‘We was hoodwinked’: Inside the ex-mining town that backed Brexit despite millions of pounds of EU funding

Signs all around Ebbw Vale tell of EU funding for roads, railways and public art – but locals still voted to leave the bloc - (Alex Ross / The Independent)

One hundred and fifty years ago, a revolution was born out of pig iron and coal within the depths of the now-picturesque South Wales Valleys.

From roaring white hot blast furnaces, the town of Ebbw Vale produced iron that made the rails for the first steam locomotive railway line in Stockton and Darlington, and then a century later the steel that holds up Sydney Harbour Bridge.