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Clydach is a village and
community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
in
Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
,
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
, within the Clydach ward and the Llangyfelach parish. It is located northeast of Swansea city centre. In 2011, the population was 7,503. Welsh is the first language of 24 per cent of the population and both Welsh and
English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
schools are available. The village lies close to the
M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...
which can be accessed via the bypass or old road via Ynystawe. The community includes part of the village of
Glais Glais () is a semi-rural village in Swansea, South Wales. ''Nant-y-Pal'' is a stream running through the middle of Glais. It divides the village into two electoral wards: to the north of the stream, Glais is under the Clydach Electoral Ward; to ...
.


History

In the 1800s, Clydach was a very small community if it could even be called that. Maps from then show Clydach to consist of sub-areas namely 'Mount Pleasant' (the area by high street shops), 'Faerdre' (covering the area nearest to Vardre Road), 'Down' the area that was once 'Down Farm' which is now land laying behind the Farmer's Arms, Clydach and below 'Ty gwyn Road'. There was also an area called Ty Gwyn as Ty Gwyn/White House was present on the land. The road leading to Ty Gwyn is now Ty Gwyn Road and also 'Coed Cae-Du' near Craig Cefn Parc. The map of c. 1878 Clydach (which can be viewed at the Archive Service at Swansea Civic Centre) shows that number 1 St John's Road was originally the old 'St John's School for Girls, Boys and Infants', which was linked to St John's Church near the shops at Capel Buildings near the Mond. A second school is shown where the current building of Clydach Infants stands which is also for girls/boys and infants. On a map dated 1899 Clydach has grown substantially to have a larger community base with the school on Twyn-y-Bedw Road being expended upon and a 2nd school being built just a little farther up the same street. The St John's School was by this point being used as a Sunday school and not for general education. There was a Clydach woollen factory not far from the schools on a road named 'Prince Llewellyn Street' or as it is now known 'Factory Road'. St Mary's Church is not on this map and is shown as a blank open space. In 1918 the Sunday school is still showing on the map under the area name of Vardre close to Mount Pleasant and Graig Felin was known as Aber-Clydach. The top of Clydach near Lone Road and Bryn Mair was named Upper Forge not yet having its slang title of 'Sunny Bank' with the locals. Note: Sunny Bank does not appear by name on any maps seen to date (June 2012). In the early 19th century, Clydach was a small village in the
Swansea Valley The Swansea Valley (; ) 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 Swansea, Nea ...
. As the coal in the
South Wales Valleys The South Wales Valleys () are a group of industrialised peri-urban valleys in South Wales. Most of the valleys run northsouth, roughly parallel to each other. Commonly referred to as "The Valleys" (), they stretch from Carmarthenshire in the ...
was a valuable commodity during the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
, Clydach experienced growth as a through road for transporting goods between Swansea and the many mines and heavy metal industries. The 16-mile (26 km) long
Swansea Canal The Swansea Canal (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Camlas Abertawe'') was a canal constructed by the Swansea Canal Navigation Company between 1794 and 1798, running for from Swansea to Hen Neuadd, Abercraf in South Wales. It was steeply graded, and 36 ...
was built through the centre of Clydach between 1794 and 1798. It was constructed to transport up to 400,000 tonnes of
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
a year from
Ystalyfera Ystalyfera is a former industrial village and community in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about northeast of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a r ...
to Swansea port. The canal remained profitable until 1902, when losses were first reported. This decline in revenue and profits was largely due to the competition from its rival the
Swansea Vale Railway The Swansea Vale Railway (SVR) was a railway line connecting the port of Swansea in South Wales to industries and coalfields along the River Tawe on the northern margin of Swansea, by taking over a tramroad in 1846. It was extended to Brynamman ...
. The last commercial cargo carried on the
Swansea Canal The Swansea Canal (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Camlas Abertawe'') was a canal constructed by the Swansea Canal Navigation Company between 1794 and 1798, running for from Swansea to Hen Neuadd, Abercraf in South Wales. It was steeply graded, and 36 ...
was in 1931 when coal was conveyed from Clydach to Swansea. Boats continued to operate on the canal after that date but only for maintenance work, with horse-drawn boats last recorded in Clydach in 1958. Only of the canal's original length of remain.


Population

The end of the 19th century and the early 20th century saw a significant growth in the village's population. With the opening of the Mond in 1902 the village experienced significant growth as the factory became the main employer within the village. The figures below show the population for the parish of Rhyndwyglydach. The population has recovered from the reduction seen in the early 1980s following the demise of mining and the heavy metal industries. The village's population was approximately 7,500 on 23 February 2010 and a population of 10,830 on 28 July 2011. The population of Clydach, Glamorgan, Wales, UK on 6 May 2012 is approximately 12,593.


