 The Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company was formed in 1836, and purchased the Blaenavon Ironworks.The new managing director, James Ashwell, started to build a new ironworks, to be called Forgeside, on a pocket of freehold land, so that the new company would be free of the rents, royalties, and insecurity of the leasehold of the old ironworks.Foundations were built for blast furnaces, forges and rolling mills.