Cefn Cribbwr Iron Works sits well within the wooded area of Bedford Park. From the late 18th to the early 20th centuries it was a site of industrial activity, ironworkers, coalminers and brick workers worked here while a railway noisily rumbled through the valley carrying industrial produce to the coast. John Bedford built a blast furnace here in the 1780's and sunk pits to mine the raw materials of ironstone and coal as well as founding a forge and brickworks. The site was acquired by the local Authority in 1987 is now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.