Abercraf ( en, Abercrave) is a village within the historic boundaries of the county of Brecknockshire,

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 ...

, administered as part of the unitary authority of

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 ...

, and in the community 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 ...

. Between 1965 and 1991, the village was the location of a Royal Observer Corps monitoring bunker, to be used in the event of a nuclear attack. It remains mostly intact.

Location

Abercraf lies in the extreme south of the county, in the Upper

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 ...

2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of the small town of

. It is situated just outside the boundaries 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 ...

and the

Fforest Fawr Geopark Fforest Fawr Geopark is a Geopark in the Brecon Beacons National Park, south Wales. It is the first designated Geopark in Wales having gained membership of both the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO-assisted Global Network of National ...

, which lie to the immediate north, east, and west of the village.

Coal and iron

A small ironworks was established in 1824 by the local coalowner, Thomas Harper. Its purpose was to exploit two patents granted to Harper and his fellow coalowner, John Christie (also owner of 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 ...

) in 1823 (no 4848) and 1824 (no 4909) for the use of the local anthracite coal in smelting. The

British Iron Company The British Iron Company was formed in 1824 to smelt and manufacture iron and to mine ironstone, coal, etc. It was re-formed as the New British Iron Company in 1843 and liquidated itself in 1892. British Iron Company (1824-1844) The company was ...

bought the works in 1825 for £19,541 and at the same time leased minerals on the nearby mountain,

Cribarth Cribarth, sometimes referred to as the Sleeping Giant, is a hill in the Brecon Beacons National Park located in the traditional county of Brecknockshire (currently administered part of the unitary authority of Powys) in southern Wales. The summit ...

. The venture soon proved unsuccessful and the furnaces were blown out in 1826 after it was discovered that production costs greatly exceeded the selling price. Coal continued to be worked from the taking; it was still in production in 1841 when the local agent gave a statement to the Children's Employment Commission. The coal pits in nearby

Caehopkin Caehopkin ( cy, Caehopcyn) is a village in Powys, Wales. It lies between Abercraf and Coelbren in the Swansea Valley on the border of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Previously it was a mining community A mining community, also known as ...

ceased production in the 1960s, although the Nant Helen

open cast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

coal mine continues to operate in the region.

Amenities

Abercraf has a number of

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

s, 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 (

Abercrave RFC Abercrave Rugby Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Abercraf) is a Welsh rugby union team from Abercraf, which was founded in 1894. Abercrave currently have a Senior XV who play in the WRU Division Five South West league and is a feeder club for the ...

), junior/primary school, fire station and a Miners' Welfare Hall, a testament to the village's coal mining past. The

Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary between Caehopkin and Abercraf in Powys, Wales. It became the Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary in December 2008, being previously known as Cefn-yr-Erw Primate Sanctuary. The sanctuary is owned an ...

lies just outside the village. Abercraf lies beneath the slopes of the miniature mountain of

, famous for its 'Sleeping Giant' outline, clearly visible from the nearby

A4067 List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European isla ...

Swansea to

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 coun ...

road. The Giant is formed from a combination of the natural

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

of the mountain and, in the case of the Giant's face, alterations to this topography from disused

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

quarries. The Giant's nose is surmounted by a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Abercraf and surrounding area
{{authority control Villages in Powys Swansea Valley Fforest Fawr