River Afan | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Wales |
Towns | Blaengwynfi, Cymmer, Cwmafan, Port Talbot, |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Mynydd Llangeinwyr |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• right | Afon Corrwg, Afon Pelenna |
The River Afan (Welsh : Afon Afan) is a river in Wales whose valley formed the territory of the medieval Lords of Afan. The Afan Valley encompasses the upper reaches of the river. The valley is traversed by the A4107 road. Settlements in the area include Cwmafan, Pontrhydyfen and Cymmer. The town of Aberavon, whose name in Welsh Aberafan means 'mouth of the Afan', grew up on the banks of the river and was later subsumed by the town of Port Talbot.
Multiple hypotheses exist regarding the origin of the river's name. One suggestion is that it is from "A-Ban" meaning "from the heights" due to its comparatively quick descent from hills to the sea. (Compare to the 'Ban' in "Bannau Brycheiniog", the Brecon Beacons). [1] However, such a name would be very unusual for a river. It is not parallelled elsewhere, and does not fit in with the pattern of Welsh stream and river nomenclature in general. A. D. Mills believes the river derives ultimately from a personal name. [2]
The Afan rises on the northern slopes of Mynydd Llangeinwyr to the east of Blaengwynfi, and flows in a generally south-westerly direction roughly parallel to the River Neath with which it shares its western watershed.
The river passes the Afan Argoed Country Park in its middle reaches. It converges with the river Pelenna at Pontrhydyfen. From here it turns southward towards Port Talbot.
To aid the construction of the docks at Port Talbot, the river was impounded and a diversion channel built that now forms the lower reaches of this river. There are two weirs in this final tidal reach of the Afan; Greenpark Weir at the upstream tidal limit, which has been reconstructed in 2017 and provides headwaters for the dock feeder channel that approximately follows the river's original route, and Newbridge Weir, which is the most downstream weir, presents a barrier to fish passage and is in a poor state of repair.
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.
To the east the Afan borders the River Kenfig and then the River Llynfi, a tributary of the River Ogmore. The Afan shares a watershed with the Rhondda Fawr, a tributary of the River Taff.
For much of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the River Afan was severely polluted by the coal and iron industries. 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 weirs on the river 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.
The Corrwg is one of the Afan's principal tributaries. Its length is approximately 11 km, and its source lies above the village of Glyncorrwg, in the hills south of Glyn-neath. It has a major tributary, Afon Corrwg Fechan, as well as numerous tributary streams. Several waterfalls exist along the river's course. Although the water is clear today, discharge from the many collieries along its lower reaches led to significant pollution. Minor discharge sometimes leaks from the Glyncorrwg colliery, although its effects do not have a noticeably detrimental effect on the river.
The Pelenna, a major tributary that meets the Afan at Pontrhydyfen, suffered more severely from pollution than the main river because of the sulphur-rich coal that was 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. [3] At the height of coal extraction in the valley, there were several deep pits and numerous levels. This pollution is now much mitigated [4] following extensive work promoted by the Environment Agency in the creation of engineered reed beds to treat the mine drainage.
Nant Ffrwdwyllt was a small tributary of the Afan, just under 8 km and joining the Afan close to the sea. It was diverted in the 18th century into the ironworks at what was to become Port Talbot, to provide a source of water. It remains diverted, flowing into Port Talbot Docks.
Aberavon was a constituency in Wales in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented from 1922 until 2024 by the Welsh Labour Party. It included the town of Aberavon, although the largest town in the constituency was Port Talbot.
Port Talbot is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately eight miles from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south east of the town. It is one of the biggest steelworks in the world, but has been under threat of closure since the 1980s. The population was 31,550 in 2021, comprising about a fifth of the 141,931 population of Neath Port Talbot.
Neath 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 to the east, Powys and Carmarthenshire to the north; and Swansea to the west.
Swansea Bay is a bay on the southern coast of Wales. The River Neath, River Tawe, River Afan, River Kenfig and Clyne River flow into the bay. Swansea Bay and the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel experience a large tidal range. The shipping ports in Swansea Bay are Swansea Docks, Port Talbot Docks and Briton Ferry wharves.
Aberavon is a town and community 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. Aberavon is also the name of the nearby Blue Flag beach and the parish covering the same area.
