St Illtyd is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

near

Aberbeeg The small village of Aberbeeg () lies in both the county borough of Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly County Borough Council in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is part of the community of Llanhilleth. The two main tributarie ...

, in southeast

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, 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 Abertillery (; cy, Abertyleri) is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area ...

in Blaenau Gwent. It rests at about 1200 feet above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. 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 is NP13 2AY. It is located south of

and north of Newport. The B4471 runs near to the village. The population of the wider

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

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 Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

and a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

. 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 A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of Llanhilleth, now in the

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 ...

, 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 Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishop ...

. 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 Blaenau Gwent

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

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 , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Llanhilleth - railway station.jpg , borough = Llanhilleth, Blaenau Gwent , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name ...

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 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), 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