun Tredegar” (i.e. Tredegar Mountain) by the group Yr Hwntws. There was also a shortened form Decar – the loss of a pre-tonic syllable is not unusual in Welsh and a number of place-names show this feature. Examples in spoken Welsh are ceffyle > ffyle (horses), afale > fale (apples), ysgubor > sgubor (barn), ystafell > stafell (room), eisteddfod > steddfod. The origin of the name Tredegar has been said to be “tref y deg erw” or “tre’r deg erw” (“(the) farm (of) the thirty acres”). “Tref” is an older form of “tre”; “y” is the definite article after a consonant, and “‘r” is the definite article after a vowel. Deg erw is Welsh for “ten acres”, literally “ten acre”. In Welsh place names the linking definite article is often dropped, hence pairs such as “Glan-y-môr, Glan-môr” (the sea’s edge) or “Cae’r Maen, Cae Maen” (the field of the standing stone). Thus “tref deg erw” would not be an impossible name morphologically, though it would not be within the usual pattern of Welsh place names (tref + a defined acreage does not occur). Another explanation sometimes found is that the origin of the name is “tri deg erw” i.e. thirty acres, by way of an altered form of tri-deg-ar. “Tri-deg” (three tens, literally “three ten”) is thirty, but as a numeral it is a recent innovation in Welsh, since “deg-ar-hugain” (ten on twenty) is the traditional numeral. In both of the above interpretations (“ten-acre-farm”, or “thirty acres”) it is supposed that “erw” has been reduced to “er” through the loss of the final vowel “w”, and the resulting final syllable “er” has become final “ar”. This would be consistent with features of Gwentian Welsh. Some south-eastern field names show this reduction – for example, Dwyar, a field name in Penderyn (dwy erw = two acres (literally “two acre”) > dwyer > dwyar). So “tre deg erw” is plausible morphologically, but is not the origin of the name “Tredegar”. In the second case, “tri-deg” would hardly change to “tre-deg” and so “tri deg erw” could not have resulted in “Tredegar”. In addition, neither in the case of “ten acres” nor in that of “thirty acres” is there any indication of what land area is being referred to.

Pre-industrialisation

By the start of the 1700s, the upper Sirhowy Valley was a natural well-wooded valley, consisting of a few farms and the occasional small iron works where iron ore and coal naturally occurred together. Tredegar grew as a developed town thanks to the natural resources it had within the Sirhowly Valley.

Industrialisation

The Sirhowy Iron Works was erected in 1750 by Mr Kettle of Shropshire. In 1778 Kettle sold this ironworks to Thomas Atkinson and William Barrow who came to the area from London. They developed it as the first coal fired furnace, so men were employed to dig coal at Bryn Bach and Nantybwch, the first small scale coal mining operation in the area.

Tredegar Ironworks

In 1797, Samuel Homfray, with partners Richard Fothergill and the Matthew Monkhouse built a new furnace. This created the new Sirhowy Ironworks, that were in 1800 to become the Tredegar Iron Company. In 1891, the company ceased production of iron, but continued to develop coal mines and produce coal. In 1931, they also closed down their operations, moving everything to Newport works.

Tredegar Circle

Tredegar Circle was first known as ‘The Square’, but as buildings and shops developed around it people began to refer to it as The Circle. The town clock was once where the town stocks resided, with there being records of people being put into the stocks to be punished for petty misdemeanours. Prostitution was rife within Tredegaar Circle, almost having a reputation of being a ‘red light district’

You can visit Tredegar places with Walkfo Tredegar to hear history at Tredegar’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Tredegar has 35 places to visit in our interactive Tredegar map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Tredegar, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Tredegar places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Tredegar & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 35 audio facts unique to Tredegar places in an interactive Tredegar map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Tredegar Places Map
35 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Tredegar historic spots	Tredegar tourist destinations	Tredegar plaques	Tredegar geographic features
Walkfo Tredegar tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Tredegar

  

Best Tredegar places to visit

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Tredegar has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Tredegar’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Tredegar’s information audio spots:

Bedwellty Pits Halt railway station Bedwellty Pits Halt railway station was a station on the Sirhowy Railway. It was initially spelled Bedwelty, then known as Bedwellty Pits, and then known Bedwelly Pits Halt. It consisted of 2 wooden platforms to serve the workforce of the local colliery.

Ebbw Vale Hospital Ebbw Vale Hospital was a community hospital in Wales. It was managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. The hospital was known as Ysbyty Ynn Ybbw Vyllyllyll Vale Hospital.

Gwent Archives Gwent Archives (Welsh: Archifau Gwent) is the local records office and genealogy centre based in Ebbw Vale, South Wales for Monmouthshire. It covers the modern local authority areas of Blaenau, Caerphilly County Borough, Newport and Newport.

Redwood Memorial Hospital Redwood Memorial Hospital (Welsh: Ysbyty Coffa Redwood) was a community hospital in Rhymney, Wales, managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. It closed in July 2013, and services are now offered through the Rhyney Integrated Health & Social Care Centre.

Ebbw Vale bus station Ebbw Vale bus station (Welsh: Gorsaf bws Glyn Ebwy), also known as Inner Bypass, is a bus terminus. It is located in the town centre of Ebbw Vale, South Wales.

Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan is a community hospital in Ebbw Vale, Wales. It is managed by the Aneuurin Bevan University Health Board.

Visit Tredegar plaques