Cwmfelinfach is a small village located in the

Sirhowy valley The Sirhowy Valley ( ) is an industrialised valley in the eastern part of the Valleys region of Wales. It is named from the Sirhowy River () which runs through it. Its upper reaches are occupied by the town of Tredegar within the unitary area of ...

of south-east

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It is part of the district of Caerphilly within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is located north of

Wattsville Wattsville is a small village in the Sirhowy Valley, eight miles north west of Newport, built in the 20th century for accommodation for mine workers. Amenities Modern Wattsville consists of two villages, Wattsville and Brynawel. It consists of o ...

, about 5 miles north of the nearest town

Risca Risca ( cy, Rhisga) is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough and the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in south-east Wales. Risca has a railway station, opened on the Ebbw Valley Railway ...

, and south of Blackwood. To the east the valley is bordered by the hills of Pen-y-Trwyn (1,028 ft / 313 m). To the west is Mynydd y Grug (1,132 ft / 345 m). Cwmfelinfach can be translated from Welsh as "''valley of the little mill''".

History

The village was a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

until the late 19th century; the majority of housing is therefore traditional terraced housing from the early 20th century. A map of 1885 showns the Melin (mill) and the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel, Capel y Babell. The grave of

William Thomas (Islwyn) William Thomas, bardic name Islwyn (3 April 1832 – 20 November 1878), was a Welsh language poet and Christian clergyman. His best known poems were both called ''Yr Ystorm'' The Storm' and were written in response to the sudden death of his f ...

, a 19th-century poet in the Welsh language, can be found here. Cwmfelinfach was home to a coal mining community during the early to mid 20th century. The colliery, known as " Nine Mile Point", opened in about 1905 and closed in 1964. Nine Mile Point Colliery was the site of the first ever sit-in of miners; during 1935 there was a "stay-down strike" involving 164 colliers. They were protesting over the use of "Scab" miners (men not members of the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...

, unlike the rest of the "Points" workforce) and their ordeal only ended after the company promised that no non-Federation men would be employed at the colliery; the stay-down strike lasted for 177 hours. Miners from other collieries in the area, some taking similar action, supported their action.

Transport

The village is served by regular buses operated by Stagecoach Group to Tredegar and Blackwood in the north, and Newport city centre in the south. Cwmfelinfach is also part of the Celtic Trail cycle route (National Cycle Route 47) which connects West Wales from Fishguard through to Carmarthen, Llanelli, Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, and the Severn Bridge in the East.

Notes

External links

Monumental Inscriptions for Y Babelwww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Cwmfelinfach and surrounding areaWelsh Coal Mines website – check out the histories of the local pits
Villages in Caerphilly County Borough {{Caerphilly-geo-stub