PONTYPOOL  , a

market town in the northern parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, 8 m . N. of Newport, served by the Great Western, London & North-Western, and Rhymney railways . Pop. of urban district (1901), 6126 . It is beautifully situated on an acclivity above the Afon Lwyd, a tributary of the Usk . Its prosperity is due to its situation on the edge of the great coal- and iron-field of Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire . The earliest record of trade in iron is in 1588, but it was developed chiefly in the beginning of the 18th century by the family of Hanbury, the proprietors of Pontypool Park . Pontypool was formerly famed for its japanned goods, invented by Thomas Allwood, a native of Northampton, who settled in the town in the reign of Charles II., but the manufacture has long been transferred elsewhere . The town and neighbourhood contain large forges and iron mills for the manufacture of iron-work and tin-plate . Water communication is afforded with Newport by the Monmouthshire Canal . On the south-east of Pontypool is the urban district of Panteg, including Griffithstown, with a population (1901) of 7484 .