Concrete Murals: Cwmbran

The Henry and Joyce Collins mural in Cwmbran is unique in two ways as far as I am aware - it is the only one of their concrete murals outside of England, and it is the only one not at pedestrian level.

Cwmbran was designated as a New Town in 1949, and the concrete mural very much matches with the local aesthetic.

The mural is in Gwent Square in the main shopping area. There are three panels set at first floor height on Gwent House - because of the tree planting and other obstacles it is difficult to get a picture of the whole mural.

Each of the three panels is made up of ten smaller ones. Perhaps because of the height of mounting, there is much less detail in in many of the other works of Henry and Joyce Collins that we have looked at. The Cwmbran mural also makes much greater use of repeated motifs.

The left-hand panel is centred around two figures set against red backgrounds.

I assume that the figure on the left represents the local tribe, whilst the right-hand figure is a soldier from the Roman 2nd Legion. This was the Augusta Legions, based at Isca Augusta, now known as Caerleon.

Surrounding these two figures are panels showing a castle....

….local industry, including iron and steel....

….and various tools.

There is a similar arrangement on the middle panel, although this time there is the addition of the Welsh dragon.

The main figures are again military personnel.

The right-hand panel again has two figures surrounded by the repeated motifs. However this time the figures are not military ones, but are of a religious person and a miner.