The Swansea Valley one of the South Wales Valleys

South Wales Valleys

The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...

 is the name often given to the valley of the River Tawe

River Tawe

The River Tawe is a river in South Wales. It flows in a principally south-westerly direction for some from its source below Moel Feity in the Old Red Sandstone hills of the western Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel at Swansea. Its main tributaries are the right bank Upper and Lower Clydach...

 area in South Wales

South 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...

, UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It reaches southwest and south from the Brecon Beacons National Park down to the city of 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...

. Today, administration of the area is divided between the City and County of 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...

, Neath Port Talbot

Neath Port Talbot

Neath Port Talbot is a county borough and one of the unitary authority areas of Wales. Neath Port Talbot is the 8th most populous county in Wales and the third most populous county borough....

 County Borough

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. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...

, and Powys

Powys

Powys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...

. A distinction is often drawn between the Lower Swansea valley

Lower Swansea valley

The Lower Swansea valley is the lower half of the valley of the River Tawe in south Wales. It runs from approximately the level of Clydach down to Swansea docks, where it opens into Swansea Bay and the Bristol Channel...

 and the Upper Swansea valley which have different characters; the former was more heavily industrialised during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Notable towns & villages

Notable town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

s and 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...

s in the area include Clydach, Pontardawe

Pontardawe

Pontardawe is a town of some 5,000 inhabitants in the Swansea Valley in south Wales...

, Ystradgynlais

Ystradgynlais

Ystradgynlais is a town on the River Tawe in south west Powys; it is the second largest town in Powys, Wales. The town grew around the iron-making, coal-mining and watch-making industries....

, Ystalyfera

Ystalyfera

Ystalyfera is a former industrial village in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about north-east of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a resident population of just over 3,000 people, approximately 60% of whom...

 and Abercraf

Abercraf

Abercraf is a village within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, Powys, mid Wales.- Location :Abercraf lies in the extreme south of the county, in the Upper Swansea Valley 2.5 miles northeast of the small town of Ystradgynlais...

.

In its September 2005 document Towards a Valleys Strategy, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council is the local governing body for Neath Port Talbot. It is currently controlled by the Labour party, under the leadership of Councillor Alun Thomas, who succeeded Derek Vaughan when he became an MEP in May 2009....

 notes "a marked divide between the more remote communities at Ystalyfera and along the Twrch

Cwmtwrch

Cwmtwrch is a village in the Swansea Valley, Wales, some 15 miles north of Swansea.- History and origins :The name Cwmtwrch derives from the “Twrch Trwyth” a mythical wild boar of King Arthur’s legends and the ancient Welsh folklore tales of the Mabinogion in early Welsh literature...

 and Amman

River Amman

The River Amman is a river of south Wales, which joins the River Loughor at Pantyffynnon. The river gives its name to the town of Ammanford and the villages of Pontamman, Glanaman, Brynamman and Rhosaman. Garnant and Betws also lie in the Amman Valley....

 valleys and the reasonably prosperous southern communities of Pontardawe, Alltwen

Alltwen

Alltwen – meaning "white wooded slope" – is a village in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, near Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley...

, Rhos

Rhos, Neath Port Talbot

Rhos is a village in the Swansea Valley, located between Neath and Pontardawe, in Neath Port Talbot county borough, South Wales.-History:Originally part of the Cilybebyll estate, the Primrose Colliery was developed from the mid-1800's, close to the village. On 13 October 1858, when owned by Morgan...

, and Trebanos

Trebanos

Trebanos is a village in the Swansea Valley, Wales. It forms, together with Craig Trebanos and a part of Pontardawe, the Trebanos electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough....

." The area is served by the A4067

A4067 road

The A4067 road is an A road in Wales connecting Swansea with Sennybridge. It runs in a southwest to northeast direction beginning at Oystermouth Square in Mumbles, Swansea, and continuing from there to Swansea city centre, where there is a break in the route...

 Swansea-Brecon

Brecon

Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...

 road, but has had no rail connection since passenger services on the former Midland Railway

Swansea Vale Railway

|-|colspan="2" width="320"|-History:First opened in 1816 as a tramroad for conveying coal from Scott's Pit, near Birchgrove, to wharves on the River Tawe nearly four miles to the south, the Swansea Vale route grew to become a feeder railway for several mines and metal-working industries in the...

 line between Swansea and Brynamman

Brynamman

Brynamman is a village sitting on the south facing side of the Black Mountain, part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The village is split in two into Upper Brynamman and Lower Brynamman by the River Amman which also acts as the boundary between the counties of Carmarthenshire and Neath Port...

 via Ystalyfera ceased in 1952.

Attractions

The Upper Swansea valley is the site of Dan yr Ogof

Dan yr Ogof

Dan yr Ogof is a long cave system in south Wales, five miles north of Ystradgynlais and fifteen miles south west of Brecon within the Brecon Beacons National Park. It is the main feature of a show cave complex which is claimed to be the largest in Europe and is one of the major tourist...

 Caves, claimed to be the largest show cave

Show cave

Show caves — also called tourist caves, public caves, and in the United States, commercial caves — are caves that are managed by a government or commercial organization and made accessible to the general public, usually for an entrance fee...

 complex in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

. South of Abercrave, the valley was formerly a region of heavy industry including 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,...

 and iron-making

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...

 and there is plenty of the industrial heritage surviving; the Swansea Canal

Swansea Canal

The Swansea Canal was a canal constructed by the Swansea Canal Navigation Company between 1794 and 1798, running for some from Swansea to Hen Neuadd, Abercraf in South Wales. It was steeply graded, and 36 locks were needed to enable it to rise over its length...

 was built along the valley in the late 18th century to serve the nascent local industries. In 1878 opera singer Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti

Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...

 made her home at Craig-y-Nos Castle

Craig-y-Nos Castle

Craig-y-Nos Castle , is a Victorian-Gothic country house in Britain. Built on parkland beside the River Tawe in the upper Swansea Valley, it is located on the southern edge of Fforest Fawr in Powys. The former estate of opera singer Adelina Patti, part of the complex is now used as a boutique...

.