River Afan
Encyclopedia
The River Afan is a river
in southwest
Wales
whose river valley
formed the territory of the medieval Lords of Afan. The town of Aberavon
grew up on the banks of the river, and was later subsumed by the larger centre of population known as Port Talbot
. The political constituency still retains the name Aberavon (on the Afan) however.
) where the rivers Corrwg and Gwynfi join. The river runs in a more or less south-westerly direction parallel to the River Neath
with which it shares its western watershed. It converges with the Afon Pelenna at Pontrhydyfen
. From here it turns southward towards Port Talbot
. To aid the construction of the docks at Port Talbot, the river was diverted away slightly. Before it reaches the sea, the river drops over a 12-foot high vertical weir called the Slaughterhouse Falls.
The River passes the Afan Argoed Country Park
in its middle reaches.
A motte and bailey castle
stood on the banks of the river as it passed through Aberavon
during the medieval period. No remains are now visible above ground, but the site of the castle is commemorated in local street names.
and then the River Llynfi
, a tributary
of the River Ogmore
. The river Gwynfi, one of the tributaries that form the river, shares a watershed with the Rhondda Fawr
, a tributary of the River Taff
.
and iron
industry. With the decline in the coal mining
industry, the quality of the river improved in the 1960s and 1970s so that some salmon
and sea-trout
started to return to the river to spawn. A number of weir
s on the river, built to sustain the industrial past, had to be made passable to allow fish to ascend the river. This required the creation of fish passes
on some weirs such as on the Dock feeder weir and the demolition of others such as at Corlannau weir.
map of the area as "River Afan" (as is the entire length of the Gwynfi). This is likely a mistake, but the spring from which this river comes is called Blwch-yr-Afan, meaning "Source of the Afan River".
The river is slightly alkaline due to continuing, albeit minor, pollution discharge from the Corrwg Rhondda and Glyncorrwg collieries.
, suffered more severely from pollution than the main river because of the sulphur-rich coal produced by the mines in that area. As a result, the abandoned coal mines continued to discharge acid mine drainage
rich in iron and highly acidic. This turned much of the river orange down to the confluence of the Pelena with the main river Afan. The Orange colour could often be seen as far down stream as Pontrhydyfen
. There were a number of collieries contributing to the pollution although the major source was the Whitworth Colliery. At the height of coal extraction in the valley, there were several deep pits and numerous levels. This pollution is now much mitigated
following extensive work promoted by the Environment Agency
in the creation of engineered reed beds
to treat the mine drainage.
to provide a source of water. It remains diverted flowing into the Port Talbot Docks
.
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
in southwest
South West Wales
South West Wales is a region of Wales. A definition consisting of the unitary authorities of Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire is used by a number of government agencies and private organisations including:*BBC...
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...
whose river valley
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
formed the territory of the medieval Lords of Afan. The town of Aberavon
Aberavon
Aberavon is a settlement in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town...
grew up on the banks of the river, and was later subsumed by the larger centre of population known as Port Talbot
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
. The political constituency still retains the name Aberavon (on the Afan) however.
Course
The river Afan begins its journey at the village of Cymer (meaning confluenceConfluence
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...
) where the rivers Corrwg and Gwynfi join. The river runs in a more or less south-westerly direction parallel to the River Neath
River Neath
River Neath is a river in south Wales running south west from its source in the Brecon Beacons National Park to its mouth at Baglan Bay below Briton Ferry on the east side of Swansea Bay.Several minor rivers rise on the southern slopes of Fforest Fawr...
with which it shares its western watershed. It converges with the Afon Pelenna at Pontrhydyfen
Pontrhydyfen
Pontrhydyfen is a small village in the Afan Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales.-Location:It is situated in the Afan Valley at , at the confluence of the River Afan and the smaller Afon Pelenna, 1.8 miles north of the larger village of Cwmafan and not far from the towns of Port...
. From here it turns southward towards Port Talbot
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
. To aid the construction of the docks at Port Talbot, the river was diverted away slightly. Before it reaches the sea, the river drops over a 12-foot high vertical weir called the Slaughterhouse Falls.
The River passes the Afan Argoed Country Park
Afan Forest Park
The Afan Forest Park is a forest park in Britain. It is set in the Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot, in south Wales. It is well-known for its mountain biking and hiking or hillwalking trails...
in its middle reaches.
A motte and bailey castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
stood on the banks of the river as it passed through Aberavon
Aberavon
Aberavon is a settlement in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town...
during the medieval period. No remains are now visible above ground, but the site of the castle is commemorated in local street names.
