Ebbw Vale Comprehensive School
The complete disappearance of a school
The disappearance of a school
I discovered, almost by accident, that one of the schools I tought at as a young German language assistant has completely disappeared. No trace left except photos, memories and old aerial views…
2001
The earliest photo I found.
This is a few years after I lived and taught there (1996-1997). I remember the small lake behind the school, and the Co-op up the road (the building at the top of the screen with the mostly empty carf park).
The French language assistant Camille and I would often go buy lunch there, then go back to the school and eat in the photocopying room. This served as the unofficial teacher’s lounge - you could smoke there, so it was always busier than the official one.
2010
9 Years later
Not much has changed. The Co-operative store has been taken over by Morrisons.
At the roundabout north-west of the school, a small building went up with a car park.
2013, July 11
Signs of building activity in the old lake bed.
The school closed on August 31, 2012.
This picture shows the closed school already. This is also evident by the completely empty car park.
2016
The school has disappeared.
A construction-industry notice from October 2013 records “Former Ebbw Vale Comprehensive, Waun-y-Pound Road” with detailed plans submitted for demolition. Blaenau Gwent asset-management material then refers to demolition works on the former Ebbw Vale Comprehensive site being completed during 2014/15, and council accounts list “Demolition Ebbw Vale Comprehensive” as a capital item.
Only the shape of the school is still visible from the air, with the trees in the former courtyard still standing.
2019
Limbo
The area stayed unused for several years. Nature started to blur the evidence.
By the November 2019 planning report, the land between Waun-y-Pound Road and College Road, north of Cemetery Roundabout, is described as formerly occupied by Ebbw Vale Comprehensive School and College, currently vacant, partly scrubbed over, with open areas where buildings once stood.
An application is made to use the site for 277 residential units.
2020
Constrution across the road
No building activity on the old school site yet - but it looks like it’s used to park construction machinery for the estate on the other side of Waun-y-Pound road.
2021
Constrution starts
On Augus 31, 2021, United Welsh report “Full steam ahead at housing development on former Ebbw Vale Comp and college site”.
Work has started on 277 houses. The development was named Carn y Cefn, with 55 affordable/social-rent homes included.
2023
Construction continues. The first residents have been living in Carn-y-cefn for a year at this stage.
2025
affordable homes are still being delivered at Carn y Cefn
Even in 2026, Persimmon still markets Carn y Cefn as a new-build development at Waun-Y-Pound Road, Ebbw Vale.