The Public records office holds a document which contains a reference to a 'Bedwellty Furnace' working in the Sirhowy Valley in 1597. The furnace was owned by John Challoner (a London Haberdasher) and Thomas Moore (A Bristol Ironmonger) The exact location of this 1597 furnace is not known but it may well be Pont Gwaith Yr Haearn.
It is certain that from 1738 to 1748 the furnace was run by two Bretons "Welshmen from France" as they were referred to.
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The site of the furnace is the centre
of the photograph just in front of the copse of trees and to the right
of the red tractor. The ruins of the old farm house can be seen to
the centre left of the photograph. The track through the centre of
the picture was a mule track used for conveying iron ore over the mountain
from the head of the valley (Bryn Oer, Pen y Bryn and Rhas y Mwyn)
This track continues up the mountain
to an old farm house called 'Maes-yr-on' and it was here in 1737 that Lewis
Lewellyn held the first Baptist, Christian Services, in Tredegar. See
Church History Page
