Blackwood, Caerphilly

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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