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Brynmawr ( , ; ) is a market town, community and electoral ward in Blaenau Gwent, Wales. The town, sometimes cited as the highest town in Wales, is situated at above sea level at the head of the South Wales Valleys. It grew with the development of the coal mining and iron industries in the early 19th century. Until the reorganisation of local authorities in 1974, Brynmawr was administered as part of the county of Brecknockshire.
With the development of Nantyglo ironworks under Crawshay Bailey in the early 19th century, suitable housing was needed for the workers, and thus the area of upland home to Gwaun Helygen was chosen as an ideal area for a settlement. Houses began to spring up around the tram roads and the turnpike road, and the town began to rapidly grow. Although the settlement was not home to any heavy industry, and was for the most part a dormitory town, several above-ground ore deposits outside of the town were worked on, and a few underground levels were eventually dug beneath Brynmawr. However, as early as the 1870s, many of the resources that were once considered abundant had been exhausted, and the local industry began to decline. As the town's residents practically solely relied on the surrounding industries, many of them left the town in search of employment, and Brynmawr witnessed a sharp drop in population.
The town's market hall, now the Market Hall Cinema, was built in 1894, and replaced the older town hall built in 1844.
By the time of the Great Depression, most of the town's population were unemployed, which attracted the attention of a group of Quakers, whose work in the town to relieve unemployment culminated in the Brynmawr Experiment.
In 1952, Jim Forrester of Enfield Cables opened a factory in the town, which was eventually acquired by the Dunlop Rubber. Operating under the brand name of Dunlop Semtex Ltd, the factory produced flooring for the health and education sectors up until its closure in 1981. It was largely demolished in 2001.
Elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, which also directed that local board districts that straddled county boundaries, as Byrnmawr did, should be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of the district's population. The Monmouthshire parts of the Brynmawr local board district were therefore transferred to Brecknockshire in 1889, such that the whole district was then in Brecknockshire. Local board districts were converted into urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. A civil parish of Brynmawr covering the same area as the urban district was created in 1900. Brynmawr Urban District Council bought Trafalgar House on Alma Street in 1913 to serve as its offices and meeting place, and remained based there until the council's abolition.
Brynmawr Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. Its area instead became a community called Brynmawr within the new borough of Blaenau Gwent and county of Gwent. The former urban district council's functions therefore passed to Blaenau Gwent Borough Council, which in 1996 was reconstituted a county borough, taking over the functions of the abolished Gwent County Council.
Notable people include professional wrestlers Adrian Street and Flash Morgan Webster, singer-songwriters Huw and Tony Williams and pop singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis, known professionally as Marina. T. Rowley Jones was President of Welsh Rugby Union, 1977/78.
Wales and Great Britain Rugby League international Roy Francis, who scored 229 tries in 356 top-flight matches and went on to win three National League titles and the 1968 Challenge Cup as a coach of Hull FC and Leeds Rhinos, was born in the town and played for Brynmawr RFC.Archived at Ghostarchive and the
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine: A memorial to Francis was inaugurated in the town in October 2023.
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