Geography
The river is about 11 miles long. In the east it borders the River KenfigRiver Kenfig
The River Kenfig is a small river in south Wales, straddling the county boroughs of Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend. It is approximately 11 miles/18 kilometres long.-Course:...
and then 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....
, a tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the River Ogmore
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...
. The river Gwynfi, one of the tributaries that form the river, shares a watershed with the Rhondda Fawr
River Rhondda
The River Rhondda is a river in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales which has two major tributaries; the Rhondda Fawr and the Rhondda Fach .- Description :...
, a tributary of the River Taff
River Taff
The River Taff is a large river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons — the Taf Fechan and the Taf Fawr — before joining to form the Taff north of Merthyr Tydfil...
.
Industrial past
For much of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the River Afan was severely polluted by the coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
industry. With the decline in the coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain 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 iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
industry, the quality of the river improved in the 1960s and 1970s so that some salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
and sea-trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
started to return to the river to spawn. A number of weir
Weir
A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...
s on the river, built to sustain the industrial past, had to be made passable to allow fish to ascend the river. This required the creation of fish passes
Fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on...
on some weirs such as on the Dock feeder weir and the demolition of others such as at Corlannau weir.
Afon Corrwg
The river Corrwg is one of the two rivers to form the Afan. Its length is approximately 7 miles, and its source lies in the hills south of Glyn-neath. It has one major tributary called the Afon Corrwg Fechan, as well as other numerous streams. The river is known for the numerous waterfalls along its length. Although the water is clear today, discharge from the many collieries along its lower reaches led to noticeable pollution. Minor discharge sometimes leaks from the Glyncorrwg colliery, although its effects do not have a noticeably detrimental effect on the river.Afon Gwynfi
The Afon Gwynfi joins the Corrwg at Cymer. It is 5 miles long, and starts at Blaengwynfi, where two small rivers join. Its source is only a couple of miles away from that of the rivers Rhondda and Ogmore. Strangely, there seems to be some confusion between the Gwynfi and the Afan itself; one of the two streams that form the river is named the Nant Gwynfi, while the other appears not to have a name, but is labelled on the Ordnance SurveyOrdnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
map of the area as "River Afan" (as is the entire length of the Gwynfi). This is likely a mistake, but the spring from which this river comes is called Blwch-yr-Afan, meaning "Source of the Afan River".
The river is slightly alkaline due to continuing, albeit minor, pollution discharge from the Corrwg Rhondda and Glyncorrwg collieries.
River Pelenna
A major tributary, the River Pelenna,which meets the Afan at PontrhydyfenPontrhydyfen
Pontrhydyfen is a small village in the Afan Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales.-Location:It is situated in the Afan Valley at , at the confluence of the River Afan and the smaller Afon Pelenna, 1.8 miles north of the larger village of Cwmafan and not far from the towns of Port...
, suffered more severely from pollution than the main river because of the sulphur-rich coal produced by the mines in that area. As a result, the abandoned coal mines continued to discharge acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage , or acid rock drainage , refers to the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment...
rich in iron and highly acidic. This turned much of the river orange down to the confluence of the Pelena with the main river Afan. The Orange colour could often be seen as far down stream as Pontrhydyfen
Pontrhydyfen
Pontrhydyfen is a small village in the Afan Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales.-Location:It is situated in the Afan Valley at , at the confluence of the River Afan and the smaller Afon Pelenna, 1.8 miles north of the larger village of Cwmafan and not far from the towns of Port...
. There were a number of collieries contributing to the pollution although the major source was the Whitworth Colliery. At the height of coal extraction in the valley, there were several deep pits and numerous levels. This pollution is now much mitigated
following extensive work promoted by the Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...
in the creation of engineered reed beds
Constructed wetland
A constructed wetland or wetpark is an artificial wetland, marsh or swamp created as a new or restored habitat for native and migratory wildlife, for anthropogenic discharge such as wastewater, stormwater runoff, or sewage treatment, for land reclamation after mining, refineries, or other...
to treat the mine drainage.
Nant Ffrwdwyllt
With a length of just under 5 miles, this was a small tributary of the Afan shortly before it entered the sea. The Nant Ffrwdwyllt was diverted in the 18th century into the ironworks at what was to become Port TalbotPort Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
to provide a source of water. It remains diverted flowing into the Port Talbot Docks
Port Talbot Docks
The port of Port Talbot is located on the River Afan estuary next to Port Talbot Steelworks in the industrial town of Port Talbot, South Wales. The whole basin complex covers about , consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from 1834 onwards; and an outer tidal basin, completed in...
.