Health care

The town benefited from Clydach War Memorial Hospital until it closed in 2015. The main redbrick building was converted into apartments for ex-servicemen and women in 2017. Eight houses and two bungalows have been built on the land as part of an affordable housing scheme led by Pobl Group, a homeless charity operating in South Wales.


Retail


High Street

The centre of Clydach High Street, the main commercial area of the town has had major investments in improving its facilities. These include reshaping and resurfacing of the road, new flagstones to replace tarmac pavements, new trees, new seats and cycle racks. Work was commissioned b
Cwmni Clydach Development Trust
with funding for the schemes provided by the
Welsh Development Agency Welsh Development Agency (WDA; ) was an executive agency (or QUANGO) and later designated an Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB). Established in 1976, it was tasked with rescuing the ailing Welsh economy by encouraging business development and ...
and Swansea City Council. A grant of over £130,000 was made available for local high street businesses to improve the frontage to their stores.


Industry


Clydach refinery

''Clydach refinery'', known as 'the Mond', was built by
Ludwig Mond Ludwig Mond FRS (7 March 1839 – 11 December 1909) was a German-born British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls. Education and career Ludwig Mond was born in ...
the inventor of the nickel carbonyl process at the turn of the 20th century. It started production in 1902. It is
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
’s largest
nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...
. It is 100% owned by
Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municip ...
and produces nickel powder, nickel pellets and other various nickel-coated materials. It also has a nickel foam production plant that until recently was the sole provider of the nickel foam required in the power cells of the
Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...
; production has since moved to a plant in China. The plant was the heart of the village and one of the largest employers in the Swansea Valley for many years. By 1910 over 40% of the village's population worked in the refinery. Today, with improvements in processing and a rationalisation of products, the refinery now employs just over 240 people, equating to 3% of the village's population. The refinery has been progressive in ensuring the reduction of emissions and pollutants. The
River Tawe The River Tawe (; ) is a long river in South Wales. Its headwaters flow initially east from its source below Llyn y Fan Fawr south of Glasfynydd Forest, Moel Feity in the Black Mountain (range), Black Mountains, the westernmost range of the ...
, which runs alongside the refinery, is once again home to breeding
salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
and
trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...
. The refinery is, however, a top-tier Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations ( COMAH) site, due to the inherent nature of its process.


Religion

There are a number of churches and chapels in Clydach, serving both English and Welsh language speakers. Clydach is a
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of the
Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...
, the parish church being St. Mary's on High Street. Other English language churches include Lighthouse Church (Assemblies of God), Bethel Evangelical Church, and St. Benedicts (Roman Catholic). Two Welsh language chapels remain in Clydach: Calfaria (Welsh Baptist) and Capel y Nant (Welsh Independents). Capel y Nant was formed in 2008 and meets at the former Carmel Chapel. The church was created through the uniting of Hebron and Carmel Independent Chapels. Capel y Nant also welcomes members of Salem Fardre Presbyterian Church, and is in partnership with Clydach English language Methodist Church. A number of Welsh-speaking churches/chapels in the community have recently closed, though their buildings still remain. These include St. John's (High Street), Hebron (Hebron Road) which is now being converted into a dwelling house by a local resident, whose family have lived in the village for the past 100 years. Also in Clydach is Bethania English Baptist Church, Graig-felin. The Reverend Valentine Evans, who wrote the ''History of Clydach'' at the beginning of the 20th century, is buried in its cemetery. A Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses located on Capel Road is one of the oldest in Wales.


Notable people

* Harold Elgan Rees (born 5 January 1954) - rugby union player. * Sir
Ludwig Mond Ludwig Mond FRS (7 March 1839 – 11 December 1909) was a German-born British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls. Education and career Ludwig Mond was born in ...
(7 March 1839 – 11 December 1907) - chemist and industrialist. *
Rhys Williams (Welsh actor) Rhys Williams (31 December 1897 – 28 May 1969) was a Welsh character actor. He appeared in 78 films over a span of 30 years and later appeared on several American television series. Career He made his 1941 film debut in the role of Dai Bando ...
(31 December 1897 – 28 May 1969) - known for How Green was my Valley. * Derek Bevan MBE (born 19 June 1947) - rugby world cup final referee.


Leisure and learning


Mond Valley Golf Club

Originally a nine-hole course (dating back to the 1960s) that was intended to be a resource exclusively for INCO (Clydach Refinery) employees, the course now welcomes golfers of all ages and abilities throughout the year. The club is nestled in the historic Swansea Valley bordered on one side by the River Tawe and by the Swansea Canal. It was renamed Mond Valley Golf Club in May 2012 after Vale Europe outsourced the management.


