Blaenavon (Welsh: Blaenafon) is a town and World Heritage Site in southern Wales, lying at the source of the Afon Llwyd. The town lies high on a hillside and has a population of 6,349 people. Blaenavon grew around an ironworks opened in 1788, part of which is now a museum. The steel-making and coal mining industries followed, boosting the town's population to over 20,000 at one time, but since the ironworks closed in 1900 and the coal mine in 1980, the population has declined, and now consists mostly of older citizens. Attractions in the town include the Big Pit Mining Museum (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage), Blaenavon Iron Works, the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway, and the Blaenavon Male Voice Choir.