Whilst the actual date of the formation of the choir is not known, history advises that the inspiration for choral singing began in the many non-conformist Chapel's, and was further developed into music and song competition at local Eisteddfod's. One such Eisteddfod was in 1849, where a young iron worker named Thomas Williams won a prize for an anthem. The Adjudicator, Rosser Beynon, commented that Williams had not adopted a Bardic name and thereupon gave him the title of Asaph Glyn Ebwy. In 1852, the same Thomas Williams conducted Ebbw Vale Choir to win the chief choral section at an Eisteddfod held in Abergavenny. The Abergavenny Eisteddfod was, at the time, a very prestigious event held in support of Lady Llanover's ambition to make Abergavenny the cultural capital of Wales.

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Thomas Williams, who had composed many anthems and Hymn tunes, later left Wales to become Pastor of a Welsh Baptist Church in Stockton. In 1892 (and totally deaf) he sadly lost his wife, and despite his deafness composed in her memory a Hymn tune entitled 'Glyn Ebwy, the first line of which was engraved on her tomb stone;

'Mae Gwlad o wynfyd pur heb haint' ('There is a land of pure delight').