Cwmbran

Cwmbran (/kʊmˈbrɑːn, kuːm-/ kuum-BRAHN, koom-; Welsh: Cwmbrân [kʊmˈbraːn]) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen, in the south of Wales. Lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it was designated as a new town in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities in the south-eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield. The name of the town in Welsh means "valley (cwm) of the crow (brân)". Cwmbran was the name of one of several villages located in the valley, which had grown up around the tinplate works of the Cwmbran Iron Company. The area of the old village became known as Old Cwmbran. Cwmbran was founded in 1949 as a new town, to provide new employment opportunities in the south-eastern portion of the South Wales Coalfield, but the area has a long history. There is evidence that Neolithic and Bronze Age people used the area, with the Iron Age Silures tribe also occupying the region before being subdued by the Roman legions, based at nearby Usk and Caerleon. Around 1179, Hywel, Lord of Caerleon, gave a gift of money and land to found the Cistercian abbey at Llantarnam. At the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the abbey was closed and was bought by a succession of wealthy landowners. By the 18th century, the abbey had passed into the ownership of the Blewitt family, who were to become key figures in the early industrialisation of Cwmbran.