BLAENAVON, a chapelry (parochial), in the hundred of ABERGAVENNY, county of MONMOUTH, 5 miles (S.W.) from Abergavenny, containing about 2500 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaff, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and £2000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of Thomas Hill, Esq. There are two places of worship for Baptists. The village, which has of late assumed the appearance of a thriving town, lies in a mountainous district, near the source of the Avon Lwyd, whence it derives its name; many of the houses are excavated in the solid rock. The neighbourhood abounds with iron-ore, coal, and limestone; and iron-works, on an extensive scale, were completed here in 1789, since which they have been progressively increasing: the major portion of the pig iron is conveyed, by means of a canal and a rail-road, to Newport, whence it is exported. ' A customary market is held on Saturday. Near the iron-works stands a spacious English free school, endowed in 1816 by Mrs. Sarah Hopkins, for the instruction of the children of the miners: the present number, including both sexes, is about two hundred and forty.