Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
1879
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
21/08/1992
Date of Amendment
Name of Property
Great Exhibition Lump of Coal at Bedwellty Park
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Blaenau Gwent
Community
Tredegar
Town
Locality
Tredegar
Easting
314230
Northing
208563
Street Side
Location
Bedwellty Park is located on the S side of Tredegar town centre. The lump of coal is set underneath a shelter building above the duckponds W of Bedwellty House.
Description
Broad Class
Commemorative
Period
History
Celebrated lump of coal cut as a special exercise to form a monument at the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was cut at the Yard Level (on the site of the bus station) by the expert collier John Jones, alias ‘Collier Mawr’. Jones cut a block weighing twenty tons (20.32 tonnes), but a five-ton (5.08 tonnes) piece broke away during transportation. Despite its reduced size, it is still reputed to be the largest block of coal ever cut. Owing to the difficulties of transportation, it was decided that it would not survive the journey to Crystal Palace, and it was set up in the grounds of Bedwellty House, the home of the Homfray family, who owned both the Tredegar Ironworks and the Yard Level. A block of two tons (2.03 tonnes) from the same seam was cut at a Level at the top of Sirhowy 100 years later for the Festival of Britain, and this was subsequently also placed at Bedwellty Park.
Exterior
Block of coal approximately five feet (1.52 metres) by four feet (1.22 metres) and thirteen feet (3.96 metres) long, bound by a large wrought-iron band. The block stands on an elongated dram with eight wheels, on a specially-laid short length of plateway. The steel and perspex shelter was placed overhead in 1992 to protect the coal from the weather. The smaller block dating from 1951 stands next to the large block, also bound with iron bands, and under cover.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed as a unique monument to the coal industry in South Wales and to the skill of South Wales miners.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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