Varteg owes its origin to the fact that the land lease for the Blaenavon Ironworks was too big, and portions were sublet to the Nantyglo Company and part taken up by a partnership called Knight and Company which opened an iron furnace in 1802.
Varteg has one of the three Welsh language medium primary school in Torfaen, namely Ysgol Bryn Onnen.
In 2013, a controversy erupted when Glamorgan Power chose a site for open coal mining 120 metres away from the village's primary school, Ysgol Bryn Onnen.
[1] The Torfaen council previously rejected the company's plans to mine more than 256,000 tonnes of coal from the area, citing Welsh environmental regulations requiring a buffer zone of at least 500 metres around any planned open-cast mining operations.
The headmaster of Ysgol Bryn Onnen school, Ryan Parry, spoke against the proposal, citing health concerns and impact on learning.