Tredegar Ironworks, a nineteenth-century coke fired plant, was located on the west side of the Sirhowy valley.
The history of iron making at Tredegar can be followed back to at least to the eighteenth century when a forge is known to have operated there. In 1794 the site, operated by Harford and Partridge, comprised two refineries and a chafery. Expansion took place after 1800 when Samuel Homfrey (of the Penydarren Ironworks) leased from the Tredegar Estate a large area of land on Bedwellty Common, near Tredegar, in partnership with Richard Fothergill, Matthew Monkhouse, William Thompson and William Forman. For most of its working life the works were owned by the Homfray, Fothergill and Forman families.
From 1803 (until 1818) Tredegar was used to convert Pig iron from the nearby Sirhowy works (NPRN 34141) which, by 1805, was producing 3,700 tons of it. A second blast furnace was built in 1805, a further two by 1810, and a fifth was added in 1817. By 1823 these were producing more than 16,000 tons annually, rising to 18,514 by 1830. Further expansion took place in the 1830s and 1840s. By 1869 there were nine blast furnaces on the site served by 300 coke ovens and five blowing engines together with four forge trains served by 80 puddling furnaces. Iron was made into bars, rods and rails and was producing 1,000 to 1,100 tons of railway iron each week during 1869. In 1882 two Bessemer converters were installed to allow conversion to steel production, and the manufacture of steel rails guaranteed the works survival into the 1890s.
In 1875, the company had renamed itself the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company to allow development of additional coal mining capacity. In 1891 iron production ceased but coal mining continued. The former Tredegar Ironworks were effectively abandoned. The company continued to develop coal mines and work pits until it was nationalised in 1946, becoming part of the National Coal Board.
The site, which forms a series of level terraces above the river has been extensively cleared and landscaped since closure.
Sources:
L.Ince, The South Wales Iron Industry 1750-1885 (1993).
GGAT, Southeast Wales Industrial Ironworks Landscapes (unpublished report).

RCAHMW, 19 January 2016