Blackwood/ Owenite industrial community

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Blackwood 1820
FOUNDER/LEADER: John Moggridge
Successfull 'Owenite' inspired community set up by local industrialist on
self-help/self-build basis. Small plots were let on long leases to local
miners who built their own cottages. Also shops, workshops, a school &
market house. Became the small town of Blackwood.
GRID REF: ST180973
REF: Villages of Vision#


Ynysddu C1820s
FOUNDER/LEADER: John Moggridge
Village on same lines as Blackwood.
GRID REF: ST182933
REF: Villages of Vision




http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/moggeridge.htm

Utopia Britannica - British Utopian Experiments 1325 - 1945




'Interesting Settlement in Wales'


Gazetter entry




In 1827 an article entitled 'Interesting Settlement in Wales - an account of
the principles and progress of an experiment for improving the condition of
the labouring classes of society, in the hills of Monmouthshire,' appeared
in The Oriental Herald. The author was John Moggridge a Monmouth magistrate
and industrialist. In the article he described the scheme that he had set up
on his land in the Sirhowy Valley. Appalled by the living conditions of the
colliers in the valley, Moggridge had consulted with Robert Owen and devised
a variant of Owen's villages of co-operation. Moggridge's aim was to give
working people independence and self-respect.


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Cottages in Hall St. Blackwood built as part of John Moggridge’s scheme

So successful was the scheme that a few miles down the valley the village of
Ynysddu was born in the same way with more than thirty houses being built
there. Over the hill from Blackwood at Trelyn a further fifty houses were
built and in 1829 the total population of the three villages totalled 2000.
The scheme obviously brought advantages to the ordinary people of the area,
but the greatest beneficiary was Moggridge himself. The total rents from his
estate increased significantly, as did its saleable value. A consequence of
the social experiment was that a core of the most talented and industrious
workmen became tied to the area providing the skills vital to the continued
expansion of coal mining in the valley. Folk who had built their own
cottages were most unlikely to leave them.

Moggridge's scheme is perhaps closer to the idea of the 'Villages of
Co-operation' than any of the other communities set up by Owen and his
followers, although it did not have the grand architecture of the other
schemes, nor the ardent radicalism of the community members. However it
proved to be more resilient than any other Owenite scheme and was to be the
foundation of the small town of Blackwood.