Aberkenfig
Encyclopedia
Aberkenfig
Aberkenfig (Welsh
Abercynffig, meaning mouth of the Kenfig (stream) is a village
of around 2,000 people located in the County Borough of Bridgend
, Wales
to the north of Bridgend
town.
, just off the A4063 link to the M4
at Junction 36. It is nestled at the confluence
of the River Llynfi
and the Ogmore River
. It is located to the south of Tondu
and to the west of Sarn
, Brynmenyn
and Bryncethin
. These five villages, which all lie to the north of the M4, whilst remaining distinctly separate areas have expanded to form one contiguous urban area of several thousand, which is primarily a dormitory suburb
of Bridgend, although many people also work in Cardiff
and Swansea
due to the motorway's proximity. As a result of its location next to both rivers, it is somewhat lower in elevation compared to the other villages (especially Sarn) and this results in a microclimate
which can produce some fog during the winter months, and can also disrupt analogue-television signals.
, a betting shop and a number of fast food
outlets – which are mainly Cantonese
, or fish and chip shops. The village is also home to the New Garden, a highly regarded Chinese restaurant
which has been featured in the Egon Ronay
Guide.
At the centre of the village is a small green patch of grass and a bench at the junction of Bridgend Road, Pandy Road and Dunraven Street, and is accompanied by a CCTV camera, placed as a response by the council to growing concerns about the activities of young people in the village. The focus of commercial activity is around this centre, although it has moved here from further up Bridgend Road closer to Tondu, although some shops have remained there, and some new shops have opened in recent years. It also contains the Court Colman Hotel.
immigration
and the presence of Welsh Italians
, and this is also reflected in people's surnames around the area. This is the only Catholic church between Bridgend and Maesteg and is also frequented by people who live in the Ogmore and Garw valleys. There is a Church in Wales
parish church
, and there are several smaller Non-conformist chapel
s doted around the village. Both the Catholic
and Anglican churches lack their own priests and are served by other parishes. The former Catholic Church recreational hall in Dunraven Street was sold off, bought and turned into a mosque
run by the Glamorgan Muslim Community Association. This area has been, and still is (according to the 2001 Census) almost uniformly visibly white, with the next largest ethnic group
being Chinese (about 0.2%) Also, bucking the national trend for churches to be shut and used for other purposes, the former Lyric Bingo Hall on Pandy Road was turned into a charismatic evangelical church, the Aberkenfig Bible Church.
, which is just off Heol Persondy.
Most comprehensive school children go either to Ynysawdre Comprehensive School, which is located in nearby Tondu, or to the Catholic comprehensive school, Archbishop McGrath Comprehensive School, which is also in Tondu.
Aberkenfig also has a bowling green
, and a communal space, the Aberkenfig Welfare Hall. Aberkenfig also has a telephone exchange.
the centre of Aberkenfig and cut traffic off Dunraven Street, which is very narrow. Another bypass (the A4063) was built to bypass Bridgend Road to take valleys traffic for to Bridgend out of the village. This second bypass cut Heol Persondy in two, which was the road from Aberkenfig to Sarn
, and reduced it to a footpath. Whilst this did have an impact on commercial activity, the road infrastructure in the village would now not be able to cope with the amount of traffic that the bypass now takes.
It is not served by the Maesteg Line
although both Tondu
railway station (around 10 minutes walk away from the village centre) and the closer Sarn railway station
(about seven minutes walk away) via Heol Persondy are on the line.
It is also served by First Cymru Bus service 32 and 36 to Maesteg
(via the A4063) and to Bridgend (via the A4063 link and the A4061), which also links Aberkenfig to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Wales
and Sainsbury's supermarket
at the motorway junction. It is also served by service 30, which although going between Maesteg and Bridgend bus station
and goes via Pen-y-Fai
and the A4063 towards Bridgend. Also it is served by service 63, which goes between Bridgend (following the route of the 32 and 36 services but then goes as far as Porthcawl
via Kenfig Hill
and Pyle
. Service 30, 32 and 36 stop in the centre of the village, but Service 63 stops only on Park Road.
club Tondu RFC
, a member of the Welsh Rugby Union.
Aberkenfig is also the home to the Bridgend and district football team Aberkenfig Conservative Football Club, (Aber Cons).
Aberkenfig (Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
Abercynffig, meaning mouth of the Kenfig (stream) is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
of around 2,000 people located in the County Borough of Bridgend
Bridgend (county borough)
Bridgend is a county borough in the historic county of Glamorgan, south Wales. The county borough has a total population of 130,000 people, and contains the settlements of Bridgend, after which it is named, Maesteg, and the seaside town of Porthcawl...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
to the north of Bridgend
Bridgend
Bridgend is a town in the Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of the capital, Cardiff. The river crossed by the original bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore but the River Ewenny also passes to the south of the town...
town.
