Tredegar RFC

Tredegar Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team based in Tredegar. The club was founded in 1893 but at that time played under the name Tredegar Harriers. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Newport Gwent Dragons.

Tredegar Harriers

Tredegar RFC was founded by Jim Davies. When he was 16 years old, in 1893, he helped found Tredegar Harriers, the forerunner of Tredegar and in 1958 he raised the Tredegar R.F.C standard to the masthead over their headquarters. In the days of the depression, Jim Davies often had to pay for the players' coach himself; once he had to pay out on the spot before the coach driver would move. Jim Davies was almost 50 when he played his last game for the club; his eldest son, Jim, played in the same match.

When the Harriers stopped playing, Jim Davies joined Dowlais RFC who were so pleased at getting his services that they provided him with a coach to get him to and from their games. When Dowlais disbanded, the club sold their jerseys to Tredegar and the black, red and white strip has been Tredegar's colours ever since.

Tredegar

Coordinates: 51°46′39″N 3°14′26″W / 51.77761°N 3.24069°W / 51.77761; -3.24069

Tredegar (pronounced /trɪˈdiːɡə/) is a town situated on the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in southeast Wales. Located within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales. The historic Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, United States was named in honour of the town.

History

Origin of the name

The name Tredegar can be explained as tref deg erw. Deg erw is Welsh for "ten acres" or "ten-acre"; tref means "town", although its original meaning was "farm" or "estate".

Pre-industrialisation

Tredegar grew as a developed town thanks to the natural resources it had within the Sirhowy Valley, namely:

Hence by the start of the 1700s, the upper Sirhowy Valley was a natural well wooded valley, consisting of a few farms and the occasional small iron works where iron ore and coal naturally had occurred together.

Tredegar (band)

Tredegar were a Welsh heavy metal band formed in 1982. It was named after the town in Wales.

History

Tredegar were formed by former Budgie members Tony Bourge and Ray Phillips. Their debut album was recorded in 1986 with the help of Persian Risk's Carl Sentance as a guest vocalist as the band did not have a permanent singer at the time. Russ North joined the band in time to record vocals for one song, and stayed with the band for around one year before leaving with guitarist Andy Wood to join Cloven Hoof.

The band went through many line-up changes, eventually leading to Ray Phillips being the only original member left. Phillips took over vocal duties for an album that was recorded in 1991, but not released after the record company that agreed to distribute it had a change of heart at the last minute.

After the break-up of Tredegar, Phillips, his guitarist son Justin and Tom Prince went on to form Six Ton Budgie. A remixed version of the debut album that had previously only been released in Germany was re-issued along with the entire unreleased second album on a single disc by Axel Records in 1994 under the title Remix & Rebirth.

Tredegar (album)

Tredegar is the self-titled debut album by the Welsh heavy metal band Tredegar. The vocals on all but one song on the album were recorded by guest singer Carl Sentence as the band did not have a full-time frontman in place when recording began. Russ North joined as the permanent vocalist during the recording sessions and sung on "Which Way to Go."

As part of their live set they played covers of a number of Budgie songs including "Breadfan", "Napoleon Bonapart", "Zoom Club" and "Parents".

Track listing

All songs written by Ray Philips and Tony Bourge.

Recording line-up

References