Blackwood & Around Through Time

Looking at the local place names leaves no doubt that Blackwood and its environs were, at one time, 100 per cent Welsh. Situated within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, now Caerphilly, the advent of the iron and coal industry at the head of the valley changed all that; but more important, perhaps, was the construction of the Sirhowy Tramroad, linking Tredegar with Newport. The area originally called Coed Duon soon became known as Blackwood. It was a centre of Chartist organisation in th