In the half
century before Queen Victoria came to the throne, there were
enormous changes taking place in
Britain.
The making of a great many things that people used in their lives, was
increasingly done by machines. The most efficient way to do this was to
put all the machines in one building and power them by water power or
steam power. This was a
factory.
The factory would then need good
transport links to bring in raw materials and take out the finished products.
New roads, canals, tramways, and later
railways, were built to do this.
All of this change is called the Industrial Revolution,
and it needed iron in huge quantities.
The Upper Swansea Valley was one of
the major iron producing areas in Britain and for a while was the leading
area in Europe for new developments in the making of iron.
Use the menu
below to see how ironmaking developed in the area, and how it affected
the area in Victorian times.
