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Pontypool

Pontypool is credited with being the home of the Welsh iron industry. The first forge here is believed to have been in operation as early as 1425, and the first ironworks opened in 1577. It is said that the first iron working forge in America was started by emigrants from Pontypool in the mid-17th century. The Torfaen valley in which the town lies also prides itself on being the earliest place in Britain to have successfully produced tin plate, which it did in 1720. Today, the town’s industrial heritage can be explored at the Pontypool Museum where both the industrial and social history of the town and surrounding Torfaen valley is detailed. The museum is located in the late-Georgian stables of Pontypool Park, once the home of the Hanbury family who were, appropriately, owners of a local ironworks.

 Pontypool Park is a 19th-century landscaped park whose main attractions include a shell grotto and a unique double-chambered ice house. The formal Italian gardens have recently been restored with the help of Heritage Lottery funding.

Canals, too, have played an important part in the development of Pontypool and this particular legacy is recalled at Junction Cottage, a toll keeper’s cottage of 1814 lying at the junction of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and the River Lwyd.

However, industry seems worlds away at Llandegfedd Reservoir, to the east of Pontypool, where the lake and surrounding countryside provide numerous opportunities for fishing, sailing, walking and bird watching.