Bedwellty Park

One of the most remarkable although one of the most logical monuments of the coal-mining industry is the display in Bedwellty Park, Tredegar, a mining community established about 1800 in the Sirhowy Valley, 10 km west of Blaenavon, of two colossal lumps of coal, which repose beneath a specially-designed shelter. One, of 15 tonnes, was cut for the Great Exhibition in London of 1851, but was not taken to the Crystal Palace in London because it was too heavy. The other, of a mere two tonnes, was actually displayed in the Festival of Britain in London in 1951.

The park formed the ornamental grounds of Bedwellty House, built for a local ironmaster in 1818, and acquired by the borough council for the community in 1900-01. Amongst the other structures in the park is a mosaic memorial to local members of the Chartist movement, who sought to extend political rights to the working class in the 1830s and 40s.

The blocks of coal form one of Wales’s more unusual Grade II listed buildings.