Location
Aberkenfig is located in South WalesSouth Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
, just off the A4063 link to the M4
M4 motorway
The M4 motorway links London with South Wales. It is part of the unsigned European route E30. Other major places directly accessible from M4 junctions are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea...
at Junction 36. It is nestled at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the River Llynfi
River Llynfi
The River Llynfi, otherwise referred to as the Llynfi River or Afon Llynfi in Welsh , is one of three main tributaries of the River Ogmore or Afon Ogwr....
and the Ogmore River
River Ogmore
The River Ogmore is a river in South Wales popular with anglers. It runs generally from north to south from the Ogmore Vale and Pentre, past Bridgend and Ogmore...
. It is located to the south of Tondu
Tondu
Tondu is a village in Bridgend County Borough, Wales, located about north of the town of Bridgend.Tondu lies on the A4063 from Bridgend to Maesteg, and was established in the late 18th century as a coal mining village servicing the Parc Slip Colliery...
and to the west of Sarn
Sarn, Bridgend
Sarn is a village in Bridgend County Borough, Wales, about 3 miles north of Bridgend and which lies just east of the confluence of the Ogmore and Llynfi rivers. It is located to the east of Aberkenfig, south of Brynmenyn, and south-east of Tondu. It is around 15 minutes walk from the M4 and the...
, Brynmenyn
Brynmenyn
Brynmenyn is a small village located at the confluence of the Garw and Ogmore rivers in south Wales, around 4 miles north of Bridgend, and it also in the Bridgend County Borough council area. The village has its own primary school.-Transport:...
and Bryncethin
Bryncethin
Bryncethin is a small village located just north of the M4, Junction 36 in Bridgend county borough, Wales. Situated approximately 3 miles north of Bridgend, it is surrounded by the villages of Sarn, Brynmenyn, Aberkenfig, Abergarw, Tondu and Ynysawdre....
. These five villages, which all lie to the north of the M4, whilst remaining distinctly separate areas have expanded to form one contiguous urban area of several thousand, which is primarily a dormitory suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Bridgend, although many people also work in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
and Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
due to the motorway's proximity. As a result of its location next to both rivers, it is somewhat lower in elevation compared to the other villages (especially Sarn) and this results in a microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
which can produce some fog during the winter months, and can also disrupt analogue-television signals.
Commercial activity
Compared to other villages around Bridgend county, and relative to its size, Aberkenfig has a large range of commercial activity. It also has a rather diverse commercial sector, with it being home to a licensed sex shop, which is opposite a gun and fishing tackle shop. There are a number of hairdressers in the village, along with two corner shops, two taxi firms, two furniture shops, a photographic studioPhotographic studio
A photographic studio is both a workspace and a corporate body. As a workspace it is much like an artist’s studio, but providing space to take, develop, print and duplicate photographs. Photographic training and the display of finished photographs may also be accommodated in a photographic studio...
, a betting shop and a number of fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
outlets – which are mainly Cantonese
Cantonese people
The Cantonese people are Han people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei sub-ethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan for this narrower definition...
, or fish and chip shops. The village is also home to the New Garden, a highly regarded Chinese restaurant
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
which has been featured in the Egon Ronay
Egon Ronay
Egon Ronay was a Hungarian-born food critic who wrote and published a famous series of guides to British and Irish restaurants and hotels in the 1950s and '60s. He was an innovator when Britain had little appreciation of foreign cuisine.-Early life:Born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, in 1915, he...
Guide.
At the centre of the village is a small green patch of grass and a bench at the junction of Bridgend Road, Pandy Road and Dunraven Street, and is accompanied by a CCTV camera, placed as a response by the council to growing concerns about the activities of young people in the village. The focus of commercial activity is around this centre, although it has moved here from further up Bridgend Road closer to Tondu, although some shops have remained there, and some new shops have opened in recent years. It also contains the Court Colman Hotel.
Religious establishments
In spite of this area of South Wales following the rest of the United Kingdom in increasing secularisation throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, there are a number of religious houses of worship in the village. The village's central and accessible location at the confluence of the two rivers (and the Garw river flows into the Ogmore near Brynmenyn) and three valleys (Llynfi, Ogmore and Garw) have historically dictated the development of religious houses of worship (and also impacts favourably on commercial development here, rather than any other of the five villages). There is a Roman Catholic church, testament to both IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
and the presence of Welsh Italians
Welsh Italians
Welsh Italians are British citizens residing in Wales whose ancestry wholly or partly originates in Italy. Most Italian immigration to Wales took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the largest number of migrants settling in Glamorgan and Newport.-Migration history:Italian immigrants...
, and this is also reflected in people's surnames around the area. This is the only Catholic church between Bridgend and Maesteg and is also frequented by people who live in the Ogmore and Garw valleys. There is a Church in Wales
Church in Wales
The Church in Wales is the Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses.As with the primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Archbishop of Wales serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The current archbishop is Barry Morgan, the Bishop of Llandaff.In contrast to the...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, and there are several smaller Non-conformist chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
s doted around the village. Both the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Anglican churches lack their own priests and are served by other parishes. The former Catholic Church recreational hall in Dunraven Street was sold off, bought and turned into a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
run by the Glamorgan Muslim Community Association. This area has been, and still is (according to the 2001 Census) almost uniformly visibly white, with the next largest ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
being Chinese (about 0.2%) Also, bucking the national trend for churches to be shut and used for other purposes, the former Lyric Bingo Hall on Pandy Road was turned into a charismatic evangelical church, the Aberkenfig Bible Church.
