New Jerusalems

Having started in 2021, this fantastic project completed in the summer of 2025. For those 4 years we were delighted to work with partners from across the UK and Ireland to make available the archives of 11 post-war New Towns in a project funded by the Wellcome Trust. 

Cwmbran was the first New Town in Wales, built as part of a UK Government scheme to rebuild following the second world war. The Corporation was established in 1949 to design the housing, social and commercial facilities.   The story of its development is told through the records of the Cwmbran Development Corporation, which includes minutes, reports, surveys, photographs and plans.  The Corporation was dissolved in 1988 and the records transferred to the then Gwent Record Office.

This funding allowed long-needed work to take place on this collection.  A paper catalogue had been available onsite at Gwent Archives and via The National Archives Discovery catalogue since it was first catalogued in the 1990s.   But this project provided funding to re-catalogue it to modern standards and make it available for the first time on our fully-searchable online catalogue as well as on The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue. 

Conservation and preservation work was also undertaken as part of the project, to better protect the collection.   Photographs and slides were repacked into specialist boxes and packaging, safeguarding them for use by future generations.

Find out more about the project at www.newjerusalems.info/