Bryncoch is a village near

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhon ...

County Borough, Wales. The name derives from the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

'red hill' (''bryn'' is hill, ''coch'' is red), originally the name of a nearby farm. Bryncoch is divided into two wards:

Bryncoch North Bryncoch North is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales forming part of the parish of Blaenhonddan. Bryncoch North covers some or all of the following Areas: Bryncoch and Gilfach in the parliamentary constituency of Neat ...

and

Bryncoch South Bryncoch South is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales forming part of the parish of Blaenhonddan. The ward elects two county councillors to Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. Bryncoch South covers some or all of ...

, and is in the community of

Blaenhonddan Blaenhonddan is a community of the Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, Englan ...

. The area is not regarded as hugely affluent, but is one of the generally better off areas in the deprived county borough of Neath Port Talbot Historically the village of Bryncoch was centred on Main Road and a few adjacent streets, but the village expanded considerably in the 1960s with the building of the Furzeland Drive and Elias Drive developments. This area makes up the council ward of

, which has only one small street of social housing at Heol Pant Glas, named after a nearby farm located at the furthest northern corner of the ward. The council ward of

includes the distinct areas of the Rhyddings, Gilfach, Penywern, Leiros Parc, and the large social housing estate of Caewern. There are two village primary schools: Blaenhonddan and the Bryncoch

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

school. There is also a special school, Ysgol Hendre. The nearest secondary school is Dwr y Felin Comprehensive. Many village children also attend the Welsh-language secondary Ysgol Gyfun at

Ystalyfera Ystalyfera is a former industrial village and community in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about northeast of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a r ...

and the Welsh-language Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Castell-nedd.

History

Bryncoch was once the principal site of the Main Colliery Company, an important

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

employer in the area up until 1928. This was the scene of a major disaster on 6 April 1859, when 26 men and boys were drowned by an inflow of water, as reported in The Cambrian newspaper. The philanthropist

Howel Gwyn Howel Gwyn (24 June 1806 – 25 January 1888) of Dyffryn, Neath, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, who represented Penryn and Falmouth (UK Parliament constituency), Penryn and Falmouth (1847–57) and Brecon (UK Par ...

MP lived, from 1854, at the now demolished Dyffryn mansion on the outskirts of the village and built the parish church of St Matthew on his estate in 1871. The renowned scientist

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 pap ...

lived at Bryncoch Farm and studied Red Admiral butterflies while working as a surveyor for the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

company around 1843. He developed the

theory of evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certai ...

alongside

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

Recreation

There are two pubs in or close to the village: the Bryncoch Inn at Ty'n yr Heol Road is near the social housing area of Caewern, while the Dyffryn Arms is on the A474 just north of Bryncoch. Bryncoch Rugby Club, located on Farmers Road, play in the WRU Division 3 South West.

Branch of

The Pony Club Pony Club is an international youth organization devoted to educating youth about horses and riding. Pony Club organizations exist in over thirty countries worldwide. Overview Pony clubs began in England in 1929 by Harry Faudel-Phillips to ...

meet on their own field at Fforest Goch, nearby on the A474. They have previously won the prestigious Gymkhana team games competition at the

Royal Welsh Show The Royal Welsh Show () is an agricultural show, organised by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (originally, the Welsh National Agricultural Society, formed 26 February 1904 by influential landowners, at Committee Room 12 at the House of Co ...

(The largest Agricultural show in Europe) The village's third pub, the Lamb and Flag, which was perhaps the oldest in the area, closed in March 2017 and has been replaced by a

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

supermarket.

Notes

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Bryncoch and surrounding area
{{Coord, 51.682, N, 3.818, W, display=title Districts of Neath Port Talbot Neath