Brechfa, situated between

Llandeilo Llandeilo () is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated at the crossing of the River Towy by the A483 on a 19th-century stone bridge. Its population was 1,795 at the 2011 Census. It is adjacent to the westernmost point of the ...

and

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

in the county of

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, Wales, is a village that has existed since the 6th century at the top of the Cothi Valley. Brechfa village is set in countryside, as well as being located by the

Brechfa Forest The Brechfa Forest is an area of forest in Carmarthenshire, south Wales. Brechfa Forest is the 'modern' name for part of the ancient Glyn Cothi Forest. From before records began in the 6th century the communities in the 15 villages which encircle ...

History

In the 1840s, Brechfa featured in the

Rebecca Riots The Rebecca Riots (Welsh: ''Terfysgoedd Beca'') took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often me ...

when rioters destroyed tollgates on the local turnpike road. During the 1930s Great Depression,

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

men were sent to work on the Forestry Commission land, breaking ground, building tracks, and undertaking other heavy labour. The men lived in a work camp in Brechfa, which was one of a number of Instructional Centres run by the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

Location and amenities

The village has a bridge over the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

that links both sides of the village. St. Teilo's Church is based in the middle of the Brechfa and replaced the former church building in 1893. The stone from the former church building was used to build the current church hall which is situated directly opposite St. Teilo's Church. The Bryn Stores Community Store is a co-operative has been set up to run the village shop, which featured in an article in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' Magazine in 2007. The village was chosen as a special stage in the British Rally from 2006 to

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Th
Forest Arms
the

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

located in the centre of Brechfa, featuring open fires, food and drink and car parking to the front and rear. The pub was closed between 2006 and 2014, and was re-opened in April 2014. The Hotel (http://wales-country-hotel.co.uk) Ty Mawr dates from 1658 and was converted into a hotel by Jill and Cliff Ross in 1979 having purchased the property at auction in 1976 for £10,000. The hotel has now six rooms, all en suit and a mature garden, fire places and the original stonework throughout. The restaurant uses fresh locally sourced ingredients and can be booked by guests and non guests alike. The hotel has featured in Welsh rarebits for over fifteen years along with the hotel guide.

Leisure & Recreation

is a mixture of ancient forest and managed woodlands containing mountain bike trails as well as promoted walks and rides, at the top of the Cothi Valley. The managed woodlands of the forest is managed by

Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales ( cy, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru) is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Coun ...

. The village is the site of Brechfa Mountain Biking which have a number of free car parks with picnic and BBQ facilities. In Byrgwm car park there is The Shed café for those riding the Raven or Derwen Trails.

provides 17,300 acres of open access for horse riders, who can use any of the tracks within the forest. A number of bridleways and byways run across the farmland and common land surrounding the forest to enable equestrian visitors to enjoy a variety of rides. The River Cothi is the largest tributary of the River Tywi in south Wales. It is noted for its trout and sea trout (sewin) fishing and for salmon. The Cothi valley runs through the

joining the Tywi (or Towy if you prefer the English spelling) a few miles south of Brechfa. Brechfa was chosen as a special stage in the British Rally from 2006 to

Local radio

Pupils of

Bro Myrddin Welsh Comprehensive School Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin ( en, Bro Myrddin Welsh Comprehensive school) is a Welsh language, Welsh-medium school in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is situated near the village of Croesyceiliog, about 1 miles (2 km) south of Carmarthen ...

have launched Brechfa FM, an on-demand

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

website on the

bebo Bebo ( ) was an American social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number of short-lived offerings, ...

network. The

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

station portrays the Brechfa residents as very isolated people who have no contact with the "outside world" such as Carmarthen

Brechfa Radio Podcast Site

Notable people

William Thomas (Gwilym Marles) William Thomas (1834 – 11 December 1879), better known by his bardic name of Gwilym Marles, was a Welsh minister and poet, and the great-uncle of Dylan Thomas. Dylan was given his middle name, "Marlais", in honour of William Thomas, who ...

was born in Brechfa * Canon Patrick Thomas (author and cleric) Rector of Brechfa from 1984 to 2001. His books include ''Candle in the Darkness'', ''Celtic Spirituality from Wales'' (Gomer), ''Celtic Earth'', ''Celtic Heaven'' (Gomer), ''Brechfa and Beyond: Peregrinations of a Parish Priest'' (Carreg Gwalch), ''From Carmarthen to Karabagh: a Welsh discovery of Armenia'' (Carreg Gwalch), and ''Remembering the Armenian Genocide'' (Carreg Gwalch). His translations of Welsh poet David Gwenallt Jones are included in the volume ''Sensuous Glory'' written with Densil Morgan and

Donald Allchin Arthur Macdonald "Donald" Allchin (20 April 1930 – 23 December 2010), published as A. M. Allchin, was a British Anglican priest and theologian. He was librarian of Pusey House, Oxford, from 1960 to 1969, a residentiary canon of Canterbury ...

(Canterbury Press)

References

*John Field, "Learning Through Labour: Training, unemployment and the state, 1890-1939", Leeds University Press, 1992,

External links

Brechfa Forest - Natural Resources WalesMountain Biking in Brechfa - MBWalesPhotos of Brechfa and surrounding area on GeographInformation on community-led projects to develop a strong local economy
{{authority control Villages in Carmarthenshire Rally GB