The Voice of Independent Accommodation Providers

Visit Abercarn Caerphilly and the surrounding villages and stay in bandb, hotel or holiday home accommodation provided by BedPosts members.

Abercarn, in the historic county of Monmouthshire, is an industrial township 9 miles from Newport in the lower part of the Ebbw valley. It possesses a modern church, which stands above the centre of Abercarn in a grove of trees, rather like a fortress set on a hill. A long flight of steps leads up to the west door from the road. An equally long flight of stairs within the church brings you up into the nave with dramatic effect. The interior is bare but impressive. The plaster, peeling in corners, indicates that the church could do with some help. The peal of eight bells, presented in 1947 on the twenty-first anniversary of the church's consecration, are splendidly named Love, Joy, Peace, Long Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, and Meekness. It would be interesting to hear which virtue sounds most clearly when the peal is rung. Just before the church, a road turns off to the right from the main road up the Ebbw valley. This side road takes you into a picnic-place about 4 miles in the heart of the Ebbw forest. The South Wales coalfield specializes in these unexpected contrasts between stark industrialism and unexpected beauty. Here the deep pinewoods make a fantastic showing. The Ebbw forest now covers most of the lower slopes of the mountain area east of Abercarn. As the hills rise to 1,500 ft, these steep, wooded Valleys are striking in their garment of green. Far beneath the mountains lie the workings of the old Prince of Wales colliery at Abercarn. Here, in September 1878, 268 miners lost their lives in one of those tragic explosions that were part of the price of coal in the heyday of the South Wales coal trade.