The Rhymney Valley () is one of the South Wales valleys, with the Rhymney River forming the border between the historic counties of

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 ea ...

and

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

. Between 1974 and 1996 a Rhymney Valley local government district also existed (one of six of Mid Glamorgan).Davies (2008), p. 755 The valley encompasses the villages of Abertysswg, Fochriw, Hengoed, Pontlottyn, Tir-Phil, New Tredegar, Nelson, Rhymney, and Llanbradach, and the towns of Bargoed,

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

, Ystrad Mynach and Aberbargoed.

Geography

Created as a glacial valley, now the Rhymney River flows largely south to Rumney, a district of

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. The river is the ancient boundary between

and

. Groesfaen, Deri, Pentwyn and Fochriw are located in the Darran Valley and not the Rhymney Valley. This valley joins the Rhymney Valley at Bargoed Llanbradach is a large village in the Rhymney Valley between Ystrad Mynach and Caerphilly,

History

This valley is one of the South Wales Valleys, and its history largely follows theirs: sparsely populated until the nineteenth century; industrialised for

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

; industrial decline in the 1980s and 1990s. The Rhymney Valley produced a miner poet, Idris Davies of Rhymney, famous for his poems associated with the locality and the struggles of its people. The 1990s brought improved road connections to the valley—a dual carriageway running north from

—increasing access to and from Cardiff and the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

, and increasing the numbers of commuters from the valley to

. The area is now one of the most populous in Wales. The Rhymney Valley hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1990. There is a legend to explain how coal first came to be found in the Rhymney Valley. It is said that the local

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

were being pestered by a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...

. They asked help from an owl, who slew the giant. As the fairies burnt the giant's body, the ground burned away, exposing the coal.

Gorsedd Stones

The Rhymney Valley Gorsedd Stones are located above Bryn Bach Park, Tredegar on the site of the 1990 National Eisteddfod of Wales hosted by the Rhymney Valley. The stone circle consists of 12 standing stones arranged in a circle approximately 25m across with the tallest being 1.8m high a thirteenth stone marks the entrance to the circle. In the center is a flat stone known as the Logan stone. Stone circles of this type were erected on all sites of the National Eisteddfod until 2005 when as a cost-cutting exercise fibre-glass stone circles were used for the first time
51°46'35.6"N 3°16'46.1"W

Transport

*The Rhymney Valley railway runs through the valley.

Bibliography

References