PONTYPOOL, a town and urban sanitary district of Monmouthshire, England, situated on an acclivity above the river Avon Lwyd, on the Monmouthshire Canal, and on the Great-Western and Monmouthshire Railways, 8 miles north of Newport. The town-hall, in the Doric style, dates from 1856, the market-house from 1846, and the Baptist theological college from 1856. At one period Poutypool was 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 altogether to other towns. The present prosperity of Pontypool is due to its situation on the edge of the great Pembrokeshire coal and iron basin. The earliest record of trade in iron is in 1588, but it was developed chiefly in the beginning of the 18th century by the Hanburys, the proprietors of Pontypool Park. The town possesses large forges and iron-mills for the manufacture of iron-work and tin-plate. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 800 acres) in 1871 was 4834, and in 1881 it was 5244.

PONTYPRIDD, sometimes also called Newbridge, a market town of Glamorganshire, Wales, situated on the Taff at its junction with the Rhondda, and on the Glamorganshire Canal, 12 miles north-north-west from Cardiff and 12 south from Merthyr-Tydfil. It receives its name from a remarkable bridge of one arch spanning the Taff, erected by William Edwards, a self-taught mason. The bridge is a perfect segment of a circle, the chord being 140 feet, and the height at low water 36 feet. A three-arched bridge was erected close to it in 1857. The principal buildings are the court-house, St Catherine’s church, the masonic hall, and the town-halL Near the town is a far-famed rocking stone 9 ⅜ tons in weight, surrounded by so-called Druidical remains. In the beginning of the century Pontypridd was an insignificant village, and it owes its progress chiefly to the coal and iron in the neighbourhood. It possesses anchor, chain, and cable works, chemical works, and iron and brass foundries. The population in 1881 was 12,317.