Housing as a Source for Industrial History: A Case Study of Blaenafon, A Welsh Ironworks Settlement, from 1788 to c1845 Author(s): Jeremy Lowe Source: IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1982), pp. 13- 36 Published by: Society for Industrial Archeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40968025 . Accessed: 10/04/2013 21:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for Industrial Archeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Housingas a Source forIndustrial History: A Case Studyof Blaenafon, A WelshIronworks Settlement, from1788 to cl845 JeremyLowe In Fieldworkin Local History,W.G. Hoskins wrote that stone-walledand slate-roofedbuilding, with a total floor "housesat all sociallevels and in all periodsspeak their own area of about 400 to 450 squarefeet (Figures 3 and 12). "l testimonyof the past-if only we can construeit. Mostlythese houses were "double-fronted," with a central Workers'housing has beenaccepted as partof theprovince doorwaybetween windows on eitherside. They werebuilt of industrialarcheology, but itsrelevance is generallyseen in rows often facingacross a common access path or in termsof socialhistory, the study of laborconditions and "bailey" onto smallfront gardens. Usually the back wall domesticlife. was blank,with neither door norwindow openings, except fora smalllarder ventilator. The adoptionof thistype of The themeof thisarticle is thatthe archeology of housing house as a standardfor industrialworkers was a gradual has a widerreference, that houses can be an importantpart process.Its originswere rural;in the 18thcentury it was of those "unintentionalsources" which, as the editorof used forsmall farmhouses in East Wales.Early in the next thisjournal has remindedus, industrialarcheology is well centurysome rowsof double-frontedfour-roomed houses fittedto provide.2The ThirdInternational Conference on werebuilt by industrialistsin the EnglishMidlands (Figure the Conservationof IndustrialMonuments study group of 13), whilein SouthWales the typebecame more common; 1978 recordedthat "housingusually outlives the industry after1825 it was used forentire settlements.4 But before " withwhich it is associated, and thusmay still survive when then,in the earlyyears of the industrialrevolution, many othermore obviouslyrelevant records and evidencehave other types of workers'houses were triedout. Some of 3 beenlost. Suchhousing can be treatedin itsown right as a themcontinued or adaptedthe traditions of ruralbuildings, classof document,producing data whichis relevantto the whichwere still strongin Britain.Others were specially studyof industrialprocesses and businessdecisions. Just developed to meet the needs of the new urban and what this contributioncan be will depend on circum- industrialcommunities. stances. The contextchosen here is a case studyof an importantbut poorly documented coke- fired ironworks in At Blaenafonin SouthWales, where this case studyis set, South Wales,for whichthe housing evidence is particularly thereexisted just such a wide varietyof housing.5The richand varied. ironworksaround which the towngrew up was foundedin 1788 by threeEnglish businessmen who werenewcomers to Wales.6 The remainsof the worksthey began are very impressive,and some partsare now preservedby theState. In the middleof the 19thcentury, the most common type Documentaryevidence is relativelyscarce, though, especi- of house builtin South Walesfor industrialworkers had ally for the period of the foundingpartnership, which fourrooms, arranged two down and twoup in a substantial lastedup to 1836. The mainsources are mapsand property 13 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IndustrialArcheology deeds,with a few early lettersand wills. There is little back before1900. Wheneverpossible the actualprocess of informationabout the technicaloperation of the works demolitionwas watched, so that hidden featuresof untilafter it wassold in 1836. constructioncould be recorded. Blaenafonis in hillycountry on the northernedge of the Mapsare stillthe mostimportant documentary source, for South Walescoalfield at the easternend of a beltof coal they providea seriesof time horizonsfrom which the and iron ore outcropsabout 30 mileslong. In 1788 the growthof the housingstock at the workscan be followed. districtwas thinly populated; most of it was poormoorland Withthem