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Trefil
Trefil is a small village in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, south Wales. It lies at the top of the Sirhowy Valley, near to Brecon Beacons National Park. It is three miles northwest of Tredegar. With one public house, The Top House, serving homemade food and drinks to local visitors. Etymology The village name may derive from the terms 'tref' and 'mil' signifying the 'farm of the lesser celandine', a plant which might be expected to grow in the stream which flows through the place, the Nant Trefil. Geography The village is sited in the bottom of a broad valley which cuts through the moorlands between the A465 road, Heads of the Valleys Road and the Dyffryn Crawnon valley to the north. At above sea level, the Ordnance Survey recognise Trefil as the highest village in Wales. Trefil is served by a single cul-de-sac road which leaves the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road 1.5 miles to the south. The boundary of the Brecon Beacons National Park lies one mile to the north of the ...
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Tredegar
Tredegar (; ) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the Industrial Revolution in Wales. The relevant wards (Tredegar Central and West, Sirhowy and Georgetown) collectively listed the town's population as 15,103 in the UK 2011 census. The origin of the name 'Tredegar' Tredegar was originally part of the Tredegar Estate, the seat of which was in Coedcernyw, outside Newport, and which extended northwards to include almost the entire length of the Sirhowy Valley. Local historian Oliver Jones (1969) writes that, by c.1803, the new town that had been created after the completion of the Furnace No 3 of the local iron works: ...was becoming known far and wide as '' Tredegar Iron Works'' and not as ''Tredegar'' as would be expected, the town not having or being allowed to have an identity apart from the indust ...
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Mynydd Llangynidr
Mynydd Llangynidr is a mountain in the Brecon Beacons National Park largely in the county of Powys, south Wales. Its southern slopes extend into the northernmost parts of the county borough of Blaenau Gwent. It is named from the village of Llangynidr which sits in the valley of the River Usk to the north of it. It is essentially an undulating plateau rising in the west to a height of 557m at Garn Fawr at OS grid ref SO 123151. A secondary high point is achieved at a point marked by a trig point at SO 147159. To the north the hill overlooks the valleys of Dyffryn Crawnon and Cwm Claisfer, themselves tributary valleys of the Usk. The shallow upper valley (Cwm Carneilw) of the Ebbw River reaches into the plateau in the southeast whilst the upper reaches of the Sirhowy Valley and its tributary the Nant Trefil define its western margins. A further tributary, the Nant Milgatw, reaches in from the south whilst the sharp edge of Rassau Industrial Estate also defines a part of its south ...
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Monmouthshire And Brecon Canal
The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal () is a small network of canals in South Wales. For most of its currently (2018) navigable length it runs through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and its present rural character and tranquillity belies its original purpose as an industrial corridor for coal and iron, which were brought to the canal by a network of tramways and/or railroads, many of which were built and owned by the canal company. The ''"Mon and Brec"'' was originally two independent canals – the Monmouthshire Canal from Newport to Pontymoile Basin (including the Crumlin Arm) and the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal running from Pontymoile to Brecon. Both canals were abandoned in 1962, but the Brecknock and Abergavenny route and a small section of the Monmouthshire route have been reopened since 1970. Much of the rest of the original Monmouthshire Canal is the subject of a restoration plan, which includes the construction of a new marina at the Newport end of the canal. ...
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Talybont-on-Usk
Talybont-on-Usk () is a village and community in Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire. It lies on both the Caerfanell river and the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, about from the River Usk. In 2001, it had a population of 743, reducing to 719 at the 2011 census. The community includes the settlements of Llansantffraed, Scethrog, Aber Village, and Pencelli. History Allt yr Esgair is a steep-sided hill to the north east of Talybont, and has an Iron Age settlement on the summit. There are other Iron Age and Bronze Age sites in the vicinity, and a Roman road flanks the slopes of Allt yr Esgair. A small castle was built at Pencelli during the Norman invasion, and this was later replaced by the sixteenth century Pencelli House. The canal was built around 1800 to transport lime, coal and iron to Newport. There are some lime kilns to the east of the village, and a tramroad was built to transport limestone from the crags above. The language of Talybont (and ...
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Brinore Tramroad
The Bryn Oer Tramway (also known as the Brinore Tramroad) was a horse-worked narrow-gauge railway built in South Wales in 1814. History The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal was built under an act of Parliament of 1793. The act allowed the canal company to build feeder railways up to in length to transport freight to the canal for transshipment. The Bryn Oer Tramway was built under this act in 1814, opening in 1815. It was a horse-worked plateway that served the Bryn Oer collieries and the limestone quarries at Trefil, dropping along its route to the canal at Talybont-on-Usk. An extension was built to serve the Rhymney ironworks in the Rhymney Valley. By the 1830s, the growth of local railways had begun to complete with the tramway, especially with the introduction of steam locomotives that were too heavy to work on the fragile plateway. By 1860, most of the tramway's traffic was being sent by railways and it closed in 1865. The tramway today Much of the route of the tramw ...
