LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE

Introduction The Learning Box has been devised by County Borough Council in consultation with as a result of generous financial support provided by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Heads of the Valleys Programme. It consists of a range of educational resources suitable for all key stages that will provide structure for visits to key sites and support for preparatory and follow-up classroom studies. The Industrial Landscape is an important place of study of the Industrial Revolution and is an ideal venue for schools studying changes in people’s daily lives in the 19th century and changes that happened in , Britain and the wider world between 1760 and 1914. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is also an excellent case-study for students of urban decline and economic regeneration. The Blaenavon World Heritage Centre was established to provide a focal reference point to the area’s rich industrial legacy, telling the story of the people who have shaped this landscape from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution to the present day using a range of interpretative media including film, audio, graphics and interactive displays. The Learning Box has been designed so that it can be updated to keep pace with curriculum developments and new educational resources. It is a ‘work in progress’ and we will be continually adding to the Learning Box to broaden its scope in terms of subject/curriculum and key stage coverage as more resources become available. It currently covers the curriculum subjects of history, geography and design & technology. Teachers are invited to contribute their own resources for inclusion within the Learning Box in order to share good practice and widen educational opportunities for students. In the light of recent curriculum developments, we have devised 4 major themes around which our resources have been developed and schemes of work can be structured. For each theme, we have created topic webs to assist with planning and identifying curriculum links. Our 4 themes are: • Blaenavon and the World Beyond • Landscape • Cutting-edge Technology • People This resource is also available to download from the Blaenavon World Heritage Site website (www.visitblaenavon.co.uk) and the National Grid for Learning Cymru (www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk).

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 1 Theme - Blaenavon and the World Beyond ’ iron and coal industries were of global importance during the 19th and early 20th centuries and nowhere else is this better illustrated than in the area around Blaenavon. This is manifest in the inclusion of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape as a World Heritage Site in December 2000. The products of the iron and coal industries were exported to all corners of the World. By the mid-19th century, South Wales’ iron industry was responsible for 40% of the UK’s output of iron (then the World’s largest industrialised economy). By 1913, one-third of the World’s coal exports were produced in South Wales by quarter of a million colliers; then, a quarter of the Welsh workforce. Reminders of the iron and coal industries abound across South Wales but the global significance of these industries is not so well appreciated. The economic development of South Wales during the Industrial Revolution was accompanied by technological innovations which were adopted elsewhere thus contributing to the spread of the Industrial Revolution across the World. The spread of technological expertise across the globe was often accompanied by the people who practised them in South Wales; the skills of people with industrial experience were sought after in the developing iron and coal industries of the U.S.A. in particular. The information resources within the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre provide an excellent starting point and stimulus to a study on this theme. Our topic web below provides some suggestions for developing the theme of ‘Blaenavon and the World beyond’.

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 2 Environment

Now Then Sustainability Working Conditions World Heritage Welfare Tourism Rich/Poor Blaenavon Religion, Population Language & and the Cultures World Beyond Emigration and Creativity Immigration

Products Politics

Natural Transport Resources Communication

Manmade Around European the World Industrial Heritage

International Links

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 3 Theme - Landscape The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape has been shaped by natural forces for billions of years; geological processes and climate have created a legacy in the rocks which makers of iron have exploited for many centuries. The link between human activity and nature is therefore an inseparable one. At the end of the last Ice Age, as nature began to re-colonise the area, human activities influenced the appearance of the landscape from the time of early hunter gatherers to the appearance of farming in the area about 6,000 years ago. At Blaenavon, there is physical evidence of human activity in the landscape in the form of stone burial cairns from the early Bronze Age (2,500 to 1,400 BC) onwards and it is likely that by this time a tree-less moorland landscape similar to that of today would have become established. This landscape would have been grazed by livestock and supported a small, scattered population of farmers and labourers. Latterly, the moorland became famous for its red grouse which provided sport for the gentry. Exploitation of the area’s geological wealth undoubtedly began long before the earliest documentary references in the 16th century with coal and iron ore being taken to iron forges at (once one of the leading iron-making centres in Britain) and at near Gilwern. The exploitation of this wealth greatly increased with the founding of the Blaenavon in 1787 and continued until the late 20th century – each phase of industrial activity both adding to and obliterating earlier phases thus creating a complex and fascinating industrial landscape comprising quarries, levels, shafts, spoil tips, roads, rail and tramways dating from different periods. Of course, throughout this time, Blaenavon has also been a living landscape populated by people and nature both of which have needed to adapt to a changing environment. The environmental effects of industrial decline has also brought about physical consequences for the landscape with land ‘reclamation’ and tip clearance schemes taking place during the latter decades of the 20th century. In a bid to create employment opportunities, public authorities have created new industrial estates and since the award of World Heritage Site Status since 2000 there has been a significant public investment focused upon environmental improvements in the and landscape as key elements in a policy of ‘heritage-led’ regeneration. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is therefore an excellent case-study for students of urban decline and economic regeneration. The information resources within the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre provide an excellent starting point and stimulus to a study on this theme. Our topic web below provides some suggestions for developing the theme of ‘Landscape’.

