Cwmtwrch
Encyclopedia
Cwmtwrch is a village
in the Swansea Valley
, Wales
, some 15 miles north of Swansea
.
: 'Valley of the Wild Boar') derives from the “Twrch Trwyth
” a mythical wild boar of King Arthur
’s legend
s and the ancient Welsh folklore
tales of the Mabinogion
in early Welsh literature. The legend relates to one of Arthur’s tasks: to rid the western Brecon Beacons
of the pack of wild boars that were terrorizing the people. Arthur chased the boars from Dyfed
eastward towards Powys. On the Black Mountain (range)
, he picked up a large stone (the carreg fryn fras) and cast it towards the wild animals, striking dead the leader of the pack on the edge of a valley near Craig-Y-Fran Gorge. The big boar's body rolled down the valley and into the river which is now the River Twrch. The big stone is still on the mountain.
In this area also is the legend of the Lady of the Lake of Llyn y Fan Fach
.
Cwmtwrch has been split into two parts, Upper Cwmtwrch (Cwm Twrch Uchaf) and Lower Cwmtwrch (Cwm Twrch Isaf), due to the traversing of the now defunct railway line and road at two points requiring an upper and lower gate. The Upper and Lower tag is something that is the subject of humorous comment given the village's size and population.
The village lies in three counties Powys
, Carmarthenshire
and Neath Port Talbot
. The George IV Inn Public House
is built where the three counties meet, and this made it interesting in the past, due to different licensing hours between counties.
Nearby villages are Ystradowen
, Rhiwfawr
, Ystradgynlais
, and Ystalyfera
.
, nearly as many pubs as there are Nonconformist chapel
s, and some shops.
A notable feature of Cwmtwrch is the Ffynnon which is a natural spring
appearing at a memorial. The water is highly sulphuric
and smells of rotten eggs, but it is claimed by the locals that it has healing properties, and people from as far away as Argentina
have been there to collect water for drinking. The 'Ffynnon' is located across the river Twrch in Lower Cwmtwrch and can be accessed using the river walkway bridge or by car if using the Rhiw Fawr road.
A second, less renowned spring is located in Upper Cwmtwrch which provides clean drinking water without the natural delights of its sulphurous partner in Lower Cwmtwrch.
team Cwmtwrch RFC
a Welsh Rugby Union affiliated club with over a hundred years of history.
The village's most famous resident is Rhian Astley, former Wales national rugby union team
captain, who also managed both the national team and the British Lions
.
The village football team, Cwmtwrch Wanderers AFC, is long established and successful having won the Neath League Premier division on a number of occasions. They are the most successful team in the history of the Neath League with 31 major trophy victories.
Golf is played at Palleg Golf Club which is located in Lower Cwmtwrch. It has recently been extended to eighteen holes through lottery funding. A mountain course, it enjoys great views of the Swansea Valley.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the Swansea Valley
Swansea Valley
The Swansea Valley , one of the South Wales Valleys is the name often given to the valley of the River Tawe area in South Wales, UK. It reaches southwest and south from the Brecon Beacons National Park down to the city of Swansea. Today, administration of the area is divided between the City and...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, some 15 miles north of Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
.
History and origins
The name Cwmtwrch (Welsh languageWelsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
: 'Valley of the Wild Boar') derives from the “Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth is an enchanted wild boar in the Arthurian legend. The hunt for Twrch Trwyth by King Arthur was the subject of a popular stock narrative in medieval Welsh literature...
” a mythical wild boar of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
’s legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s and the ancient Welsh folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
tales of the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
in early Welsh literature. The legend relates to one of Arthur’s tasks: to rid the western Brecon Beacons
Brecon Beacons
The Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of popular peaks south of Brecon, including South Wales' highest mountain, Pen y Fan, and which together form the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park...
of the pack of wild boars that were terrorizing the people. Arthur chased the boars from Dyfed
Dyfed
Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe...
eastward towards Powys. On the Black Mountain (range)
Black Mountain (range)
The Black Mountain is a mountain range in Mid and West Wales, straddling the county boundary between Carmarthenshire and Powys and forming the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Its highest point is Fan Brycheiniog at 802 metres or 2,631 ft. The Black Mountain also forms a part...
