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Aberdare ( ; ) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and River Cynon, Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tydfil, north-west of Cardiff and east-north-east of Swansea. During the 19th century it became a thriving industrial settlement, which was also notable for the vitality of its cultural life and as an important publishing centre. Etymology The name ''Aberdare'' means "mouth/confluence of the river Dare", as the town is located where the Dare river () meets the river Cynon, Cynon (). While the town's Welsh spelling uses formal conventions, the English spelling of the name reflects the town's pronunciation in the local Gwenhwyseg dialect of South East Wales. ''Dâr'' is an archaic Welsh word for oaks (''derwen'' is the singulative number, singulative), and the valley was noted for its large and fine oaks as late as the 19th century. In ancien ...
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St Elvan's Church, Aberdare
St Elvan's Church is a Grade II* listed Church in Wales, Anglican church in the centre of the town of Aberdare. It was built in 1851–1852, largely at the instigation of John Griffith (Anglican clergyman), John Griffith, vicar of Aberdare from 1847 until 1859. On 11 December 1849 Griffith wrote at length to the Incorporated Church Building Society in relation to the position of the Church of England in the parish of Aberdare. The population of the parish was close to 14,000 people and increasing at a rate of approximately a thousand each year, yet the ancient parish church of St John's could accommodate fewer than two hundred people. Foundation A campaign to build a new church at Aberdare was launched in 1850 when a public meeting was held, and within nine days a £1,000 had been raised by public subscription. By February 1851, subscriptions amounted to £2,500, just £500 short of the £3,000 that was deemed necessary to pay for the new building. Andrew Moseley was chosen as th ...
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Celtic Goddess
The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Celtic peoples are known from a variety of sources, including ancient places of worship, statues, engravings, cult objects, and place or personal names. The ancient Celts appear to have had a pantheon of deities comparable to others in Indo-European religion, each linked to aspects of life and the natural world. By a process of syncretism, after the Roman conquest of Celtic areas, most of these became associated with their Roman equivalents, and their worship continued until Christianization. Epona was an exception and retained without association with any Roman deity. Pre-Roman Celtic art produced few images of deities, and these are hard to identify, lacking inscriptions, but in the post-conquest period many more images were made, some with inscriptions naming the deity. Most of the specific information we have therefore comes from Latin writers and the archaeology of the post-conquest period. More tentatively, links can be made be ...
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Rhys Ap Tewdwr
Rhys ap Tewdwr (c. 1040 – 1093) was a king of Deheubarth in Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great. Following the Norman Conquest, he had to pay William the Conqueror to keep his kingdom, which lasted until the end of William's reign. Family Rhys ap Tewdwr was born in the area which is now Carmarthenshire. As a member of the House of Dinefwr, he claimed the throne of Deheubarth following the death of his second cousin Rhys ab Owain, who was beheaded after the battle of Gwdig (modern day Goodwick) against Caradog ap Gruffydd in 1078. He was a grandson of Cadell ab Einion ab Owain ab Hywel Dda and a great-grandson of Einion ab Owain, thus a descendant of Hywel Dda, king of the Britons. He married more than once. His first wife was Catrin (or Gwladus) verch Iestyn (b. 1041 in Powys). The name of his last wife was Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon, daughter of Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of the Mathrafal Dynasty of Powys. Issue by early alliances: ...
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Glamorgan
Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an early medieval petty kingdom of varying boundaries known in Welsh as Kingdom of Morgannwg, Morgannwg (or Glywysing), which was then invaded and taken over by the Anglo-Normans, Normans as the Lordship of Glamorgan. The area that became known as Glamorgan was both a rural, pastoral area, and a conflict point between the Normans, Norman lords and the Welsh princes. It was defined by a large concentration of castles. After falling under English rule in the 16th century, Glamorgan became a more stable county, and exploited its natural resources to become an important part of the Industrial Revolution. Glamorgan was the most populous and industrialised county in Wales, and was once called the "crucible of the Industrial Revolution", as it contain ...
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Iestyn Ap Gwrgant
Iestyn ap Gwrgant (or Jestyn ap Gwrgant) () (1014–1093) was the last ruler of the Welsh kingdom of Morgannwg, which encompassed the counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. Lineage Iestyn ap Gwrgant was the last ruler of the royal house of Morgannwg, which had a lineage stretching back over five centuries to Tewdrig (c. 500–520). The members of this royal house had links to the other royal houses of Wales through marriage, and were descendants of the celebrated Rhodri Mawr. Iestyn ap Gwrgant's base is believed to have been at Dinas Powys, south west of Cardiff. Norman invasion Iestyn probably ruled Morgannwg for a little less than a decade (c. 1081–1090) and is believed to have built castles in the regions of Cardiff and Kenfig. The popular version of historical events is that Iestyn, following a dispute with his rival Einion ap Collwyn, invited Robert Fitzhamon and his twelve knights into the region to settle the matter. Once invited in, they refused to leave. He ...
