Rhiwfawr is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of just under 100 houses 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 ...

, in

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 ...

, Wales.

Location

Most of the village is high upon a ridge overlooking

Cwmtwrch Cwmtwrch () is a village in the valley of the Afon Twrch, a right-bank tributary to the Swansea Valley, Wales, some 15 miles north of Swansea. It is also the name of an electoral ward to Powys County Council. Actors Craig Russell, Richard Corga ...

and most of the houses are over 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 standardise ...

. The majority of the houses date from the 1930s and were built by the local authority, then Glamorgan, now

council to house

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s for a local

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

that has since been closed and returned to countryside. The village has been described as "a giant family".

Amenities

The hamlet had a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, a community or

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

, and a small Nonconformist

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, now a residence. The road is now used to get to

Cwmllynfell Cwmllynfell () is the name of a village, community and electoral ward in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Amenities Cwmllynfell has its own local rugby union team - Cwmllynfell RFC. Also, a bilingual primary school, supermarket, post o ...

or the Gwrhyd mountain which leads to Rhyd-y-fro on the outskirts of

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 ...

. Rhiwfawr is home to many

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

-speakers, mainly due to the Welsh-speaking school in its heart - Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Draddodiadol Rhiwfawr (English: Rhiwfawr Traditional Welsh Primary School). The school is attended by 30 - 40 children. The school celebrated its centenary in 2006. School now closed and is now residential. The village also has a garage. A BMX track can be found alongside a wide, grassy

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 ...

field and a small park. There is a scenic walkway in a field behind the park. Overlooking the village is the Gwrhyd, which are picturesque mountains crossed by a road leading as far as

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Rhiwfawr and surrounding area
Villages in Neath Port Talbot {{NeathPortTalbot-geo-stub