Forge Fach Community Resource Centre

Following the demolition of the old Clydach swimming pool, the Cwmni Clydach Development Trust, commissioned a new multi purpose community resource centre at Forge Fach, at a cost of approximately £1.8 million, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, City & County of Swansea & Clydach Community Council. Forge Fach is situated next to the Forge Fach Waterfalls, part of the Lower Clydach River, which runs into the Tawe River and gave Clydach its original name, Clydach-on-Tawe. Clydach is the equivalent of the Irish word Cladaugh, meaning sandy bend/strand. The centre opened in 2006. It provides a range of facilities including a community café, a full day care nursery (Forge Fach Day Nursery), a multi-purpose hall, ICT suite, training & conferencing facilities plus an external multi-use games area. In addition there are a number of fully serviced offices rented by local businesses. The City & County of Swansea's Lifelong Learning department & Swansea University's Dept of Adult Continuing Education use the centre to run a number of adult education classes . In 2011 the City & County of Swansea opened the 'Waterfall View' day service at Forge Fach. In 2013, Cwmni Clydach Development Trust went into administration, leaving the future of Forge Fach uncertain. Swansea Council has assumed temporary control of the facility. A local campaign group called for Forge Fach to be turned into a health, leisure, wellbeing and swimming centre. In October 2015, the resource centre was taken over by Walsingham Support, a national disability charity, supporting adults with learning disabilities, brain injury and complex health needs.


Dynamic Rock

2006 saw the opening of the Old Public Hall, which was converted into an indoor climbing centre and was renamed 'Dynamic Rock'. It is now home to the Swansea Indoor Climbing Centre. The walls are 12m high and feature overhangs, slabs, pillars,
arête An arête ( ; ) is a narrow ridge of rock that separates two valleys. It is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. Arêtes can also form when two glacial cirques erode headwards towards one another, although frequ ...
s and arches.


Cwm Clydach

The Cwm Clydach RSPB Reserve is situated on the outskirts of the village, en route to Craig Cefn Parc near the New Inn pub. The Cwm Clydach nature reserve used to be the home to the Nixon and Bell Drift mine. It was affectionately known as Nixon's and was one of the main employers until 1960–1961. It was used after as a pumping station. The colliery was a rock top colliery and there was even a steam boiler underground, which was rare in a colliery. Little remains of the colliery now, and there is a walk up the valley past other remnants of other NCB and private mines.


Cycling

Clydach is served by
National Cycle Route 43 National Cycle Network, Route 43 is part of the National Cycle Network and the Celtic Trail, which connects Swansea with Builth Wells. Most of the route is still awaiting development. As of June 2006, there is a 13-mile section out of Swansea th ...
. Major work has recently been undertaken on part of the cycle route between Clydach and Glais. The lottery-funded
Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...
laid a new tarmac path for pedestrians and cyclists, which begins alongside the River Tawe, behind the Vardre Rugby Club, and ends at Station Road in Glais. The tarmac path was mainly built on space used by abandoned railway tracks.


Education

Clydach Primary school and Graigfelen Primary schools are the main primary schools for residents. There is also a Welsh medium primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Gellionnen, on Gellionnen Road, and a Roman Catholic primary school, St Joseph's, on Pontardawe Road. As of September 2012, Clydach Infants and Clydach Juniors are now one school (Clydach Primary School). The village used to be home to Cwmtawe Lower Comprehensive School. It was the junior part of a three-school system, the other partners being Gwaen-Cae-Gurwen Lower School and Cwmtawe Upper School in Pontardawe. The lower schools were for 11- to 13-year-olds while the last three years of compulsory education were provided in Pontardawe. Today Clydach is in the catchment area of Birchgrove Comprehensive School. However, many students from Clydach attend Cwmtawe Community School in Pontardawe.


Sport


Football

A number of football teams – including Inco, Clydach Sports, and Sunnybank WMC – play in Clydach, most of them as members of the
Neath & District League The Neath & District League is a football league in South Wales. The league consists of four divisions, named the Premier Division, Division One, Two and Three. The Premier Division is a feeder to the West Wales Premier League, and therefore sits ...
. Clydach are members of the tier four
West Wales Premier League The West Wales Premier League (known for sponsorship reasons as ''The Macron West Wales Premier League'') is a football (soccer), football league in Wales, at tier 4 of the Welsh football pyramid, Welsh Football Pyramid in South West Wales under ...
.


Rugby

Vardre RFC is a sporting venue in Clydach and Clydach's younger residents train out on the pitches behind the building over the canal. They have 1st, 2nd, Youth and junior teams. The 1st team currently play in division 1 of the WRU West Central League


References


External links


Clydach Community Council websiteA nurse talks about her memories of working in Clydach Hospital during the 2nd World WarClydach Primary Care CentreClydach Electoral DivisionsWest Glamorgan Archives
{{Swansea Communities in Swansea Swansea Valley