Sirhowy River


See History of water supply and sanitation.
Sirhowy River is a river in Wales that runs through the South [Wales Coalfield]. Its source lies at approximately 1,500 feet above sea level on the slopes of the broad and barren plateau of Cefn Pyllau-duon above the town of Tredegar, which separates it from the Rhymney River in the west. The area is one of the locally-named Heads of the Valleys, the latter of which local historian Oliver Jones described in his 1969 book The early days of Sirhowy and Tredegar as 'a series of parallel valleys, each drained by the little river from which it got its name.' Jones correspondingly observed that the Sirhowy river gave its name to the Sirhowy Valley.
Around 1676, William Morgan (of Machen and Tredegar) married Elizabeth Dayrell, the daughter of Edward Lewis of Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, and the widow of Sir Francis Dayrell. With her huge dowry, Morgan bought land in Bedwellty, which became known as the Bedwellty Estate, through which the Sirhowy River flowed. Welsh scholar and Anglican priest E. T. Davies observed that, with the local 'abundance of iron-ore, outcrop coal... and supplies of limestone', the water power which the river provided 'saw the establishment of the new iron industry between 1757 and 1800. Later, local historian Roger Phillips, a former tenant of the Tredegar Estate, observed that the river shared 'in the lucrative exploitation of the mineral resources in the northern part of the county.'

Name

Oliver Jones discussed the toponymy of Sirhowy in detail. He observed: Archdeacon William Coxe cited Sorwy six times in his 1801 book Historical Tour of Monmouthshire. For example, in his last citation he referred to 'the banks of the Sorwy'. In keeping with Coxe, Jones observed that, 'References taken from many sources show to be Sorwy'. However, he also observed that 'many different spellings' existed, which he attributed to the English writers who had difficulties in pronouncing the name.
In common with the names of the nearby Rhymney River to the west of it and the Ebbw River, into which it flows, the name for the Sirhowy River is in a reverse order to the names of rivers that are close to it, such as, for example, the River Taff which is to the west of it and the River Usk which is to the east of it.

Course

Sirhowy River is approximately 19 miles long. Initially it flows into the Siôn-Sieffre Reservoir in Trefil, after which it turns south through Tredegar into the town of Blackwood and the village of Pontllanfraith. The river then turns eastwards below the village of Cwmfelinfach. Finally, it flows past the village of Wattsville before it joins the Ebbw River below the village of Crosskeys, where it loses its identity. The river has a catchment area of 76.1 km.

Water quality in the 19th century

Oliver Jones observed that, in Tredegar in the 1820s:
In 1896 the Government of [the United Kingdom |UK Government] Local Government Board, the forerunner of the Department of [Health and Social Care |Ministry of Health], ordered Medical Inspector Mr Thomas William Thompson, D.P.H. to 'ascertain precisely what was the state, as regards drainage and sewerage, of the several districts comprised within , and for the purpose of acquiring further information as to the best means of remedying defects of sewerage and sewage disposal which had, from time to time, been brought under the notice of the Board.’ Thompson reported as follows:

Protection

Sirhowy River is protected by Natural Resources Wales and the , which is a member of The Rivers Trust.

Photographs

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