Pontrhydyfen is a small village in the Afan Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales. The village sits at the confluence of the River Afan and the smaller Afon Pelenna, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north of the larger village of Cwmafan and not far from the towns of Port Talbot and Neath. The views from the village are dominated by the hills of Foel Fynyddau (370 m) to the west, Moel y Fen (260 m) to the south-east and Mynydd Pen-rhys (280 m) to the north. This former coal mining community is distinguished by two large 19th-century bridges that span the valley: a railway viaduct and a former aqueduct, known in the Welsh language as Y Bont Fawr. The built-up area has a population of around 830. It is in the community of Pelenna. There is both a Community Centre and rugby union club, Pontrhydyfen RFC.
Crynant is a village and community in the Dulais Valley in Wales. It lies 7¾ miles north-east from the town of Neath in Neath Port Talbot, situated between the mountains of Mynydd Marchywel to the west, Hirfynydd to the east and Mynydd y Drum to the north.
Port Talbot was one of the four local government districts of the county of West Glamorgan, Wales from 1974 to 1996. The borough was initially called Afan, changing its name to Port Talbot in 1986.
Bryn is a village and community in Neath Port Talbot County Borough in Wales. It has a population of 913. The village is located in the hills between Cwmafan, in the Afan Valley, and Maesteg in the Llynfi Valley, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from Port Talbot and 2 miles (3.2 km) from Maesteg. The name of the village now familiarly 'Bryn', is Bryntroedygam. So wrote the first vicar of St Theodore's in Port Talbot. There was a farm situated above Meadow Row named Bryn-Troed-y-Garn as shown on the 1876 OS map, as many more immigrants came to 'Bryntroedygam' it seemed the name of the village was to be shorted to Bryn. 12% of the village speak Welsh. The population rose to 923 by 2011.
Cwmafan, also known as Cwmavon, is a large village and community in the Afan valley in Wales, lying within Neath Port Talbot County Borough. It had a population of 5,603 in 2001, increasing slightly to 5,615 at the 2011 Census. Cwmafan is known for having a high percentage of Welsh speakers. In many ways it is a suburb of the nearby town of Port Talbot which is less than 2 miles (3 km) to the south. The literal translation of Cwmafan from Welsh to English is complex, Cwm means valley with Afan as the name of the river flowing through, hence the village residing within the Afan Valley. It could be a version of Afon which means river, so literally the "River Valley", this is common in Wales and the UK with many rivers being called Afon or Avon. There is also a Saint Afan, which it is possible the river was named after. There have been other suggestions but none accepted locally.
Cymmer is a small village in the community of Cymer and Glyncorrwg, in Neath Port Talbot in Wales, set on a hillside in the Afan Valley near the confluence of the River Afan and the River Corrwg. In 2001, Cymmer had a population of 2,883.
Bryn and Cwmavon is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales. The electoral ward comprises the parishes of Bryn and Cwmavon.
Glyncorrwg is a village in the Afan Valley, in southern Wales.
The South Wales Mineral Railway was a railway built to serve collieries in the upper Afan Valley, and bring their output to a dock at Briton Ferry, in South Wales. It opened in stages, in 1861 and 1863. It was built on the broad gauge and had steep gradients, including a rope worked incline near Briton Ferry.
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 500 acres (2.0 km2), consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from 1834 onwards; and an outer tidal basin, completed in 1970. Owned and operated by Associated British Ports, the tidal basin has the deepest berthing facilities in the Severn estuary and is one of only a few harbours in the UK capable of handling Capesize vessels of up to 170,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT), mostly for the import of iron ore and coal for use by nearby Port Talbot Steelworks.
The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but at first the connection to Swansea from Briton Ferry was refused.
Croeserw is a village of approximately 1,380 inhabitants in Gwynfi and Croeserw, Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.
Afon Clun is a 14-mile (23 km) long tributary of the River Ely, in the counties of Cardiff and Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Its bedrock is predominantly of sandstone. Beginning on the western slope of The Garth the river is fast-flowing, in clear shallow water with a hard substrate, flowing to the south of Llantrisant and generally west to its confluence with the River Ely at Pontyclun, falling 715 feet (218 m) over its course.
Pelenna is a community in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It largely covers the valleys of the rivers Pelenna and the Blaenpelenna, to the east of the town of Neath.
The Glyncorrwg Mineral Railway, later known as ‘Parsons’ Folly’, was constructed between 1839 and 1842 to transport coal from mines in the hinterland of Port Talbot in the south Wales coalfield to the Neath Canal at Aberdulais. Ownership changed several times and it was finally abandoned in 1852. Much of the route can still be followed and significant civil engineering features remain.