Glyncorrwg

Glyncorrwg is a village in Britain. It is set in the Afan Valley, in south Wales.

Glyncorrwg is also the name of an electoral ward and a community covering the village and surrounding countryside, in Neath Port Talbot county borough.

History

Glyncorrwg was once an important coal mining centre, typical of the South Wales Valleys. But when the closure of the local pits came in 1970 everything changed. Mines buildings were cleared away, factories closed, and people left to find new jobs.

Then in 1990 the hideaway village of Glyncorrwg decided to take advantage of the beautiful local scenery and complement it with a series of ponds along the narrow valley. Trout fishing, coarse fishing, and canoeing are our most popular sports, plus miles of old flat railway trackbed lines and steep mountain slopes providing days worth of cycling, hillwalking and mountain biking.

The recent planning application by ECO2 for a wind farm in Corrwg Fechan was turned down by Neath and Port Talbot District Council at their meeting on the 10th of December 2007. ECO2 have appealed this decision. Plus the residents of Glyncorrwg wanted to keep its beauty the highest priority and the whole village signed a refusal form to stop this windfarm business from coming to the village...and we won.

Glyncorrwg in South Wales was once a mining village, with several pits and drift mines within three miles.

Since the mining industry closed in the 1970s Glyncorrwg became quite run down; however this small village is an example to every community on how to pick yourselves up and take advantage of what you've got but with the coal industry vanishing from the valleys, it also meant that unemployment was on the rise. Now in 2011 there is still a lot of unemployment and nearly half the village is claiming job seekers allowance

Glyncorrwg has not only developed some rather nice ponds where you can fish, but has a wide variety of mountain bike rides to suite all levels of fitness. The mountain bike rides are listed in the top ten in the world by bike riders.

However if you want a more gentle ride, you can cycle along what used to be the old Mineral Railway Line down to Cymmer, Abercregan, Pont-rhyd-y-fen cross the river back up to Afan Argoed, Dyffryn, Cymmer and then back up to Glyncorrwg.

Glyncorrwg Health Centre

Dr Julian Tudor Hart established a famous research and teaching practice in Glyncorrwg. He arrived in 1961 and conducted a series of epidemiologal studies on the practice population - a population of about 1900 which was relatively stable and which he got to know well. He established a health centre committee with a public health focus and demonstrated that systematic case-finding and regular follow-up produced real benefits. In 1987 he found age-standardised death rates under 65 were 28% lower in Glyncorrwg than in nearby Blaengwynfi over the previous five-year period. This approach, which was the subject of many publications, led eventually to the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework which rewarded GPs for meeting targets for intervention in the management of disease.

Glyncorrwg Coal Company

The South Wales Mineral Railway reached Glyncorrwg in 1863. It was always short of funds so was leased to the Glyncorrwg Coal Company, which became the Glyncorrwg Colliery Company Limited in 1870. This company operated a local coal mine and needed the railway to cheaply transport coal down to Briton Ferry.

Government and politics

Glyncorrwg

Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	Maps for SS876990
Geography
Total population	1,166 (2001 census)
Administration
Local council:	Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
Number of councillors]:	1
Nation:	Wales
Post office and telephone
Postcode(s):	SA13
Dialling code:	+44-1639
Politics
Welsh Assembly:	Aberavon
UK Parliament:	Aberavon
European Parliament:	Wales

The electoral ward of Glyncorrwg falls within the parliamentary constituency of Aberavon. The Glyncorrwg ward includes the remote village of Glyncorrwg on the floor of valley of the River Corrwg. It is surrounded by open moorland which in turn is surrounded by dense coniferous forest. Glyncorrwg is bounded by the wards of Blaengwrach to the north; Treherbert and Gwynfi of Rhondda Cynon Taff to the east; Gwynfi and Cymmer to the south; and Resolven to the west.

In the 2008 local council elections, the electorate turnout for Aberavon was 56.82%. The results were:

Candidate	Party	Votes	Status
Glyn Rawlings	Labour	312	Labour hold
Lindsey "crasher" Milsom	Neath Port Talbot Ratepayers	187

See also

• Afan Forest Park

References

• MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, volume II 1863-1921. London: Great Western Railway. 
• Neath and Port Talbot Planning Application P / 2007 / 607 Available at npt.gov.uk/downloads/planning/pa_20070514.rtf

External links

• St. John The Baptist Church, Glyncorrwg
• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Glyncorrwg and surrounding area