Coelbren ( cy, Y Coelbren) is a small

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are de ...

village within 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, t ...

Tawe Uchaf Tawe-Uchaf is a community in Powys, Wales. Situated north-east of Ystradgynlais in the upper valley of the River Tawe (hence the name), it includes the villages of Caehopkin, Coelbren, Glyntawe, Pen-y-cae, Penwyllt and Ynyswen. It had a popul ...

in southernmost

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

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 ...

. It lies on the very northern edge of the

South Wales Coalfield The South Wales Coalfield ( cy, Maes glo De Cymru) extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, espe ...

some six miles north-east of

Ystradgynlais Ystradgynlais (, ) is a town on the River Tawe in southwest Powys, Wales. It is the second-largest town in Powys and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. The town has a high proportion of Welsh language-speakers. The community includes ...

and just outside the southern boundary of the

Brecon Beacons National Park The Brecon Beacons National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) is one of three national parks in Wales, and is centred on the Brecon Beacons range of hills in southern Wales. It includes the Black Mountain ( cy, Y Mynydd Du) i ...

. It is known for Henrhyd Falls, a 27m high

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

which serves as a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

-managed visitor attraction on the Nant Llech. To the east of the village flows the Afon Pyrddin which plunges over two more spectacular falls. As first edition Ordnance Survey maps of the area show, the name 'Coelbren' applied to a farmhouse and chapel before the modern village developed and is recorded in the name ''Tyre y Kolbren'' in 1503 where it signifies the sharing of land (modern Welsh 'tir') by means of drawing lots, a 'coelbren' being translated amongst other things as an 'inscribed piece of wood' or 'omen-stick'.

History

The

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

Sarn Helen Sarn Helen refers to several stretches of Roman road in Wales. The route, which follows a meandering course through central Wales, connects Aberconwy in the north with Carmarthen in the west. Despite its length, academic debate continues as t ...

runs close to the village on its eastern side. Its remains and that of a

Roman fort In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...

are now much degraded. The

Brecon Forest Tramroad The Brecon Forest Tramroad is an early nineteenth century tramroad, or rather a network of connecting tramroads or waggonways, which stretched across the hills of Fforest Fawr in the historic county of Brecknockshire (modern administrative count ...

was constructed through the village in the 1820s. Of note to the east of Coelbren is the site of Banwen Ironworks, whose partial survival is owed to its early failure. It was constructed in the 1840s by speculators from London but may have produced only 80 tons of

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with ...

, the whole exercise being enveloped in a financial scandal. From the 1873, Coelbren was the location of a significant junction on the Neath and Brecon Railway whence a 7-mile branch diverged leading to the Swansea Vale Railway at Ynysygeinon. The contractor John Dickson had a terrace of houses constructed quite possibly for navvies working on the line and known originally as Dickson's Row though now known as Price's Row. The lines closed in 1962 though the trackbed can still be seen almost encircling the eastern part of the village. The route to Swansea Vale has now been converted into a cycleway as Route 43 of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...

linking the village with

; it is planned that the trackbed northwards towards

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the c ...

should also form part of Route 43. A school was opened in the village in 1894, housed at first in the vestry of Moriah Baptist Chapel. It was transferred to a new purpose-built site further west on Heol Eglwys in 1898 and in 1912 it was greatly expanded. The original Coelbren Welfare and Memorial Hall was built towards the top of Station Road in 1925 and served until the 1990s when the current building was constructed. The A4221 road linking

Abercraf Abercraf ( en, Abercrave) is a village within the historic boundaries of the county of Brecknockshire, Wales, administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys, and in the community of Ystradgynlais. Between 1965 and 1991, the village was t ...

with the A4109 Inter Valley Road ( Glynneath to Aberdulais) near

Dyffryn Cellwen Dyffryn Cellwen is a village in the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot, South Wales. It is situated in the upper Dulais Valley near the junction of the A4109 and A4221 roads, northwest of the smaller settlement of Banwen. It is part of the com ...

passes to the immediate south of the village, its construction later in the 20th century rendering the village less isolated than it had been hitherto.

References

External links

Photos of Coelbren and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{authority control Villages in Powys Fforest Fawr