St Illtyd is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 near Aberbeeg

Aberbeeg

The small village of Aberbeeg lies in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire.Nearby are the villages of Llanhilleth and Six Bells, where the former colliery allowed the whole community to thrive as part of the South Wales coalfield...

, in south-east 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...

, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire (historic)

Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....

. It is situated on the mountain road between Pontypool

Pontypool

Pontypool is a town of approximately 36,000 people in the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales....

 and Abertillery

Abertillery

Abertillery is a town in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent in South Wales, north-west of Newport, originally on the Great Western Railway. Its population rose steeply during the period of mining development in South Wales, being 10,846 in the 1891 census and 21,945 ten years later...

 in Blaenau Gwent

Blaenau Gwent

Blaenau Gwent is a county borough in South Wales, sharing its name with a parliamentary constituency. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and...

. It rests at about 1200 feet above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

. The Royal Mail

Royal Mail

Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

 postcode is NP13 2AY.
In and around the hamlet there can be found cottages, farms, former farms, a public house, a former public house, a huge former open cast site, former levels, a canyon left by an opencast or strip mining, a television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 transmitter

Transmitter

In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...

, a graveyard

Graveyard

A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...

 and what was once the parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 of Llanhilleth

Llanhilleth

Llanhilleth is a village on the A467 road between Ebbw Vale and Crumlin in Blaenau Gwent, Wales.Two large mounds in the field behind the Carpenter’s Arms are the remains of the medieval Llanhilleth castle which originally had two large, stone-built towers....

 in the Diocese of Monmouth

Diocese of Monmouth

The Diocese of Monmouth is a diocese of the Church in Wales. Despite the name, its cathedral is located not in Monmouth but in Newport — the Cathedral Church of St Woolos. Reasons for not choosing the title of Newport included the existence of a Catholic Bishop of Newport until 1916...

.

The Friends of St Illtydhttp://www.illtyd.co.uk help Blaenau Gwent

Blaenau Gwent

Blaenau Gwent is a county borough in South Wales, sharing its name with a parliamentary constituency. It borders the unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and...

 County Borough

County borough

County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...

 Councilhttp://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/ look after the church building. The graveyard is still in the hands of the Church in Wales

Church in Wales

The Church in Wales is the Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.As with the primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Archbishop of Wales serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The current archbishop is Barry Morgan, the Bishop of Llandaff.In contrast to the...

John Wesley

John Wesley

John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

visited St Illtyd twice to speak at the preaching cross which is now in the graveyard.