Alltwen (or Allt-wen; translates to "white wooded slope") is a village in the

Swansea Valley The Swansea Valley ( cy, Cwm Tawe) is one of the South Wales Valleys. It is the valley from the Brecon Beacons National Park to the sea at Swansea of the River Tawe in Wales. Administration of the area is divided between the City and County of Sw ...

(Welsh: ''Cwmtawe'') 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 ...

. Alltwen forms part of the community of Cilybebyll and is administered separately from adjoining

Pontardawe Pontardawe () is a town and a community in the Swansea Valley (Welsh: ''Cwmtawe'') in Wales. With a population of 6,832, it comprises the electoral wards of Pontardawe and Trebanos. A town council is elected. Pontardawe forms part of the county ...

on the opposite bank of the

River Tawe The River Tawe (; cy, Afon Tawe ) is a long river in South Wales. Its headwaters flow initially east from its source below Llyn y Fan Fawr south of Moel Feity in the Black Mountains, the westernmost range of the Brecon Beacons National ...

. Alltwen is served by Alltwen Primary School and the village has a

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 it ...

club, Alltwen RFC (Welsh: ''Clwb Rygbi Alltwen'').

Government and politics

Allt-wen is an electoral ward of

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 ...

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 te ...

and is a part of the

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, ...

of Cilybebyll. The ward is bounded by

Trebanos Trebanos ( cy, Trebannws) is a village in the Swansea Valley, Wales. With Craig Trebanos and a part of Pontardawe, it forms the Trebanos electoral ward in the Neath Port Talbot county borough. Controversy and opposition concerning the South Wal ...

and

to the northwest; Rhos to the northeast; Bryn-côch North to the southeast; Dyffryn to the south; and Clydach (in Swansea) to the southwest. Most of Allt-wen consists of

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...

and woods. Occupying a strip of land in the northwest of the ward is Alltwen village, which is part of the built-up area surrounding

Notable people

* Alltwen was the home of

Ronnie James Ronnie James (8 October 1917 – 12 June 1977) was a British Lightweight boxing champion. Born in Swansea, Wales, James had over 130 professional bouts winning 114 of them, 61 through knockout. In 1946 he challenged Ike Williams at Cardiff fo ...

, British

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight ...

Boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

Champion in the 1940s and World Title challenger in 1946 *

Rachel Thomas (actress) Rachel Thomas OBE (10 February 1905 – 8 February 1995), was a Welsh character actress. Early life Rachel Thomas was born in the Welsh village of Alltwen, near Pontardawe, Glamorgan,

, born in the village *

Siân Phillips Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips ( ), is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Ibsen's ''Hedda Gabler'' and George Bernard Shaw's '' Saint Joan''. Early life Phi ...

, much of her childhood in the village *

Justin Tipuric Justin Tipuric ( ; born 6 August 1989) is a Welsh people, Welsh international rugby union player who plays for Wales national rugby union team, Wales as an Flanker (rugby union), openside flanker. Early life Tipuric is of Croats, Croatian desce ...

, born in the village before moving to Trebanos as a child * D. Gwenallt Jones, born in Pontardawe, was raised in Alltwen

Pubs

*Clwb Rygbi Alltwen *The Butchers Arms *The Gwyn Arms *The New Lodge

References

External links

The History of Pontardawe by John E Morgan [Hirfryn] 1911Alltwen Primary Schoolwww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Alltwen and surrounding area
{{authority control Electoral wards of Neath Port Talbot Swansea Valley Villages in Neath Port Talbot