abstract
| - Ebbw Vale (/ˈɛbuː veɪl/; Welsh: Glyn Ebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The vally has a teperat climate, but is prone to harsh weather in the winter. The valley soil that was not degraded by coal dust and metal residues is good, but the hills are rough grassland that is used for sheep and goat farming. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr conurbation has a population of roughly 33,000. It has direct access to the dualled A465T "Heads of the Valleys" trunk road that was built between 1964 and 1967 and to the borders the Brecon Beacons National Park. There is evidence of very early human activity in the area that became more prominent in the Bronze Age. Y Domen Fawr is a Bronze Age burial cairn above the town and at Cefn Manmoel you can find a demarcation dyke possibly of neolithic or medieval origins. In relatively modern times the area was a quiet uplands spot in rural Monmouthshire. With only about 120 inhabitants at the end of the 18th century, Ebbw Vale and the whole area was transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Ebbw Vale Steelworks was an integrated steel mill located in Ebbw Vale, South Wales. Developed from 1780, by the late 1930s it had become the largest steel mill in Europe. Nationalised after World war II, as the steel industry changed to bulk handling, iron and steel making was ceased in the 1970s, as the site was redeveloped as a specialised tinplate works. Closed by Corus in 2002, the site is being redeveloped in a joint-partnership between Blaenau Gwent Council and the Welsh Government.
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