Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf

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Mountain Ash
  • Welsh: Aberpennar
MountainAshTownHall.jpg
Mountain Ash Town Hall
Mountain Ash is located in Rhondda Cynon Taf
Mountain Ash
Mountain Ash
Location within Rhondda Cynon Taf
Population11,230 (2011)
OS grid referenceST025915
Community
  • Mountain Ash East
    Mountain Ash West
Principal area
Ceremonial county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townMOUNTAIN ASH
Postcode districtCF45
Dialling code01443
PoliceSouth Wales
FireSouth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
  • Cynon Valley
List of places
UK
Wales
Rhondda Cynon Taf
51°40′53″N 3°22′45″W / 51.68139°N 3.37916°W / 51.68139; -3.37916Coordinates: 51°40′53″N 3°22′45″W / 51.68139°N 3.37916°W / 51.68139; -3.37916

Mountain Ash (Welsh: Aberpennar) is a town and community in the Cynon Valley, within the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, with a population of 11,230 at the 2011 Census, estimated in 2019 at 11,339.[1] It includes the districts and villages of Cefnpennar, Cwmpennar, Caegarw, Darranlas, Fernhill, Glenboi and Newtown, all within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Aberdare lies about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north-west, Cardiff 19 miles (31 km) south-east, and Penrhiwceiber a mile to the south-east. It divides into two electoral wards: West covers the town centre and the districts of Miskin, Darranlas, Fernhill and Glenboi, and East the districts of Cefnpennar, Cwmpennar, Caegarw and Newtown.

Etymology[]

The early 19th century saw much development in the area. John Bruce Pryce, a local landowner, opened the Mountain Ash Inn around 1809, where Duffryn Street meets Aberdare Road. The Inn become increasingly known to both Welsh and English speakers who travelled through the area following the opening of the Aberdare Canal in 1812 and the industrial development in the northern Cynon Valley in the 1830s. By the 1850s, an urban village that was developing near the inn also became known as Mountain Ash.[2]

The name Aberpennar ("Mouth of the river Pennar") is recorded in the pre-industrial period as Aber Pennarthe in 1570, Aberpennarth in 1600, and Tir Aber Penarth by 1638. However, Aberpennar seems to be falling out of favour by the turn of the 18th century, with the mansion house which bore the name (and with the rivers' mouth located within its grounds) listed as Aberpennar alias Dyffryn by 1691 and Dyffrin alias Aberpennar in 1717, before finally taking the name Duffryn when it was rebuilt in the mid-18th century.

By the 19th century, Welsh language writers such as David Watkin Jones would use the name Mountain Ash when writing exclusively in Welsh.[3] William "Glanffrwd" Thomas explicitly states that the Welsh-speaking townsfolk do not use a Welsh name.[4] However, the names Aberpennar and Duffryn continued in various forms, notably for roads, canals, railways and collieries. As late as 1864, when the Great Western Railway opened the town's new railway station, the name "Middle Duffryn" was originally chosen.

The issue of a Welsh name was finally resolved in 1905, with the arrival of the first National Eisteddfod to be held in the town. This was held on the mansion grounds and it may be that the organisers simply used the mansion's former name, unaware of the effects it would have on the town of Mountain Ash. However, such was the popularity of the event and the estimation of its leaders among the local population, that the name Aberpennar was widely adopted by the town's majority Welsh-speaking population and adopted as its official Welsh name.[5][2]

History[]

Like the rest of the Cynon Valley, Mountain Ash continued to be predominantly Welsh-speaking well into the 20th century. Unlike others in the South Wales valleys, the village was undisturbed until the construction of the Aberdare Canal in 1818. This became disused in the early 1920s and was filled in as New Cardiff Road in 1933.[6] Mountain Ash Town Hall, built on the bank of the canal, was completed in 1904.[7]

The population of 1,614 in 1841 rose to 11,463 in 1871 as local collieries opened. The 1851 census shows the construction of Duffryn Street and Navigation Street. By 1859 there were 12 public houses, among the earliest being the Bruce Arms, the Junction Inn and the New Inn. By 1920, Kelly's Directory listed over 200 businesses in the village.[6]

The coal industry began to decline after the First World War, but after the Second, manufacturing was introduced to offset the serious fall in local employment. By the end of the 20th century the last mines had closed and so had many of the factories. The economic hardships were mitigated partly by new light industry and service activities.

On 1 December 2016, under The Rhondda Cynon Taf (Communities) Order 2016, the community was split into Mountain Ash East and Mountain Ash West,[8] co-terminous with the electoral wards of the same names.

Religion[]

Bethania Chapel
The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Lourdes

Mountain Ash had numerous nonconformist chapels, of which only one Welsh-language chapel remains: Bethania (Independent). Bethlehem (Calvinistic Methodist) closed, as did an Independent chapel at Bethel, Miskin.

