The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government
district of
Gwent. It covered the whole area of five former districts and a single parish from a sixth, which were all abolished at the same time: •
Abertillery Urban District •
Brynmawr Urban District •
Ebbw Vale Urban District •
Llanelly parish from
Crickhowell Rural District •
Nantyglo and Blaina Urban District •
Tredegar Urban District Brynmawr and Llanelly had been in the
administrative county of
Brecknockshire prior to the reforms, whilst the other areas had all been in the administrative county of
Monmouthshire.
Gwent County Council provided county-level services for the new borough. The new borough was named Blaenau Gwent, meaning uplands of Gwent. The name had previously been an alternative name for the ancient parish of
Aberystruth which had covered a large part of the area and had its parish church at
Blaina. Blaenau Gwent was reconstituted in 1996 as a
county borough, taking over the county-level functions from the abolished Gwent County Council. At the same time
Llanelly was transferred to the reconstituted
Monmouthshire. The area is now governed by
Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, which is a
principal council.
Politics Blaenau Gwent hit the headlines at the
2005 UK General Election when an independent candidate,
Peter Law, won the
Westminster seat. He had resigned from the
Labour Party after an internal party row following the retirement of incumbent MP
Llew Smith, and defeated the official Labour candidate,
Maggie Jones, by a margin of 9,121 votes. The seat had previously been held by
Aneurin Bevan and
Michael Foot, and was considered one of Labour's safest. Law died on 25 April 2006 and in the
by-election, a former supporter of his,
Dai Davies won, running as an independent candidate. Peter Law's widow,
Trish Law, won his former
Welsh Assembly seat, also running as an independent candidate. In 2007 she retained her seat. Dai Davies held the Westminster seat for the People's Voice from 2006 – 2010 when he lost his seat in a huge majority to Labour's Nick Smith of 10,516 votes. Alun Davies recaptured the seat for Labour at the Assembly elections in 2011 and then Labour won a landslide victory in the 2012 local elections taking 33 seats out of 42. Plaid Cymru nearly won the seat in the 2016 Assembly election, and Labour lost the council in the 2017 local elections. From 2024, all of Blaenau Gwent would be in the
Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney UK Parliament constituency. == Archaeology ==