History
A working farm for over 250 years, Greenmeadow was ‘rescued’ over 25 years ago by a group of local people. They decided to buy the farm and turn it into a Community Farm to ensure that it would remain a green space for the town and to provide a service to the local people and visitors alike. It is now a local treasure and the people of Cwmbran are very proud of their farm.
The farmhouse dates back to 1752 and is built from local Welsh stone with a traditional Welsh slate roof. The date stone above the fireplace in the café is original and proudly states the initials of the people who first lived here – Edward & Anne Jones. The letter I is shown instead of a J as before 1800 Jones was spelt Iones.
The farmhouse has had a number of different owners since then. At one point it was owned by the Adit Colliery, a local coal mining colliery. Because of the colliery’s importance to the area the farmhouse was the first house and for many years the only house in the area to have electricity.
The layout of the farmhouse has also changed over time. The area that is now the farm shop was originally a traditional farmhouse kitchen and scullery. The storage and repair of the farm’s tractors as well as the stabling of its horses took place where the current kitchen stands and the small dairy herd were milked in the area that is now used as a hand washing facility for our visitors.
The farmhouse retains many of its original features including the beams in the café. There are several meat hooks hanging from the beams which would have traditionally been used to hang salted meat as a method of preservation prior to the invention of fridges and freezers.