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Blackwood was a parish in Monmouthshire, Wales until the local government changes of 1974 and 1996.
Blackwood (Welsh: Coed Duon) is a town on the Sirhowy River in the South Wales Valleys administered as part of Caerphilly County Borough. It is located within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire. Blackwood was founded in the early 19th century by local colliery owner John Hodder Moggridge, who lived at nearby Woodfield Park Estate: the first houses in Blackwood were built by Moggridge in an attempt to build a model village. The deplorable working conditions at the time of the Industrial Revolution, however, led to Blackwood becoming a centre of Chartist organisation in the 1830s. The South Wales Chartist leaders John Frost, Zephaniah Williams — a Blackwood man — and William Jones met regularly at the Coach & Horses public house in Blackwood. Planning their march on Newport in what became known as the Newport Rising in 1839, intended to coincide with a Britain-wide 'revolution' against the government, the gentry and the establishment in 1839. When the insurrection erupted in November a large contingent of insurgents gathered at Blackwood. Upon meeting their comrades from the upper Sirhowy Valley the rebels armed themselves with makeshift weapons and marched south to Newport to demand the adoption of the People's Charter and the release of Henry Vincent from Monmouth gaol. However, the South Wales Movement were the only ones to march and the national rising failed and its leaders were sentenced to death (later commuted to deportation to Tasmania). The former Penllwyn House on the outskirts of the town was originally part of the Lord Tredegar Estates and is believed to be the original home of the family of Henry Morgan (c.1635-1688), a privateer and Governor of Jamaica. The building is now a public house. The coal mining industry declined throughout the later part of the twentieth century. This affected South Wales where the major source of employment was lost and the pictorial landscape left daily reminders of what had been. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Blackwood. [edit] Research Tips
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