Tredegar Ironworks c.1890

Following the success of the Sirhowy Ironworks, partners Matthew Monkhouse and Richard Fothergill sought to expand their business interests.
A tract of land south of Sirhowy and east of the river at Uchlaw y Coed was an attractive site for a new works but the lease on this land, owned by Sir Charles Morgan allowed no provision for the building of furnaces.
Monkhouse and Fothergill realised a new partner and ally was needed to negotiate with Morgan and the ideal person appeared to be Samuel Homfray.

Homfray was already a powerful figure in the ironmaking industry, running the Pen y Darren works at nearby Merthyr which his father had built in 1786.
He was also married to Sir Charles Morgan's daughter Jane, and thus exercised a unique position in which to negotiate with Morgan.
Homfray was keen to join the new venture and used his influence to good purpose.

In March 1800, a new lease on Uchlaw y Coed was signed by the Morgans granting Homfray, Monkhouse and Fothergill the right to operate a new furnace on the site.

"..with full powers to the said Samuel Homfray and his co-partners to dig and trench in and upon the said lands for the pupose of getting iron ore and coal..and to take all waters and streams for the purpose of working and scouring the said coal and iron ore; and with full power to erect engines, furnaces, forges, mills etc.."

In deference to Sir Charles Morgan, the new works would be named Tredegar Iron Works, after the Morgan's ancestral home at Tredegar Park, Newport.

Two furnaces were in blast for light smelting operations by 1802 but with the completion of the Sirhowy Tramroad in 1805, the works was able to go into full production for the first time.

Puddling furnaces and rolling mills were added in 1807 and now bar-iron was was being produced for use such as railway lines; output now reached 4,000 tons per annum.

Sketch by Richard Fothergill Jnr. dated 1809 showing 3 furnace configuration

By 1810, 2 new furnaces had been constructed and the fifth and final furnace was added in 1817.
Annual tonnage now amounted to some 10,000 tons.

In comparison, the Sirhowy works with its 3 smaller furnaces, was producing only a fifth of this amount but plans were in hand to expand operations at this site also.
However, in 1818 these plans were shattered when Fothergill and Monkhouse lost control at Sirhowy to the Harford family, leading to the Sirhowy/Tredegar conflict.

The repercussions of this event seemed to take a toll on the Tredegar partners - Fothergill and Monkhouse went into semi-retirement, and Homfray followed a long ambition to enter Parliament, taking a seat at Stafford.
The running of the Tredegar Iron Works was entrusted to Homfray's son, also named Samuel, who despite his youthful age of 23 had been groomed as manager, and over the following years he was to become an important influence in the development of Tredegar and the County of Monmouthshire generally.

Homfray had long been interested in steam locomotion stemming from his father's connections with Trevithick at Pen y darren and in 1829 he was responsible for introducing the first steam powered engine on the Sirhowy Tramroad.

In 1840, the works was at peak output: 5 blast furnaces producing 15,0000 tons p.a. along with ancillary rolling mills, puddling furnaces, foundries, coke yards and brickworks.

This was the new Tredegar:   fields, meadows and woods now gone - in their place a smoking, noisy giant born of the Industrial Revolution.