Blaenau Tywi - Pobl yn y Tirwedd

Introduction

When volunteers from the Blaenau Tywi/Upper Tywi Valley History Group got together during 2012 they wanted to raise awareness of this colourful valley. Their research was published as “Blaenau Tywi – Names in the Landscape” (2014) which captured details of the fields, farms and houses which were being forgotten. This book continues that research, focusing on the people who lived here, signposting readers to earlier residents of the parish and some of the recorded highlights of their lives, good and bad.

Blaenau Tywi encompasses the land on both sides of the River Tywi below Llyn Brianne, reaching very nearly to the town of Llandovery. It includes the whole parish of Cil-y-cwm together with Rhandir Abbot (a district of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn), parts of the old district of llandingat Without (merged with Cil-y-cwm in 1977), and two farms which were previously part of Llanddewi Brefi in Ceredigion, added to Cil-y-cwm parish at about the same time. Ten farms around the Dulais stream are now part of Cynwyl Gaeo parish but were historically in Cil-y-cwm. Twenty named streams flow through the district, which is enclosed by Mynydd Mallaen (1515ft/462m), Crugyblaidd Forest (1121ft/342m) and Cnwch (1047ft/320m).