Nantyglo
[1] Parc Nant y Waun is a nature reserve incorporating 22 hectares of grassland, mires and reservoirs which was officially opened in 2007.
The council is currently undertaking the renovation of the chapel to convert it into a museum and tourist attraction to display the religious, industrial and political history of the communities.
Even though the main focus is on Chartism, this being where many of the movement's leaders came from and the point from which the 1839 March on Newport began, the chapel will continue to be used as a place of worship for the community.
Joseph Bailey, whose wife had died in 1827, remarried in 1830 and retired from personal direction of Nantyglo to live at Glanusk Park Crickhowell and manage his very extensive landed estates.
In the 1840s he retired to Llanfoist House, Abergavenny, leaving direction to his nephew, Joseph's son, Richard Bailey (1816–1853) who died in Dijon France and was succeeded by his younger brother Henry, described in 1868 as managing partner.
After the Battle of Waterloo and the final defeat of Napoleon there was a general slump in iron manufacture, although Nantyglo was the only ironworks which actually increased its exports, and the high cost of wheat caused acute unrest throughout the country.
Along with John Frost and William Jones, he led a large column of men from the Nantyglo area to march south on the Westgate Hotel, Newport, site of what is sometimes regarded as the greatest armed rebellion in 19th century Britain.
"The immense iron-works of Nant y Glo, which present so extraordinary an appearance, and seem to the distant spectator as if the whole surrounding country were in flames, were originally commenced by Hill, Hertford, and Co., and were held under lease from the owners of Blaenavon works. They were finished, at a vast expense, in 1795; and after being wrought a year, were discontinued for a time, on account of a dispute among the proprietors. They then consisted of two furnaces, several forges, a steam engine, and the necessary buildings and machinery for smelting and forging, but have since become of vast extent and importance." [ 4 ]