the developmentof the workscan be relatedto grazing,intersected by woodedriver valleys which deepen itshousing in fourphases: the south.The mostaccessible of ironore toward patches Phase 1 The EarlyColony: 1788-1792.The extentof had beenworked on a smallscale since the 16th to century, the worksis shownapproximately by Dadford'smap supplycharcoal blast furnaces,but the coal whichalso of the MonmouthshireCanal and its feedertram- was not of much value appearedat the outcrops practical roads,dated 1792.10 untilthe of were into the techniques coke-firing brought Phase 2 Expansion: 1792-1813/14.The numberof the nexttwo half-a-dozen area in 1757.7 During decades, furnaceswas increasedfrom two to five,and their coke furnaceswere built ironmasterswho were by English outputmuch augmented. The two-inchmap of 1813 theiractivities to Wales. These furnaceswere extending and a local plan of 1814 make the horizonfor this sitedin the because neededsources of water valleys, they period.11 fortheir The economic of power blowingengines. working Phase 3 Consolidation: 1814-1833/36.Output was theore fieldson the moorlandbecame higher possibleonly stabilizedand an organizedprogram of improvements withthe of in development steam-poweredblowing engines carriedthrough. In 1833 an attemptwas madeto sell the 1780s.The Blaenafonfurnaces were the firstin South the business,but no sale took place until1836. The Walesto be blown directsteam successfully by power.8 one-inch map of 1832 (Figure 1) is the best available.12 Blaenafonbetween 1788 In all, fivefurnaces were built at Phase 4 The Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company: 1810. werein use at leastuntil but from and They 1880, 1836-1841.In itsearly years the new company began 1860 on became to a new ironworksbuilt they subsidiary an extensivebuilding program brought to a sudden ownerson a site.That works by the same nearby produced end by a financialcrisis in 1841. This phase is to but it has now been iron, and then steel, up 1938, summarizedby the large-scaleTithe maps of completelydemolished. The earlierfurnaces survived, as did 1843-1 846.13 some of the around them,though they were buildings Afterthe crisis of which the robbedof muchstonework. In 1969 were 1841, nearlybankrupted they recognized all further investmentwas concen- as one of the classicironworks sites in South Wales,and company, majorcapital trated on the "New" site, where the furnaceswere laterthey were taken into State guardianship. They are now eventuallybrought into use in 1861. beinginvestigated and conserved,and will be a splendid showplace.9 Unfortunately,only a smallarea aroundthe furnaceswas Phase1: Housingin theEarly Colony: 1788-1792 givenState protection.Almost all the workshousing was outsidethis area, scatteredamong the old drifts,quarries, Contextand Data and spoilheaps (Figure 2). Some of thesehouses were still occupied in 1969, others were derelict,but all were scheduledfor demolitionas unfitfor habitation. Though Thoughthere is no large-scalemap of theBlaenafon works the full historicalvalue of such buildingswas scarcely in its earliestdays, its layoutcan be reconstructedfrom a appreciatedthen, some field records were made duringthe viewof the furnaces(Figure 5) drawnin 1799, and from long processof clearance,which continued up to 1978. the small-scale(1:25,000) map, dated 1792, of the tram- Informationabout the houseswhich had been destroyed road fromthe worksto the MonmouthshireCanal.14 The beforefield workbegan was gatheredfrom maps, public originalworks consisted of two stone-builtfurnaces with healthrecords, a fewphotographs, and some recollections the steamblowing engine sited between them. Number 2 of elderlyresidents. In one case thisoral evidencewent Furnacesurvives, probably much rebuilt. The furnaceswere 14 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Housingas a Source forIndustrial History cl829. One-InchOrdnance Survey (Sheet Figurel.Blaenafon, " Enlargedpart of 42 "Brecon, published1832); parishnames and boundariesadded. 15 This content downloaded from 132.206.27.24 on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IndustrialArcheology builton one side of a naturalhollow, against a rockface createdby stone quarrying.The 1792 map shows that aroundthem there was a scatterof half-a-dozenbuildings. Fiveof thesecan be pickedout on laterlarge-scale maps as