Nantyglo Round Towers

Bailey built the towers after 1816 when some of his workers rioted when his brother, Crawshay Bailey, threatened to cut their wages. Wanting a defensible retreat in case it happened again, Joseph built them at the north-east and south-west corners of a sandstone wall that surrounds Roundhouse Farm, near his mansion Nantyglo House or Ty Mawr. All of the fittings of the towers were made from cast iron and were one of the earliest surviving uses of structural cast iron in Britain. The south-west tower was originally one storey higher than the two-storey north-east tower and served as a residence until the 1930s. The tower was partially demolished during the 1940s to extract the cast iron. The towers were restored in 1986–93.


They are believed to some of the last privately built defensive fortifications in Britain