Hubert Jones

Pontardawe is the name of an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. It is a division of the Pontardawe community and falls within the parliamentary constituency of Neath. The greater part of the geographical area of the ward is made up of mountainous grassland and open moorland with a scattering of farms. However, the majority of the population is concentrated in the town of Pontardawe in the south of the ward. In clockwise order the ward is bounded to the north by the wards of Glanamman (in Carmarthenshire), Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, and Cwmllynfell to the east by the wards of Ystalyfera and Godre'r Graig to the southeast by the ward of Rhos to the south by the wards of Alltwen and Trebanos to the west by the wards of Clydach and Mawr (both in Swansea)

Pontardawe (Welsh pronunciation: [pɔntarˈdawɛ]) is a town and a community in the lower Swansea Valley (Welsh: Cwmtawe). it had a population of approximately 7,172 in the 2021 Census for Pontardawe Parish, and forms part of the county borough of Neath Port Talbot. On the opposite bank of the River Tawe is the village of Alltwen, part of the community of Cilybebyll, and is administered separately from Pontardawe. The town is at the crossroads of the A474 road and the A4067 road. Pontardawe came into existence as a small settlement on the north-western bank of the RiverTawe, where the drovers' road from Neath and Llandeilo crossed the river to go up the valley to Brecon. The National Cycle Route 43 from Swansea to Builth Wells passes through the town and the recreation ground.

The A474 is a suburban main route in south Wales.

Pontardawe Arts Centre is a multi-purpose cultural venue in Pontardawe, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The building is owned by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and is located in Herbert Street. The Arts Centre opened in October 1996. It was converted from the former Pontardawe Public Hall and Institute, built in 1908 and opened by Adelina Patti; the building had gone out of use and was derelict when a scheme to improve provision for the arts in the town was conceived by Lliw Valley Borough Council in 1993.Pontardawe Arts Centre receives core funding from the Arts Council of Wales, and maintains a programme that includes: Drama – adult and child, Welsh language and English language Dance – classical and contemporary Comedy – comedy club and named comedians Music – roots, world, blues, rock/pop Entertainment – adult and child including pantomime Film – mainstream and specialist with resident film clubThe building is also home to Oriel Lliw, a gallery which displays twelve exhibitions per annum by local, national and international artists; the Clydach and District Amateur Operatic Society; Class Act Theatre School, and the Pamela Miller School of Ballet.

Pontardawe railway station was a railway station on the Swansea Vale Railway that served the town of Pontardawe in West Glamorgan, Wales. British Railways closed the station to passengers in 1950. The line continued carrying coal but with the decline in coal mining the station closed completely in 1965.

The Alltwen television relay station is sited on a hill to the southwest of Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley, at least a kilometre away from the village of Alltwen from which it takes its name. It was originally built in the late 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television. It consists of a 17 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on Craig Glyn Meirch, a hillside which is itself about 140 m above sea level (about 90 m above the valley floor). The transmitters are beamed northwards and eastwards to cater for those digital terrestrial TV subscribers in the towns of Pontardawe and Alltwen who for reasons of geography can't get a signal from the much bigger and more powerful Pontardawe transmitter. The Alltwen transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. Alltwen transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Kilvey Hill about 12 km to the southwest. When it came, the digital switchover process for Alltwen duplicated the timing at the parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the Kilvey Hill transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 2 W each.

The Swansea Canal (Welsh: Camlas Abertawe) was a canal constructed by the Swansea Canal Navigation Company between 1794 and 1798, running for 16.5 miles (26.6 km) from Swansea to Hen Neuadd, Abercraf in South Wales. It was steeply graded, and 36 locks were needed to enable it to rise 373 feet (114 m) over its length. The main cargos were coal, iron and steel, and the enterprise was profitable. Sold to the Great Western Railway in 1873, it continued to make a profit until 1895. A period of decline followed, with the last commercial traffic using the waterway in 1931. Subsequently, parts of it were closed and filled in under a succession of owners, but around 5 miles (8.0 km) remain in water. The Swansea Canal Society, formed in 1981, is actively involved in plans for its restoration.

Cwmtawe Community School (in Welsh: Ysgol Gymunedol Cwmtawe) Formerly known as Pontardawe Technical School and Cwmtawe Comprehensive School, is a modern English-medium education comprehensive school in Pontardawe, South Wales. The school moved to newly built premises in 1996. Its old building was used by the local Welsh-language primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Pontardawe (YGGP), until it was demolished in 2010. Cwmtawe recently won an award for environmentally friendly schools, based on school improvements, community and curriculum links, saving money, and raising environmental awareness. Although Cwmtawe is not a Welsh-medium school, Welsh is taught at second-language level, as it is mandatory under the National Curriculum that all Welsh school children up to age 16 be taught the language. Cwmtawe has very good Key Stage 3 and GCSE results exceeding the targets set in Wales's national standards. In 2000, it was in 113th place in Wales for GCSE passes (based on 5 GCSEs, grades A*-C). Since then, examination results have improved dramatically; according to the latest inspection report by Estyn, the school has a GCSE pass rate of 73%, putting it in 12th place and within the top 10% of all schools in Wales.

Pontardawe Tinplate Works was a tinplate works in Pontardawe, Wales. The factory was founded in 1843 by William Parsons, as the Primrose Forge and Tinplate Works. In 1861, it was leased from him by William Gilbertson, by which time it comprised nine mills. The workforce was largely recruited from amongst mainly Welsh-speaking former coal miners after local seams had been exhausted.The site of the works is now occupied by Cwmtawe Community School, Pontardawe Leisure Centre with the associated Ynysderw Playing Fields, and several stores.

Alltwen (or Allt-wen; translates to "white wooded slope") is a village in the Swansea Valley (Welsh: Cwmtawe) in Wales. Alltwen forms part of the community of Cilybebyll and is administered separately from adjoining Pontardawe on the opposite bank of the River Tawe. Alltwen is served by Alltwen Primary School and the village has a rugby union club, Alltwen RFC (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Alltwen).

Trebanos is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales, part of the Pontardawe community. Trebanos includes some or all of the following areas: Trebanos, Craig Trebanos and Pontardawe, in the parliamentary constituency of Neath. Trebanos is bounded by the wards of Pontardawe to the north and east; Alltwen to the southeast; and Clydach of Swansea to the south and west. Trebanos includes open moorland and has a developed strip in the centre of the ward which lies in the Swansea Valley. In the 2017 local council elections, the electorate turnout was %. The results were:

The Pontardawe television relay station was originally built in 1974/1975 as a relay for UHF analogue television. It consists of a 45 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 160 m above sea level (about 100 m above the town). Currently, the transmitters cater for most of the digital terrestrial TV subscribers in the towns of Pontardawe and Alltwen and in the nearby villages of that section of the Tawe valley. The transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. When it was built, Pontardawe transmitter re-radiated a signal received off-air from Kilvey Hill about 12 km to the southwest. However, sometime after the Alltwen relay was built on the opposite side of the valley, the Pontardawe mast was reassigned to relay its signal instead. Both sites have line-of-sight to Kilvey Hill, but the direct signal to the Pontardawe site does have a close encounter with a wooded hillside 2 km away which severely intrudes into the signal's First Fresnel Region. Alltwen's line-of-sight is unobstructed. When it came, the digital switchover process for Pontardawe duplicated the timing at the parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the Kilvey Hill transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 25 W each.