Situated on the edges of the South Wales Valleys, just to the north of Newport, Cwmbran is celebrating its 70th birthday. It was one of the original towns to come out of the New Towns Act of 1946, and combined villages in the area, as well as building brand new estates that would eventually spread out to house over 50,000 inhabitants.
Cwmbran has long been heralded as a success story, welcoming many workers from all over the country originally to work in its factories, as well as being home to a large covered shopping centre and offering free parking for shoppers. Still to this day, shoppers come from all over the region to shop here due to the benefits of the free parking, and it has certainly helped the town to remain relevant after losing some of the industry and manufacturing that was once its bedrock.
It is interesting to look back at some of the original plans for Cwmbran and its town centre, with signs and architects plans and letters still available to view during its 70th birthday celebrations. Torfaen Museum has recently welcomed some of these artefacts, including a road sign from Cwmbran Development Corporation that welcomed visitors to Croesyceiliog (an area of Cwmbran), as well as some other artefacts and stories from the time of Cwmbran’s birth.
One interesting part of this is a 1951 letter from the Chairman of Cwmbran Development Corporation. T H Huxley Turner was the first chairman of the newly established corporation, and the letter stated that:
“[Cwmbran] is the first new town to be established in Wales and it is the aim of the Corporation to set a standard of what an Industrial Town should be
“The new Cwmbran will be a self-contained town with a character of its own, and, to achieve this, all the amenities of modern life, including social, commercial, recreational and cultural facilities have to be provided.”
Cwmbran was described as the ‘Valley of the Crow’ and the Development Corporation decided that a Crow standing over a river, with green fields in the background, would be the perfect logo. The Corporation worked for many decades to develop the new town, expanding out from the centre with brand new estates, as well as improving the fortunes of the town centre over the years. It was wound up in 1988 after the Welsh Office announced that it had met its objectives for Cwmbran.
Seeing artefacts and items relating to the beginnings of one of the most successful of Britain’s New Towns is interesting, with the brave vision of architects for a New Town Centre and shopping facilities coming to a successful fruition. It is a shame that the ideal of new towns did not take hold overall, with the architecture and bland uniformity taking away something. Nowadays a new town is thought of as a concrete jungle with roundabouts at the end of every road, and there is some truth to that!
