St Illtyd is a hamlet near Aberbeeg, in southeast Wales, within the historic boundaries of

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

. It is situated on the mountain road between

Pontypool Pontypool ( cy, Pont-y-pŵl ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It has a population of 28,970. Location It is situated on the Afon Lwyd ri ...

and Abertillery in

Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. 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 ...

. It rests at about 1200 feet above sea level. The

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

is NP13 2AY. It is located south of Abertillery and north of

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

. The B4471 runs near to the village. The population of the wider community including nearby Aberbeeg and Llanhilleth is 4,797.

Geography

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 and a television transmitter. A nearby proposal for a sandstone mine has been reported by newspapers locally after a number of unsuccessful planning applications since 2006. The landowner made further attempts in 2011.

History

It is most notable for St Illtyd's Church, a 13th-century building generally believed to have been built by

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monks from Llantarnam on the site of a previous church which historians have tended to date as dating from 863 AD or thereabouts. The present dedication to St Illtyd is not however the original one, for it was not until around 1754 that this saint's name was given as the name of the church. The 9th century "Englynion y Beddau" (Stanzas of the Graves) collected among the texts now known as the

Black Book of Carmarthen The Black Book of Carmarthen ( cy, Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin) is thought to be the earliest surviving manuscript written solely in Welsh. The book dates from the mid-13th century; its name comes from its association with the Priory of St. John the Ev ...

(recorded 12th-13th centuries) refer to "Llan Heledd" or "Llan Helet", (Heledd being a sixth to seventh princess of Powys and a "local canonisation". T. D. Breverton records that during the 16th and 17th centuries the parish of Llanhilleth bore the name Llanheledd Forwyn (Church of Heledd the Virgin), and this dedication has survived today in the place-name, having reached its present form via Llan Helet, Llanheledd, Llanhiledd and Llanhylithe down the years, although Llaniddel is given by Archdeacon Coxe in 1701 as the name of the parish and there are references to the church as being dedicated to "St Ithel" until around 1800. Until 1911 it was the parish church of

Llanhilleth Llanhilleth () is a village, community and an electoral ward 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 w ...

, now in the Diocese of Monmouth, and it remained in intermittent use as a place of worship until 1975. The following list of incumbents is given in various places. * 1560 - The Reverend John Williams * 1612 - The Reverend David Pritchard * 1617 - The Reverend William Price * 1660 - The Reverend Lewis James * c.1700 - The Reverend Walter Evans * 1742 - The Reverend Richard Edwards * 1768 - The Reverend Abednego Pritchard * 1771 - The Reverend David Jones * 1818 - The Reverend Thomas Jones * 1840 - The Reverend William Evans * 1843 - The Reverend James Hughes * 1895 - The Reverend Daniel Felix * 1930 - The Reverend Canon Thomas Madog Williams - obit 1956 * 1957 - The Reverend John MacLaren Price (largely nominal after 1962) * 1968 - The Reverend Lewis David Pritchard (officiated only intermittently at St Illtyd) * 1982 - The Reverend Albert James Way (nominal only, 1982–84) The church was abandoned after 1975, although the circular churchyard, which is now closed for burials remains in the care of the Church in Wales. The building was de-consecrated in 1985 in an advanced state of decay, but was renovated as an historic monument in 1990. Today the Friends of St Illtyd help

County Borough Council look after the church building.

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

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

Transport

The hamlet is a 47-minute walk or from Llanhilleth railway station where trains run hourly between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff Central. In 2021 services will operate to Newport. It is a 28-minute walk from the centre of

Brynithel Brynithel is a village in the Ebbw Valley in Blaenau Gwent. It belongs in the community of Llanhilleth. It is located south of Abertillery and north of Newport. The B4471 runs near to the village. The River Ebbw flows past the west of the ...

village, where residents are served by the number 1 bus between Six Bells and Abertillery, and the slightly further away Rugby Club stop provides connections to

Stagecoach South Wales Stagecoach in South WalesCompanies House extract company no 255550 ...

services: * 62 (Ebbw Vale-Cwmbran) * X15 (Newport-Brynmawr) * X1 (Cwmbran-Brynmawr and Pontypool) * 95B (Newbridge)

Governance

The Llanhilleth

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

serves the village. The ward is represented by Councillors Norman Lee Parsons (Llanhilleth,

Ind Ind or IND may refer to: General * Independent (politician), a politician not affiliated to any political party * Independent station, used within television program listings and the television industry for a station that is not affiliated with ...

), Hedley McCarthy (Llanhilleth,

Lab Lab most often refers to: * Laboratory, a facility to conduct scientific research Lab or LAB may also refer to: Places * Láb, a village near Bratislava in western Slovakia * Lab (river), in north-eastern Kosovo People * ISO 639 code for the an ...

), and Joanne Collins (Llanhilleth,

). The area is represented in the

Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...

by Alun Davies (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

) and the Member of Parliament is Nick Smith (Labour).

References

{{authority control Villages in Blaenau Gwent