The River Kenfig ( cy, Afon Cynffig) is a river in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, straddling the

county boroughs 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, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot ( cy, Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf ...

and

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Og ...

. It is approximately 18 kilometres long.

Course

The river rises in the forest of Mynydd Margam, southwest of

Maesteg Maesteg is a town and community (Wales), community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2011, Maesteg had a population of 20,612. The English ...

. From here it flows south, and turns west near the town of

Pyle Pyle ( cy, Y Pîl) is a village and community (and electoral ward) in Bridgend county borough, Wales. This large village is served by the A48 road, and lies less than one mile from Junction 37 of the M4 motorway, and is therefore only a half- ...

, through the area known as the

M4 Corridor The M4 corridor is an area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales. It is a major high-technology hub. Important cities and towns linked by the M4 include (from east to west) London, Slough, Brackne ...

. The river is at the northern edge of the Kenfig National Nature Reserve, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. It also forms the boundary of the Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend districts for much of its course, before running into the sea at Margam Sands, close to Margam Moors. It flows through an area steeped in

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

and local legend, much of it tied in with the lost towns beneath the shifting sands of Kenfig Burrows. Although the river has few significant tributaries, it picks up a few small streams on its course. Major tributaries include the Nant Iorwaeth-goch, which joins the river as it turns westward north of Kenfig Hill, the

Afon Fach This is a list of rivers of Wales, organised geographically. It is taken anti-clockwise from the Dee Estuary to the M48 Bridge that separates the estuary of the River Wye from the River Severn. Tributaries are listed down the page in an upstrea ...

, a stream which flows through

North Cornelly North Cornelly ( cy, Gogledd Corneli) is a village in Cornelly, Bridgend county borough, Wales. The village is close to South Cornelly, adjoins Pyle and Porthcawl, and junction 37 of the M4 motorway, which runs along its southern side. The villag ...

and Pyle, and the Coal Brook, which rises in Margam Park.

Kenfig National Nature Reserve

The final stretch of the River Kenfig at Kenfig Sands is at the northern boundary of the Kenfig National Nature Reserve. This reserve contains Kenfig Pool and Kenfig Burrows, its largest sand dune system. The river does not actually flow through the village of

Kenfig Kenfig ( cy, Cynffig) is a village and former borough in Bridgend, Wales. It is situated inland on the north bank of the Bristol Channel, and just south-west of the M4 motorway. To the east is the town of Bridgend, at approximately , and the c ...

. It runs about a mile to the north; however, it flows past the remains of Kenfig Castle, which is at the original site of the village. This site was abandoned in the 13th century when the sand dunes, shifted by wild storms, began to bury parts of the village. Only the tower of Kenfig Castle is now visible.

Industry

The river is south of the vast industrial complex of

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...

and

Margam Margam is a suburb and community of Port Talbot in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway. The community had a population of 3,017 in 2011; the built up area being larger and extending into ...

, which includes the

Port Talbot Steelworks Port Talbot Steelworks is an integrated steel production plant in Port Talbot, West Glamorgan, Wales, capable of producing nearly 5 million tonnes of steel slab per annum. This makes it the larger of the two major steel plants in the UK and one o ...

. In 1968 BorgWarner opened a plant for the manufacture of

automatic transmissions An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving co ...

on the Kenfig Industrial Estate alongside the lower reaches of the river. In January 1976 the plant celebrated the completion of its two millionth gearbox, which was 'presented' to A B Volvo. At that time a press release stated that Borg-Warner's UK plants at Letchworth and at Kenfig were producing transmissions for use in more than fifty different car models, and that more than half the gearboxes produced were exported outside the UK. In 2001, the factory faced the threat of closure but was saved by a new contract from Korean car company Kia. In December 2008, Borg-Warner announced that the plant would finally close by mid 2010 with the loss of all 110 jobs at the site; a statement from the company blamed the economic downturn for the decision.

References

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