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 4 Rail Habitats Canals & Leisure Tramways Climate Transport Regeneration Biodiversity Lines

Reclamation Buildings and Sustainability Architecture

Landscape Pre & Post Industrial Landscape Living Underground Landscape

Geology Pollution Population Cave System Natural Industry Resources & Farming Census

Maps Manmade Land use

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 5 Language Descriptive writing of Welsh the landscape. Poetry: looks, feeling, Placenames senses. Origins & physical Appreciation: writing from Art descriptions of music stimuli of Colour mixing - landscape. industrial sounds - metals landscapes. Land use music of bleakness/ Mediums - charcoal, oil, spooky e.g. Mussorgsky watercolour. - Night on Bald Work of Welsh artists, eg Graham Mountain. Sutherland Industrial Art. Machinery, models of buildings. Focus on building design & History materials - old & modern e.g. What landscape World Heritage Centre. looked like before Industrial Revolution. Growth of Industry. Effect on Landscape. Geography Map reading - railways, tramways and canals. Mathematics Landscape Where coal and iron Census - population travelled to. Growth & decline - graphs, Key Why people moved to the problem solving. area? Transport - journeys - Stage 2 What will the future landscape railways, canals, tramways look like? - distances covered. Why people left the area? Compare & contrast locality & Science landscape with forming area. Habitats: Sources of water in the landscape. • Food chains. Who lived • Wild flowers & grasses, in Blaenavon? Census • pollination, Red Grouse returns 1841 - 1911. • Water cycle. Why has Blaenavon • Pond dipping. Industrial Landscape • Various rocks & soils. become a World Heritage Site? • Compare/sort ringed hoops in various parts of the landscape. • How coal is formed DT • How iron ore is formed Making weather • How limestone is formed instruments - weather stations. • How/why canals were built • How canal locks work

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 6 LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 7 Theme – Cutting-edge Technology The importance of the Industrial Revolution cannot be under-estimated; it transformed the economic and social fabric of cultures whose economies had been hitherto based on farming for millennia, and led directly to the development of the modern world. The economic development of South Wales during the Industrial Revolution was accompanied by technological innovations particularly in the fields of iron and steel making, transport and civil engineering. The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is an important place of study of the Industrial Revolution and it is an ideal venue for schools studying changes that happened in Wales, Britain and the wider world between 1760 and 1914. There are remains of ironworks built in the late 18th century or the early 19th century at various places in Britain but none is as complete as at Blaenavon, which encompasses in addition, sites of extraction of raw materials (coal, iron, limestone), and an elaborate system of land and water transport, and contemporary human settlement sites. The information resources within the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre provide an excellent starting point and stimulus to a study on this theme. Important innovations are highlighted throughout the exhibitions and the consequences of these events and developments can also be explored. Our topic web below provides some suggestions for developing the theme of ‘Cutting-edge technology’.

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 8 Employment People Product

Davey Miner’s Journeys Safety Lamp People

Working Industrial Models Light Revolution Today Water Balance Tower Cutting-edge Future Forces Technology

Smelting Arch Trams, of iron Canals & Railways Communication Impact Steam

Impact on the World Natural People Manmade

Process

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 9 History Development of key industries across the industrial revolution. Language, Impact of new technologies Literacy and on people (inventions & workers). Communication Developments in Role play: working conditions. transport. Science Writing poetry/empathy. • Smelting and making Oral history - differences of iron. in language and • Forces communication across • Steam coal/coke/charcoal. periods. • Gases • Earth science (sustainability)

Theme 3 Mathematics Cutting Geography Stats of production. • Geology of iron and coal Census: population, growth & edge deposits. decline. • River studies Investigations of • Population changes/census. modern and traditional Technology employment. KS3

Art/DT PSHE Architecture of cutting Problem solving. edge technology. Working with others. Model making. ICT - presenting & research. Use of range of materials. Employment changes over time. Transport. Health & safety (or lack of it).

Music Industrial percussion. Ostinato patterns - layering/timbre.

