Description

The monument consists of extraction features where metallic ores and coal were mined. The site comprises an exceptionally rich area of diverse features related to patching and scouring for iron ore and coal, set within a larger landscape of mineral working. The site is grouped with the scheduled monuments of Blaenavon Ironworks, Pwll Du Quarry and Garnddyrys Forge. This was an area of iron ore extraction from at least the 17th century. Ore was dug from outcrops either side of the hilltop, and water employed to scour soil and clean dug ore. Extraction grew for Blaenavon Ironworks after 1788, but the area was largely worked out by the early to mid 19th century. One of the main scours (SO 2623 1060 to 2560 1010) was in its present form before 1812, and Pen-ffordd-goch or Forge Pond (SO 2550 1085) shows that scouring around its edge was completed before 1817. Many levels were established by 1812 and were allocated in patches to named miners. Early and well preserved features include leats, ponds, hushing dams, scours, deposition areas, tips, shaft mounds, levels, boundaries, tracks and tramroad formations. A subsidence feature clearly illustrates pillar and stall workings near SO 2579 1072. Good hushes and leats survive around SO 2555 1010. Further leats are bisected by a stockpile top extant by 1812 for limestone at SO 2544 1018. A weighing machine existed near SO 2548 1048.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of mineral extraction practices. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits.

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

Source: Cadw