Description

The monument comprises the remains of the Garn Road Powder House, which was built in the mid-1800s to store explosives for use in the nearby quarries and mines that supplied raw materials to the Blaenavon Ironworks. It is located 50m north of the tramroad that connected Hill Pits and the pits and quarries above Garn-yr-Erw to the Ironworks, and adjacent to a track that connected it with the Meadow Vein Level. The structure is first depicted on the 1880 OS map and remained roofed and accessible into the 1990s. The Powder House consists of a single storey rectangular building, which measures 7m NW-SE by 6m transversely. The only doorway, set beneath an iron lintel and with brick quoined jambs, is in the centre of the NW gable wall. Low rough rubble side walls supported a double skinned brick barrel-vaulted ceiling, which survives in ruinous condition. Three iron tie rods run across the width of the structure and connect into iron oval plates on the exterior of the side walls. L-shaped iron bars run the length of the side walls of the structure. The powder house was surrounded by a tall stone curtain wall on all sides, enclosing an area measuring 13m by 9.5m. This can be traced around the structure, although it stands less than 1m high on the NW and SW sides. At the N corner and along much of the NE side it stands to its full height of around 2m. The top of the wall has been capped with smoothed concrete into which shards of glass have been set. In the SE corner of the space enclosed by the curtain wall are the remains of a small brick-built structure.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of the industrial processes then current in nineteenth century ironworking. It is well preserved and possesses important group value with other designated monuments within the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site. 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 an area around within which related evidence may be expected to survive. The scheduled area is roughly rectangular in shape and measures 20m NW-SE by 16.5m transversely.

Source: Cadw