Book telling Tredegar's history is fundraiser for mayor (From South Wales Argus)

Book telling Tredegar's history is fundraiser for mayor

7:50am Tuesday 20th January 2009 in Search By Natalie Crockett

A BOOK documenting the history of a Valley’s town is helping to raise funds for charity.

Tredegar 1800 to 1948: From the Beginning to the NHS, was written by Tredegar Town Mayor John Morgan and all proceeds from its sale will be donated to his Mayor’s Appeal.

The book is a detailed timeline of events from 1800 up until the National Health Service was founded by local MP Aneurin Bevan in 1948.

It details the industrial growth of the town and looks at the development of the steel and coal industry, the building of Bedwellty House and the building of the Tredegar Town Clock.

The book also documents the two major cholera epidemics in the town, the first between 1832 and 1833 and the second, seventeen years later, between 1849 and 1950.

Councillor Morgan, who is a keen amateur historian, started work on the book after signing up to a course to train as a tour guide under a scheme run by the five local authorities of the Heads of the Valleys.

He said: “I’ve always been interested in local history and there is a lot of scope for tourism in the Heads of the Valleys area.

“I started researching and had all these notes and thought it would be a good idea it put it together into a book and raise money for my Mayor’s appeal.”

Cllr Morgan spent around 18 months researching for the book and hopes to sell around 500 copies, which would raise around £1,500 for his chosen causes.

Half of the proceeds from its sale will go to Valley Sands, a local charity which offers support to parents who have experienced the death of a baby either during pregnancy or soon after birth.

The other half will go towards a project to build a sensory garden at a location yet to be decided, to help rehabilitate people who have suffered a stroke.

As well as raising money for charity Cllr Morgan also hopes the book will encourage people to take an interest in local history.

He added: “I thought I knew a lot about the area but when I started researching I realised just how little I did know about the town.”

• The book is now on sale at the In the Pink charity shop in Tredegar town centre and Bedwellty House.