Like other communities in the Cynon Valley, Mountain Ash was affected by the Religious Revival of 1904–1905. One event on a Friday evening in late January came when a procession paraded through the main streets before a revivalist meeting at Bethania Chapel addressed by the Rev. Penar Griffiths.[9]

Transport[]

The town is served by Mountain Ash railway station on the Aberdare branch of the Merthyr Line of the Transport for Wales rail network. The village of Fernhill and Penrhiwceiber is also served by the Aberdare line. Bus services are operated by Stagecoach in South Wales.

NCB Mountain Ash Railway[]

The ex-GWR Pannier Tank No.7754, in preservation at the Llangollen Railway. Through operating on the NCB Mountain Ash railway, it became the last British mainline-built operating steam locomotive in the UK, until it ceased operations in 1975.

An early British railway line had developed from the industrial development within the South Wales Valleys, which with its core around Mountain Ash became known as the Mountain Ash Railway (MAR). Having developed from an early tramway, it became in the 1970s the last steam-hauled line in the UK. Developed by Powell Duffryn as it consolidated various industrial assets, the railway started from Afon Cynon at the , headed north past a coal-stocking area at Pontcynon, then past an interchange yard known as Lansdale Yard, and through the former Nixon's Navigation colliery - home of the railway's central workshops, locomotive sheds and weighbridge - and on north past , terminating at the Abercwmboi Phurnacite plant. The railway's main access to the UK rail network was at the Vale of Neath Railway's station at , but it also had access to the competing, dominant Taff Vale Railway.

Early locomotives were drawn from all major UK industrial locomotive makers, but like many industrial railways after World War Two, the operational fleet was based on a core of group of Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0STs. In 1959 the National Coal Board (NCB) acquired the ex-GWR Pannier Tank No. 7754. Although rather too heavy to work on the relatively light-rail of the MAR, whose poor maintenance resulted in regular spreading of the rails, it became a favourite with MAR crews after a refit in the late 1960s. It eventually became the last British mainline-built operating steam locomotive in the UK, until 1975 after a cylinder-valve crack.[10] The NCB were persuaded to donate the locomotive to National Museum Wales, which has since loaned it indefinitely to the Llangollen Railway. The MAR closed in the mid-1980s after the miners' strike.

Education[]

Mountain Ash Comprehensive School caters for pupils aged 11–18, on the site of the former estate of Lord Aberdare. The main Dyffryn House, was still used by the school until its demolition in the 1990s. Opposite the site is the hospital, Ysbyty Cwm Cynon, that replaced the Mountain Ash General Hospital in 2012.[11]

Local primary schools include Our Lady's RC Primary School, Caegarw Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Caegarw), Glenboi Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Glen-boi), Darranlas Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Darren-las), Miskin Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Meisgyn), Pengeulan Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Pengeulan) and Penrhiwceiber Primary School (Ysgol Gynradd Penrhiwceibr).

Sport and culture[]

Guto Nyth Brân statue, Oxford Street

Mountain Ash has a rugby union team, Mountain Ash RFC. The Rugby league club South Wales Scorpions also plays its home matches in Mountain Ash.

Nos Galan (Welsh: Rasys Enwog Nos Galen) is an annual 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) road running race, run on New Year's Eve to commemorate the first race of Guto Nyth Bran. Started in 1958, it now attracts 800+ runners and 10,000 people to the associated street entertainment.[12]

In 1974, Mountain Ash RFC Singers is a male-voice choir formed from a group of ex-players. Mountain Ash hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1905 and 1946.

Mountain Ash served as inspiration for the fictional town of Aberowen in Fall of Giants and the rest of the Century Trilogy written by Ken Follett.[13] The town also appears in the Danny Wallace's 2005 memoir Yes Man.

Notable people[]

See also Category:People from Mountain Ash, Wales

References[]

  1. ^ City Population. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales (First ed.). Llandyssul, Ceredigion: Gomer Press. 2007. pp. 330–331. ISBN 9781843239017.
  3. ^ Watkin Jones, Dafydd (1874). Hanes Morgannwg (in Welsh). Jenkin Howell. pp. 189, 390.
  4. ^ Glanffrwd (William Thomas) (1878–88). Llanwynno (in Welsh).CS1 maint: date format (link)
  5. ^ Gwynedd O. Pierce, Tomos Roberts and Hywel Wyn Owen (1997). Ar Draws Gwlad (in Welsh). Wales: Llanrwst, Carreg Gwalch Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780863814235.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b "Mountain Ash". Rhondda Cynon Taff. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
  7. ^ Cadw. "Mountain Ash Town Hall (80903)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  8. ^ "The Rhondda Cynon Taf (Communities) Order 2016" (PDF). Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  9. ^ "The Revival". Aberdare Leader. 4 February 1905. p. 2. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  10. ^ Jones 2014, pp. 169–70.
  11. ^ "A chronology of the history of the Cynon Valley to c. 2013". Cynon Valley History Society. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Wales stars help warm up Nos Galan runners". South Wales Echo. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  13. ^ "Interview: Ken Follett on His Latest Historical Fiction Masterpiece, Fall of Giants". Gothamist. Retrieved 30 June 2013.

External links[]

Location grid[]

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