Blackwood () is a
town on the
Sirhowy River in the
South Wales Valleys within the
Caerphilly County Borough.
The town houses a growing number of light industrial and high-tech firms. Good transport links have made Blackwood a favoured home for a growing number of commuters who work in the cities of
Newport and
Cardiff, giving the town a renewed prosperity.
History
Located within the
historic boundaries of
Monmouthshire, Blackwood was founded in the early 19th century by local colliery owner John Hodder Moggridge, who lived at nearby Woodfield Park Estate: the first houses in Blackwood were built by Moggridge in an attempt to build a model village. There was never any suggestion that these were for miners as there were few local mines in Blackwood. Blackwood, indeed, has never been a mining town.
Deplorable working conditions at the time of the
Industrial Revolution, however, led to Blackwood becoming a centre of
Chartist organisation in the 1830s. The South Wales Chartist leaders
John Frost,
Zephaniah Williams — a Blackwood man — and
William Williams met regularly at the Coach & Horses
public house in Blackwood. Planning their march on
Newport in what became known as the
Newport Rising in 1839, intended to coincide with a Britain-wide 'revolution' against the Government, the
gentry and the
Establishment in 1839.
When the insurrection erupted in November, a large contingent of insurgents gathered at Blackwood. Upon meeting their comrades from the upper Sirhowy...
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