, he picked up a large stone (the carreg fryn fras) and cast it towards the wild animals, striking dead the leader of the pack on the edge of a valley near Craig-Y-Fran Gorge. The big boar's body rolled down the valley and into the river which is now the River Twrch. The big stone is still on the mountain.
In this area also is the legend of the Lady of the Lake of Llyn y Fan Fach
Llyn y Fan Fach
Llyn y Fan Fach is a dammed lake in the eastern border of the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire, south Wales. Near to it is found Llyn y Fan Fawr.-Legend of Llyn y Fan Fach:...
.
Cwmtwrch has been split into two parts, Upper Cwmtwrch (Cwm Twrch Uchaf) and Lower Cwmtwrch (Cwm Twrch Isaf), due to the traversing of the now defunct railway line and road at two points requiring an upper and lower gate. The Upper and Lower tag is something that is the subject of humorous comment given the village's size and population.
The village lies in three counties Powys
Powys
Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...
, Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
and Neath Port Talbot
Neath Port Talbot
Neath Port Talbot is a county borough and one of the unitary authority areas of Wales. Neath Port Talbot is the 8th most populous county in Wales and the third most populous county borough....
. The George IV Inn Public House
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
is built where the three counties meet, and this made it interesting in the past, due to different licensing hours between counties.
Nearby villages are Ystradowen
Ystradowen
Ystradowen is a small village in rolling rural countryside; its nearest town is Cowbridge which is approximately three miles to the south. Ystradowen is twelve miles west of Cardiff, located in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales....
, Rhiwfawr
Rhiwfawr
Rhiwfawr is a hamlet of 40 houses in the Swansea Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.- Location :Most of the hamlet is high upon a ridge overlooking Cwmtwrch and most of the houses are over 900 feet above sea level...
, Ystradgynlais
Ystradgynlais
Ystradgynlais is a town on the River Tawe in south west Powys; it is the second largest town in Powys, Wales. The town grew around the iron-making, coal-mining and watch-making industries....
, and Ystalyfera
Ystalyfera
Ystalyfera is a former industrial village in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about north-east of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a resident population of just over 3,000 people, approximately 60% of whom...
.
Amenities
Cwmtwrch has a school, a village hallVillage hall
In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...
, nearly as many pubs as there are Nonconformist chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
s, and some shops.
A notable feature of Cwmtwrch is the Ffynnon which is a natural spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
appearing at a memorial. The water is highly sulphuric
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
and smells of rotten eggs, but it is claimed by the locals that it has healing properties, and people from as far away as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
have been there to collect water for drinking. The 'Ffynnon' is located across the river Twrch in Lower Cwmtwrch and can be accessed using the river walkway bridge or by car if using the Rhiw Fawr road.
A second, less renowned spring is located in Upper Cwmtwrch which provides clean drinking water without the natural delights of its sulphurous partner in Lower Cwmtwrch.
Sport
Cwmtwrch is home to the rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
team Cwmtwrch RFC
Cwmtwrch RFC
Cwmtwrch Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team officially founded in 1890. The team colours are black and white. Their home ground is Glyncawl Park View, Cwmtwrch...
a Welsh Rugby Union affiliated club with over a hundred years of history.
The village's most famous resident is Rhian Astley, former Wales national rugby union team
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
captain, who also managed both the national team and the British Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
.
The village football team, Cwmtwrch Wanderers AFC, is long established and successful having won the Neath League Premier division on a number of occasions. They are the most successful team in the history of the Neath League with 31 major trophy victories.
Golf is played at Palleg Golf Club which is located in Lower Cwmtwrch. It has recently been extended to eighteen holes through lottery funding. A mountain course, it enjoys great views of the Swansea Valley.