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Chartist's Cave
Chartist Cave (or sometimes Chartist's or Chartists' Cave) is a culturally significant cave on Mynydd Llangynidr in southern Powys, Wales. The entrance is a broad arch formed of Twrch Sandstone ('Millstone Grit') which overlies the Carboniferous Limestone immediately beneath. The cave The cave is located at about north-northeast of the village of Trefil at an elevation of about , at OS grid reference SO 127152 (51.8286 degrees North, 3.2672 degrees West). The entrance to Chartist Cave is high on the moors near the summit of Mynydd Llangynidr. The arched entrance is formed by a Twrch Sandstone ('Millstone Grit') cap from beneath which the underlying limestone has been eroded. The cave is also known by two different names in Welsh: Ogof Fawr (the 'Big Cave') and earlier as Tylles Fawr (the 'Great Hole'). The more commonly used modern name derives from 1839 when Chartist rebels used the cave to stockpile weapons in advance of their march on Newport in November of that year. Th ...
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Blaenau Gwent
Blaenau Gwent (; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders the Local government in Wales, unitary authority areas of Monmouthshire and Torfaen to the east, Caerphilly County Borough, Caerphilly to the west and Powys to the north. Its main towns are Abertillery, Brynmawr, Ebbw Vale and Tredegar. Its highest point is Coity Mountain at . Government The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government Districts of Wales, district of Gwent (county), Gwent. It covered the whole area of five former districts and a single parish from a sixth, which were all abolished at the same time: *Abertillery Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), Urban District *Brynmawr Urban District *Ebbw Vale Urban District *Llanelly parish from Crickhowell Rural District *Nantyglo and Blaina Urban District *Tredegar Urban District Brynmawr and Llanelly had been in the administrative county of Brecknockshire prior to the reforms, whilst the ot ...
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Snipe
A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. ''Gallinago'' snipe have a nearly worldwide distribution, the '' Lymnocryptes'' snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the ''Coenocorypha'' snipe is found only in the outlying islands of New Zealand. The four species of painted snipe are not closely related to the typical snipe, and are placed in their own family, the Rostratulidae. Behaviour Snipe search for invertebrates in the mud with a " sewing-machine" action of their long bills. The sensitivity of the bill is caused by filaments belonging to the fifth pair of nerves, which run almost to the tip and open immediately under the soft cuticle in a series of cells; a similar adaptation is found in sandpipers; this adaptation gives this portion of the surface of the premaxillaries a honeycomb-like appearance: wi ...
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Red Grouse
The red grouse (''Lagopus scotica'') is a medium-sized bird of the grouse family which is found in Calluna, heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the willow ptarmigan (''Lagopus lagopus'') but is now considered to be a separate species. It is also known as the moorcock, moorfowl or moorbird. ''Lagopus'' is derived from Ancient Greek (), meaning "hare", + (), "foot", in reference to the feathered feet and toes typical of this cold-adapted genus, and ''scotica'' means "of Scotland". The red grouse is the logo of The Famous Grouse whisky and an animated bird is a character in a series of its advertisements. The red grouse is also the emblem of the journal ''British Birds (magazine), British Birds''. Description The red grouse is distinguished from the willow ptarmigan and rock ptarmigan by its reddish brown plumage, rather than the white winter plumage. The tail is black and the legs are white. There are white stripes on t ...
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Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' evolved into a "trilogy" of six (or five, according to the author) books which sold more than 15 million copies in his life. It was made into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame. Adams wrote ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987) and '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988), and co-wrote '' The Meaning of Liff'' (1983), '' The Deeper Meaning of Liff'' (1990) and '' Last Chance to See'' (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series ''Doctor Who'', including the unaired serial '' Shada'', co-wrote '' City of Death'' (1979), and served as script editor for its 1 ...
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European Stonechat
The European stonechat (''Saxicola rubicola'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the common stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relatives in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It is found across Europe, as far east as Ukraine and the South Caucasus, and in parts of North Africa. Taxonomy and systematics The European stonechat was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Motacilla rubicola''. This species is now placed in the genus '' Saxicola'' that was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1802. The English name derives from its call, sounding like two stones knocked together. The scientific name ''Saxicola'' means "rock-dweller", from Latin ''saxum'' meaning "a rock" and ''incola'' meaning "dwelling in". The specific epithet comb ...
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Wheatear
The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus ''Oenanthe''. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but the northern wheatear has established a foothold in eastern Canada and Greenland and in western Canada and Alaska. Taxonomy The genus ''Oenanthe'' was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with ''Oenanthe leucura'', the black wheatear, as the type species. The genus formerly included fewer species but molecular phylogenetic studies of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae found that the genus ''Cercomela'' was polyphyletic with five species, including the type species '' C. melanura'', phylogenetically nested within the genus ''Oenanthe''. This implied that ''Cercomela'' and ''Oenanthe'' were synonyms. The genus ''Oenanthe'' ( Vieillot, 1816) has taxonomic priority over ''Cercomela'' ( Bonap ...
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