Cefn Cribwr had been the site of a blast furnace established by John Bedford in 1780, though that declined after Bedford's death in 1791. William Bryant took over the works in about 1825. Elsewhere though, the industry had been on a small scale. It was in 1826 that the Maesteg Iron Company was founded: the first furnace was blown in 1828 and by 1831 the population of the local hamlet had tripled (Cwmdu, from 968 to 2,880). The Maesteg Iron Company later became known as "the Old Works" and its foundation started the large scale industrialisation of the process locally.