Blaenavon Upper Brick Yard

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of the brickworks and quarries that provided fire bricks to the Blaenavon Ironworks. Fire bricks were needed in vast quantities to line furnaces and for other purposes, and so the Blaenavon Iron Company built this large brickworks a short distance up the hill from the ironworks. The site consisted of clay pits where raw materials were dug, brickmaking sheds, drying sheds and kilns, as well as tramroads linking the site with the ironworks. The brickworks were shown on a map of Blaenavon from 1814, but may have been built as early as 1788, and were operational until the 1920s. The brickworks was demolished in the 1960s, however substantial remains are thought to survive on the site and the clay pits, tips and tramroads can still be traced on the ground, and walls made form waste bricks and tuyères survive to several courses high.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of the process of brick production. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques. A brickworks may be part of a larger cluster of industrial monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.