MM268

Tintern Upper Wireworks (New Tongs Mill)  

07/10/1998  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Tintern  

350875  

200352  

Water Supply and Drainage  

Leat  

Post Medieval/Modern  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument consists of a leat, an artificial water channel usually leading to a mill. The leat supplied the Tintern Upper Wireworks or New Tongs Mill. The works was built in about 1803 and was operated as part of the chain of ironworks in the Anghidi Valley, the most important centre in Britain for wire making from the 16th century to the late 19th century. The remains associated with the leat include the bastion and pit of a waterwheel believed to have been 6m in diameter, wire drawing mill, annealing furnace, and revetment walls forming terraced working areas. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of 18th or 19th century inductrial practices. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques. A leat may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.