Whitland (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

: , lit. "Old White House", or ''Hendy-gwyn ar Daf'', "Old White House on the

River Tâf The River Taf ( cy, Afon Taf) is a river in West Wales. It rises in the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire, and continues through Carmarthenshire to Laugharne. It is one of the three rivers to enter the sea on the east side of Carmarthen Bay. The oth ...

", from the medieval ''Ty Gwyn ar Daf'') is both a town and a

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 ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

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 ...

Description

The Whitland

is bordered by the communities of: Henllanfallteg;

Llanboidy Llanboidy is a village and community in the principal area and historic county of Carmarthenshire, West Wales. The community includes the village of Llanglydwen. Location According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census, the community had a populat ...

; and

Eglwyscummin Eglwyscummin ( cy, Eglwys Gymyn) is a community (Wales), community situated on the south-western boundary of Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales. It is made up of the three ward parishes of Ciffig, Eglwyscummin, and Marros, all surrounding the vil ...

, all being in Carmarthenshire; and by

Lampeter Velfrey Lampeter Velfrey ( Welsh: ''Llanbedr Felfre'') is a community and parish in the county of Pembrokeshire, Wales, which lies 68.0 miles (109.4 km) from Cardiff and 196.0 miles (315.4 km) from London. In 2011 the population of the parish wa ...

and

Llanddewi Velfrey Llanddewi Velfrey or Llandewi Velfrey (also Llan-ddewi-vel-vre) ( cy, Llanddewi Efelffre) is a village, parish and community of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. Historically it was in the Narberth Hundred. The village is in Lampeter Vale, northeast ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

. According to the 2011 census the population was 1,792. Despite losing its dairy and remaining high street bank, Whitland has an estimated 125 small businesses as well as Whitland Engineering, which services the dairy industry and in 2019 employed 90 people.

History

Traditionally, Whitland is seen as the site of an assembly of lawyers and churchmen, sometimes described as the first

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, called in 930 by King

Hywel Dda Hywel Dda, sometimes anglicised as Howel the Good, or Hywel ap Cadell (died 949/950) was a king of Deheubarth who eventually came to rule most of Wales. He became the sole king of Seisyllwg in 920 and shortly thereafter established Deheubarth ...

to codify the native

Welsh law Welsh law ( cy, Cyfraith Cymru) is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd.Law Society of England and Wales (2019)England and Wales: A World Jurisdiction of Choice eport(Link accessed: 16 March 2022 ...

s. Whitland takes its name from its medieval

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 ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

. The monastery pre-dates

Tintern Tintern ( cy, Tyndyrn) is a village in the community (Wales), community of Wye Valley (community), Wye Valley, on the west bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales, close to the border with England, about north of Chepstow. It is popular w ...

but now is very much a ruin. The "white land" of the name (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Albalanda'') may refer to the famous Ty Gwyn (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''White House'') where Hywel's parliament met, to the monks' unstained woollen cloaks, or to the abbey's limestone. Whitland was dissolved during

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's conversion to a reformed church. Much of its limestone was taken and used for other buildings. The limestone itself may have been from quarries in the Cotswolds as there is no quarry of this ' White' stone in the area. The country setting of the ruin and the Abbey's layout can still be viewed just north of the A40 roundabout and turning immediately left. Whitland has had a strong milk industry and, when the railway arrived in the 19th century, exported milk to London. Its dairy, run by

Dairy Crest Saputo Dairy UK Limited is a holding company for Dairy Crest Limited, a British dairy products company. It was created in 2019 when the Canadian company Saputo Inc bought Dairy Crest. Dairy Crest itself was created in 1981 as a spin-off of the Mi ...

, eventually closed in 1994 with the loss of 100 jobs.

Hywel Dda Centre

The Hywel Dda Interpretive Centre is a publicly funded culture centre. It has a garden using reclaimed stone. Hywel Dda is considered one of the most accomplished of Welsh rulers, minting his own coins, codifying the traditional Welsh Laws, and using his diplomacy to secure Wales at a particularly turbulent period.

Governance

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 ...

of the same name exists including the

Henllanfallteg Henllanfallteg (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Henllan Fallteg'') is a Community (Wales), community in the west of Carmarthenshire, Wales. It comprises the villages of Cwmfelin Boeth, Henllan Amgoed, Hiraeth, Carmarthenshire, Hiraeth, Llanfallteg, and Rh ...

community with a total population of 2,272. The ward elects one county councillor to

Carmarthenshire County Council Carmarthenshire County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin) is the local authority for the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales. It provides a range of services including education, planning, transport, social services and public safety. The counc ...

.Carmarthenshire County Council Election Results 1995-2012
The Election Centre (

Plymouth University The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

). Retrieved 29 July 2020. Whitland also has a town council, consisting of elected or co-opted town councillors. The town council elects a mayor annually, who acts as chair of the council.

Railway

Whitland railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Through Whitland railway station (geograph 4487831).jpg , caption = The station as seen from footbridge (2015) , borough = Whitland, Car ...

is at the junction of the South Wales Main Line with two branch lines:

Pembroke Dock Pembroke Dock ( cy, Doc Penfro) is a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, northwest of Pembroke on the banks of the River Cleddau. Originally Paterchurch, a small fishing village, Pembroke Dock town expanded rapidly following ...

, and Cardigan. The latter was closed as a result of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

in the early 1960s.

Education

There are two schools: the primary school is Ysgol Llys Hywel; the secondary is Dyffryn Taf. Whitland has many local sporting teams including

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, short and long mat

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

and

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

Notable people

William Mathias William James Mathias CBE (1 November 1934 – 29 July 1992) was a Welsh composer noted for choral works. Biography Mathias was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire. A child prodigy, he started playing the piano at the age of three and began co ...

(1934–1992), composer, was born in Whitland.

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Whitland and surrounding area
{{authority control Towns in Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire electoral wards Communities in Carmarthenshire