Pontypool Ironworks
1703 Ironworks established.
1720 John Hanbury established tinplate making at the Pontypool Ironworks[1]
Early 1720s Pontypool produced tinplate on a commercial scale for the first time in Britain. Edward Allgood (1681-1763) was John Hanbury's principal agent in the ironworks and responsible for many improvements, including in japanning which formed the basis for his own business.
c.1770 Pontypool Forge and Tin Works, owned by G. C. Leigh, was one of 8 charcoal forges in the area[2]
c.1805 Watkin George joined Hanbury Leigh at the Pontypool Ironworks.
1838 'Died ... On Wednesday the 14th ult,. at the Old Furnace, near Pontypool, aged 49, Mr. Geo. Fisher, furnace-manager to the Pontypool Iron Works, a man universally regretted.'[3]
1839 'MINING. THE IRON TRADE, [From the Mining Journal.] The following paper, on the state and prospects of the iron trade in Scotland and South Wales, in May, 1839, was read before the Liverpool Polytechnic Society, on the 13th June, by Joseph Johnson, Esq., iron merchant, Liverpool; Henry Booth, Esq., President, in the chair. ..... The first works we arrive at are those of Capel Hanbury Leigh, Esq., near Pontypool, and are called the Pontypool Iron Works. Here there are three furnaces in blast, and one out; two blown with hot air, and one with cold. There are not any furnaces erecting, or about to be erected, here. The make of these three furnaces is about 200 tons per week. The hot air pigs are sold chiefly for foundry purposes, and the cold air iron is used by Mr. Leigh, for tin plates, of which he has been for a long timepast a very eminent maker. The yield of the ironstone at these works is about 30 per cent.; but Mr. Leigh imports large quantities of the richer ores from Cornwall and Lancashire, for the improvement of the quality of his iron.'[4]
1851 Pontypool Iron Co was established; was this on the same site?
1858 George Claridge, of Pontypool Iron Works, in the county of Monmouth, Furnace Manager, and Richard S. Roper, F.G.S., F.C.S., of Ebbw Vale IronWorks, in the same county, gained a patent on improved method of manufacturing coke[5]
1859 Listed under Newport and Tin Plate Manufacturers. 'Pont-Y-Pool Works. Emmanuel Holdsworth - Agent'.[6]