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 10 LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 11 Theme - People The Blaenavon Industrial Landscape is an important place of study of the Industrial Revolution and is an ideal venue for schools studying changes in people’s daily lives in the 19th century, and the changes that happened in Wales, Britain and the wider world between 1760 and 1914 and people’s reactions to them. The Blaenavon World Heritage Centre was established to provide a focal reference point to the area’s rich industrial legacy, telling the story of the ordinary men and women who have shaped this landscape from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution to the present day using film, audio and graphic and interactive displays. Before the founding of the in 1787, Blaenavon was an isolated, rural area which was home to a small, scattered, Welsh-speaking who relied largely on the land for their living. Almost overnight the area was transformed to one where the majority of its inhabitants were no longer governed by the cycles of the seasons and the vagaries of the weather but by the demands of new industry. At Blaenavon, students can explore how people’s lives were transformed by the Industrial Revolution. The town and pattern of community at Blaenavon provides valuable evidence of the beginnings of a new kind of human experience - an industrial society – producing new patterns of settlement and land use. It is a monument to the working-class culture which emerged in the South Wales valleys and exhibits the tensions between employer and employee, the Established Church and Dissent, Welsh speakers and English speakers all of which are represented in the built heritage of the town comprising homes of workers and masters, churches, chapels, shops, public houses and Workmen’s Hall & Institute. The unusually complete survival of the landscape of work and society provide an exceptional testimony to early industrialised culture. The information resources within the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre provide an excellent starting point and stimulus to a study on this theme. Our topic web below provides some suggestions for developing the theme of ‘People’.

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 12 Agriculture

Employment Patterns Food & Industry Drink Clothes Work Health and Religion Poverty Education Family People

Entertainment Homes Sport and Origins Leisure (immigration)

Children Class Workers & Brass Bands Masters and Choirs

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 13 History and Geography • Jobs - children & adults • Journeys Language, • Homes • Timelines Literacy and • Artefacts Communication • Materials Role play. • Famous people Physical Writing & stories: Development • Story telling Traditional Welsh games • Story making & sequencing Welsh folk dancing • Poems Ways of travel • Vocabulary

Welsh Mathematics People - Language Money & truck tokens. Development Measurement Foundation Songs Pictograms Rhymes Time Phase Stories Sorting Phrases Sequencing Vocabulary Data handling PSHE Creative Food Health • Music making. Family life-rich and poor • Welsh artists & musicians Family history • Welsh songs & music Religion • Role play/drama Clothes • Model making • Painting, printing & rubbing

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 14 Humanities Dance Geography – Jobs To learn a range Music and Journeys (migration of Welsh folk dances into/from Blaenavon) and compose music Listen and respond for own dances to local music History- Housing & living conditions, payment, working Compose own music to conditions accompany a range of stimuli. Culminate all Use local people to Art work into mini interview (English) Use famous Welsh Eisteddfod works of art and use style within own work. Use a range of media English Writing tasks in wide range of genre e.g. letter to Design mine owner etc & Technology Drama Models of Homes and Role Playing combine for town of Hot seating etc Blaenavon. People - Science Key Stage Food Mathematics Health Data Handling 2 Body Time Related to Work Measures - Imperial and Metric Welsh Role play as miner using general vocabulary linked to other aspects e.g. clothes, homes Creative etc. Design and Technology Religious Education ICT Religious Music Use ICT to Education Art investigate aspects of Chapels/Churches and life in the past. Also, to their influence on present information everyday life

LEARNING BOX A TEACHER’S RESOURCE 15 Sites to Visit

Site Address Contact Links Other information Opening Times Big Pit National Big Pit National Sharon Ford, www.museumwales.ac.uk/ Admission Free Open daily Coal Museum Coal Museum Education en/bigpit Car Parking 9.30-17:00 Blaenavon Officer www.museumwales.ac.uk/ Refreshments Underground Tours Torfaen 01495 796413 en/learning/bigpit 10:00-15:30 NP4 9XP Education materials e mail: Please call for 01495 790311 Teaching area [email protected]. December and ac.uk Bag Storage January opening Gift shop times Blaenavon World Church Road, Emyr Morgan, www.visitblaenavon.co.uk Admission free April to September Heritage Centre Blaenavon, Education & e mail: Car Parking Tuesday - Sunday Torfaen, Interpretation 9:00-17:00 [email protected]. Refreshments NP4 9AS Manager uk October to March 01495 742333 01495 742336 Education materials [email protected]. Tuesday – Sunday Teaching area uk 9:00-16:00 Research facility Open Bank Holidays Bag Storage Closed Christmas to Gift shop New Year Blaenavon North Street, Adrienne www.cadw.wales.gov.uk Admission free April-October Ironworks Blaenavon, Goodenough, e: mail: Car Parking Monday-Sunday NP4 9RQ Lifelong 10.00 - 17.00 Adrienne.goodenough@ Education materials Learning wales.gsi.gov November-March Teaching area Manager Friday & Saturday 01443 336142 Bag Storage 9.30 - 16.00; Audio Sunday interpretation posts 11.00 - 16.00 Gift shop (Closed Monday – Thursday) Blaenafon Lion Street, 01495 790991 e:mail: Admission £1 1st April - 30th Community Blaenavon, blaenavoncordellmuseum@ Gift shop September Torfaen, webster.uk.net Monday-Thursday Heritage Car park NP4 9QA 10:00-16:00 Cordell Museum, Research facility (Closed between Toilets 13:00-14:00 Disabled access Saturday 10:00-13:00 Educational materials 1st October – 31st March Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-16:00 (Closed between 13:00-14:00 Saturday 10:00-13:00 Other times by appointment

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