Education and amenities
Aberkenfig has a Roman Catholic Primary school, St. Robert's, in Dan y Lan, which is in the south of the village. It also has a state primary school, Tondu Primary School—which was originally located in Tondu, but was knocked down and rebuilt in Meadow Street, retaining the name—which is in the north of the village, and Pandy Infant SchoolInfant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
, which is just off Heol Persondy.
Most comprehensive school children go either to Ynysawdre Comprehensive School, which is located in nearby Tondu, or to the Catholic comprehensive school, Archbishop McGrath Comprehensive School, which is also in Tondu.
Aberkenfig also has a bowling green
Bowling green
A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...
, and a communal space, the Aberkenfig Welfare Hall. Aberkenfig also has a telephone exchange.
Transport
The centre of Aberkenfig is a lot quieter than it used to be after a new road, (now the B4281 Park Road) was built, to bypassBypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
the centre of Aberkenfig and cut traffic off Dunraven Street, which is very narrow. Another bypass (the A4063) was built to bypass Bridgend Road to take valleys traffic for to Bridgend out of the village. This second bypass cut Heol Persondy in two, which was the road from Aberkenfig to Sarn
Sarn
- Fiction :*Sarn Ford, the stony ford across the Baranduin on the southern borders of the Shire *Admiral Sarn, a fictional character in the game Rebel Assault II*Precious Bane , a novel by Mary Webb...
, and reduced it to a footpath. Whilst this did have an impact on commercial activity, the road infrastructure in the village would now not be able to cope with the amount of traffic that the bypass now takes.
It is not served by the Maesteg Line
Maesteg Line
The Maesteg Line is commuter rail line in South Wales from Cardiff to Bridgend and Maesteg. The line follows the South Wales Main Line as far as Bridgend, where it then diverges to continue to Maesteg.-History:...
although both Tondu
Tondu
Tondu is a village in Bridgend County Borough, Wales, located about north of the town of Bridgend.Tondu lies on the A4063 from Bridgend to Maesteg, and was established in the late 18th century as a coal mining village servicing the Parc Slip Colliery...
railway station (around 10 minutes walk away from the village centre) and the closer Sarn railway station
Sarn railway station
Sarn railway station is a railway station serving the village of Sarn, South Wales. It located on the Maesteg Line from Cardiff via Bridgend.The station was opened by British Rail on 28 September 1992....
(about seven minutes walk away) via Heol Persondy are on the line.
It is also served by First Cymru Bus service 32 and 36 to Maesteg
Maesteg
Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 17,859, but it is now at an estimate of 20,000....
(via the A4063) and to Bridgend (via the A4063 link and the A4061), which also links Aberkenfig to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Wales
McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Wales
The Bridgend Designer Outlet is a commercial retail park and outlet store development in Bridgend, Wales, United Kingdom...
and Sainsbury's supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
at the motorway junction. It is also served by service 30, which although going between Maesteg and Bridgend bus station
Bridgend bus station
Bridgend bus station is an 11-stand bus station situated in the town centre of Bridgend, South Wales.After a £2.3 million redevelopment, it opened in November 2004....
and goes via Pen-y-Fai
Pen-y-Fai
Pen-y-Fai is a village in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales falling within the Bridgend electoral ward area.- Amenities :It has a population of about 2,000, one village shop, a chapel and All Saints parish church . It also has a pub, the Pheasant, and was once a village for employees of the...
and the A4063 towards Bridgend. Also it is served by service 63, which goes between Bridgend (following the route of the 32 and 36 services but then goes as far as Porthcawl
Porthcawl
Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...
via Kenfig Hill
Kenfig Hill
Kenfig Hill is a village in Bridgend County, South Wales. It is bordered by Pyle to the south-west, Cefn Cribwr to the north-east, North Cornelly to the south and Moel Ton-Mawr mountain to the north....
and Pyle
Pyle
Pyle is a village and community in Bridgend county borough, Wales. Pyle railway station is on the Cardiff - Swansea section of the London - South Wales main line....
. Service 30, 32 and 36 stop in the centre of the village, but Service 63 stops only on Park Road.
Sports and leisure
Aberkenfig is home to the rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
club Tondu RFC
Tondu RFC
Tondu Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team from the village of Aberkenfig, South Wales. They presently play in the Welsh Rugby Union Division Two West League and is a feeder club for the Ospreys.....
, a member of the Welsh Rugby Union.
Aberkenfig is also the home to the Bridgend and district football team Aberkenfig Conservative Football Club, (Aber Cons).