Ebbw Vale

Mary Cooper's map, showing the location of Ebbw Vale. (TV: The Categories of Life)

Ebbw Vale was a town in the south-east of Wales. It was located in mountainous terrain.

Nearby towns included Abergavenny to the north-east, Abertillery to the south-east and Rhymney to the south-west. Local small towns and villages included Blaenavon to the east. To the north of the town was a national park and roughly east of the town was Coity Mountain.

Ebbw Vale appeared on Mary Cooper's map of overflow camps in and around Wales. (TV: The Categories of Life)

Ian Chesterton mistakenly called Thomas Arundel "Ebbw Vale". (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale)

Behind the scenes

"Rob Brydon's TARDIS" lands in 1992 Ebbw Vale, as seen in Summer Scene.

Although unnamed in The Categories of Life, in the real world the national park seen on the map to the north of Ebbw Vale is the Brecon Beacons.

Prior to being referenced in Torchwood, Ebbw Vale served as the setting of Summer Scene, a parodic Doctor Who story aired in 1992 on BBC One, which gave an in-universe framing device to an actual auction held in Ebbw Vale around that time. The auction (and by extension the TV story) saw the BBC selling off most of its stock of old Doctor Who props and costumes. In the minisode, two Daleks, depicted as living beings despite being in the BBC's possession, escaped, with the BBC tasking Rob Brydon with recapturing them before they wreaked too much mayhem in Ebbw Vale.