UPPER RACE

During 1785 the Hanbury family had leased land at Blaendare to David Tanner from Monmouth who was responsible for the commencement of several coal blast furnaces, which he had erected on this site. The power for a water wheel was being created by an overflow of water from a local pond, which in effect ran the bellows that produced the Blast needed to operate the furnaces. By 1799 Tanner became bankrupt and fled the country. This time a John Barnaby who came from Herefordshire had purchased the furnaces for £10,000, but by 1804 found that he was more interested in coal production than developing an ironworks, and so conveyed to Capel Hanbury Leigh the furnaces and several workmen’s houses in exchange for land beside the Crumlin Road. The Pig iron produced at Blaendare and old furnace was taken by packhorses via the Tranch and down to Sow Hill near the top of High Street Pontypool and onward to the Park and Osborne forges where it was converted into bars ready for the rolling mills.

The Photograph above taken in 1907 with its chimney stacks dominating the skyline was taken from the top of the Race road where it joins Blaendare road. There had been a huge amount of industry going on at this site since the 1700s, ending with the closure of Blaendare drift mine in the early 1970s. An Ironworks, Coke ovens, Brickworks, and several large and small collieries produced ironstone, coal, and clay.

Fire Clay is generally grey in colour and composed chiefly of silica and alumina. It is almost always found forming the floor of coal-seams and is known as “underclay” It is assumed to have been the soil upon which the vegetation now converted into coal flourished. It is usually mined in conjunction with coal, especially thin seams, and is used for making fire clay goods, such as bricks and pipes which resist very high temperatures without melting or becoming soft.

At the top right of the photo can be seen several trucks standing on the top line. Apart from serving theses industries, the line travelled along the north side of the Mynydd Maen mountain for about 2 miles to Hafodyrynys On route they passed the remains of the Balance Pit sited in 1831 while proceeding to serve the Glyn pits 1845, Wern Tillery (Quarry Level), Glyntillery 1910 and Hafodyrynys 1914. There were two more lines, which were known as middle and bottom lines, they served the Mynydd Maen drift mine 1912 and Baldwin’s Albion road (clog and legging) colliery established around the turn of the century. The third line also served a foundry and wagon works at lower race.