Oakdale, Caerphilly

Oakdale Hospital (Welsh: Ysbyty Oakdale) was a community hospital in Oakdale, Caerphilly, Wales. It was managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

Oakdale Colliery was a coal mine located in the Sirhowy Valley, one of the valleys of South Wales. In the early years of the twentieth century the need for coal was growing both in America and Europe, and local business men in Wales were looking for new opportunities to fill the demand.Among these were a group known as the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, made up of wealthy industrialists from the Maclaren, Markham, Pochin, Whitworth and Wyllie families. They decided to create a group of collieries in the Sirhowy Valley, which explorations had told them contained rich seams of " black gold." One of these was at the small rural hamlet of Rhiw Syr Dafydd. Work began clearing the site for the new colliery at Ty Mellyn, Oakdale, with the sinking of the pit in 1907. Waterloo shaft followed in 1911. The shafts, North (upcast), and South, were 626 and 650 yards deep respectively, and were the largest diameter shafts in South Wales at the time.Opened in 1911, the colliery was owned by the Oakdale Navigation Collieries Ltd, a subsidiary of the Tredegar Iron Company. At its peak in 1938 it employed a workforce of 2,235, when production reached one million tons per year. Oakdale was linked to Markham colliery and the Celynen North colliery in Newbridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s, making it the largest colliery in Gwent. The pit closed in 1989 and the tips have now been landscaped and converted into platforms for industrial development.The former site of Oakdale Colliery now sites Islwyn High School, which opened in 2016 to former students from Oakdale Comprehensive School, Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School and Cwmcarn Comprehensive School. Of the three, the Pontllanfraith school is the only one still standing, with no obvious plans in sight.

Oakdale Comprehensive School was a comprehensive school located in the village of Oakdale, Caerphilly Oakdale in Caerphilly county, Wales. The total enrollment was about 660 pupils aged 11 to 16. Sixth-form provision was at Coleg Gwent in Crosskeys and Ystrad Mynach College.

Penmain or Penmaen is a hamlet and community in Caerphilly county borough, south Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is situated in the Sirhowy valley, 3 miles (4.8 km) East of Blackwood. It is contiguous with, if not completely encompassed by, the larger village of Oakdale, which forms most of the community urban area. Penmain is an anglicisation of the Welsh language name Penmaen, meaning quite simply "headland" or "outcrop" (a common element in Welsh placenames: literally, rock/stone hill). Both spellings are found locally, with the English spelling predominant throughout the majority of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the Welsh spelling is the one now more generally used.

The Sirhowy River (Welsh language : Afon Sirhywi) is a river in Wales and a tributary of the Ebbw River.

Blackwood (Welsh: Coed Duon) is a town, community and an electoral ward on the Sirhowy River in the South Wales Valleys administered as part of Caerphilly County Borough. It is located within the historic county of Monmouthshire. The town houses a growing number of light industrial and high-tech firms. It is the home town of influential rock band Manic Street Preachers.

Blackwood railway station (Welsh: Y Coed Duon) was a station on the Sirhowy Railway. It served the town of Blackwood, Caerphilly.

Penmaen Halt railway station served the hamlet of Penmaen, in the historical county of Monmouthshire, Wales, from 1927 to 1939 on the Penar branch line.

Croespenmaen is a locality near Crumlin, Caerphilly, Wales. The nearby Croespenmaen Industrial Estate is the site of Unilever's Pot Noodle factory, which became the topic of a 2006 advertising campaign, showing fictitious Pot Noodle mines in Wales. The factory typically produces 155 million pots annually. Croespenmaen is also the site of the Brace's Bakery factory.

Maes Manor is a country house near Blackwood, Caerphilly, Wales. It dates mainly from the early 20th century and is notable for its gardens, designed by Thomas Mawson. Now a hotel, Maes Manor is a Grade II listed building and its gardens and grounds are listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

The Blackwood Miners Welfare Institute (Welsh: Sefydliad y Glowyr Coed Duon) is a Grade II* listed building located at the north end of Blackwood High Street in Blackwood, Caerphilly, Wales and run by Caerphilly County Borough Council. Built and opened in 1925, it was originally used as a single floor snooker hall but was expanded eleven years later. It was sold to Islwyn Borough Council in 1989 after falling into disrepair and was reopened as an entertainment venue in February 1992. It is a receiving venue for comedy, theatre and music and a producer in its own right. Its co-productions with Black Rat Theatre Company tour across Wales.

Argoed (Welsh for 'by a wood' / 'by a grove') is a village, community and an electoral ward in the Sirhowy Valley between Blackwood and Tredegar in Caerphilly County Borough in south Wales. The population of the community and ward at the 2011 census was 2,769. As a community, Argoed also contains the villages of Markham and Hollybush. Before 1960 the village was served by Argoed railway station. This was initially a stop on the Sirhowy Tramroad, which opened in 1822. The tramroad was converted to a conventional standard gauge railway in 1865, the Sirhowy Railway. The station closed in 1960 and the railway has been converted into a cycle path. Zephaniah Williams, prosecuted for his part in the Chartist Newport Rising in 1839, was born in the village in 1795.