BEDWAS

'Bedwas' is a village 2 miles north-east of Caerphilly, south Wales, situated in the Caerphilly borough and traditional county of Monmouthshire. It neighbours Trethomas and Machen, and forms a council ward in conjunction with those communities.
Bedwas was traditionally a farming community until the mid-Nineteenth Century, but owes much of its development to the Welsh coal mining industry. In the late 18th century it was home to four coal pits, and the construction of a large-scale colliery, Bedwas Navigation Colliery, had been completed by 1913. At its peak, the colliery's workers raised 675,000 tons of coal in one year (1939). It was closed, along with others, in the Miners' Strike of 1984-85, and did not reopen. Light industry replaced mining as the main local employer.
Bedwas is home to a rugby union club and comprehensive school. The Parish Church of Saint Barrwg, affiliated to the Church of Wales, has a saddle-back tower.
George Borrow passed through Bedwas in November 1854. He recorded it in his later book of his travels 'Wild Wales' as Pentref Bettws which he said meant village of the bead-house.