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Normans
The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Francia followed a series of raids on the French northern coast mainly from what is now Denmark, although some also sailed from Norway and Sweden. These settlements were finally legitimized when Rollo, a Scandinavian Vikings, Viking leader, agreed to swear fealty to Charles the Simple, King Charles III of West Francia following the Siege of Chartres (911), siege of Chartres in 911, leading to the formation of the ''County of Rouen''. This new fief, through kinship in the decades to come, would expand into what came to be known as the ''Duchy of Normandy''. The Norse settlers, whom the region as well as its inhabitants were named after, adopted the language, Christianity, religion, culture, social customs and military, martial doctrine of the Wes ...
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Penychen
Penychen was a possible minor kingdom of early medieval Wales and later a cantref of the Kingdom of Morgannwg. Penychen was one of three cantrefi that made up the kingdom of Glywysing, lying between the rivers Taff and Thaw, the other two being Gwynllwg and Gorfynydd. According to tradition, these cantrefi were created on the death of Glywys (c.480 AD), the first king of Glywysing, when the kingdom was divided between his three sons: Pawl, Gwynllyw and Mechwyn. But our knowledge of the early history of the kingdom is very uncertain, being mainly sourced from medieval documents and traditional pedigrees. Pawl was the ruler of Penychen and on his death (c.540 AD) passed the cantref on to his nephew. Pawl's brother Gwynllyw was the ruler of Gwynllwg and upon his death it is said that the cantref passed to his son Cadoc (Cadwg), also known as St. Cadoc. Cadoc would later take control of Penychen, but when he was killed by the Saxons he had no heirs, and both cantrefi fell unde ...
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Cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were themselves divided into smaller commote, ''cymydau'' (commotes). The word ''cantref'' is derived from ''cant'' ("a hundred") and ''tref'' ("town" in modern Welsh language, Welsh, but formerly used for much smaller settlements). The ''cantref'' is thought to be the original unit, with the commotes being a later division. ''Cantrefi'' could vary considerably in size: most were divided into two or three commotes, but the largest, the ''Cantref Mawr'' (or "Great Cantref") in Ystrad Tywi (now in Carmarthenshire) was divided into seven commotes. History The antiquity of the ''cantrefi'' is demonstrated by the fact that they often mark the boundary between Welsh language#Dialects, dialects. Some were originally k ...
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Cwmwd
A commote (, sometimes spelt in older documents as , plural , less frequently )''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales. The word derives from the prefix ("together", "with") and the noun ("home, abode"). The English word "commote" is derived from the Middle Welsh . The basic unit of land was the , a small basic village or settlement. In theory, 100 made up a (literally, "one hundred settlements"; plural: ), and half or a third of a was a , although in practice the actual numbers varied greatly. Together with the , commotes were the geographical divisions through which defence and justice were organised. In charge of a commote would be a chieftain probably related to the ruling Prince of the Kingdom. His court would have been situated in a special , referred to as a . Here, the bonded villagers who farmed the chieftain's estate lived, together with the court officials and servants. Commotes were fu ...
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Merthyr
Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, who according to legend was slain at Merthyr by pagans about 480 CE. generally means "martyr" in modern Welsh, but here closer to the Latin : a place of worship built over a martyr's relics. Similar place names in south Wales are Merthyr Cynog, Merthyr Dyfan and Merthyr Mawr. Noted for its industrial past, Merthyr was known as the 'Iron Capital of the World' in the early 19th century, due to the scale of its iron production. The world's first steam-powered railway journey happened in Merthyr in 1804, travelling from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Glamorganshire Canal on the Merthyr Tramroad. The 1851 census found Wales to be the world's first industrialised nation, as more people were employed in ind ...
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Brython
The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons (among others). They spoke Common Brittonic, the ancestor of the modern Brittonic languages. The earliest written evidence for the Britons is from Greco-Roman writers and dates to the Iron Age. Ancient Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with various hillforts. The Britons followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids. Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially Gaul and Belgica, and minted their own coins. The Roman Empire conquered most of Britain in the 1st century AD, creating the province of Britannia. The Romans invaded northern Britain, but the Britons and Caledonians in the north remained unconquered, and Hadrian's Wall became the edge o ...
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