River Afan

The Afan Forest Park (formally and locally known as Afan Argoed Country Park) is a 48-square-mile (120 km2) forest park in Britain. It is set in the Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot, in south Wales. It is well known for its mountain biking and hiking or hillwalking trails. It is situated seven miles (11 km) from Junction 40 of the M4 (the Port Talbot turn).

Pontrhydyfen railway station served the village of Pontrhydyfen, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1885 to 1962 on the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway.

Pontrhydyfen (or Pont-rhyd-y-fen) is a small village in the Afan Valley, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales (grid reference SS794940). The village sits at the confluence of the River Afan and the smaller Afon Pelenna, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) north of the larger village of Cwmafan and not far from the towns of Port Talbot and Neath. The views from the village are dominated by the hills of Foel Fynyddau (370 m) to the west, Moel y Fen (260 m) to the south-east and Mynydd Pen-rhys (280 m) to the north. This former coal mining community is distinguished by two large 19th-century bridges that span the valley: a railway viaduct (the red bridge) and a former aqueduct, known in the Welsh language as Y Bont Fawr ("The Big Bridge"). The built-up area has a population of around 830. It is in the community of Pelenna. There is both a Community Centre and rugby union club, Pontrhydyfen RFC.

Neath Port Talbot (Welsh: Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf to the east, Powys and Carmarthenshire to the north; and Swansea to the west. Neath Port Talbot is the eighth-most populous local authority area in Wales and the third most populous county borough. The population at the 2011 census was 139,812. The population in the coastal areas is mainly English-speaking, whereas in the valleys in the north of the borough there are many who are Welsh-speaking.

Pelenna was an electoral ward coterminous with the Pelenna community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales. The ward consisted of some or all of the following areas: Cefn-Saeson, Tonmawr, Pontrhydyfen in the parliamentary constituency of Neath. Pelenna was bounded by the wards of: Resolven to the north; Cymmer to the east; Bryn and Cwmavon to the south; Briton Ferry East and Cimla to the west; and Tonna to the northwest. The ward comprises open moorland to the north west and dense woodland to the south east with the largest settlements in Tonmawr and Pontrhydyfen. Following a 2020 boundary review by the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales, Pelenna was merged with the neighbouring Cimla ward to become 'Cimla and Pelenna', effective from the 2022 local elections.

Tonmawr is a village in Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales. It is part of the community of Pelenna and is located around four miles east of Neath.The village is home to a rugby union team (Tonmawr RFC), a community centre, and the Bryn Bettws Lodge.

The Efail Fach television relay station is sited on a hill west of the villages of Efail Fach, Cwm Pelenna and Tonmawr. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television serving all of those settlements. It consists of a 15 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hill which is itself about 160 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed to the east towards the Pelenna valley. The Efail Fach transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. The "Transmission Gallery" site claims that the Efail Fach transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Cilfrew television relay station near Neath, itself a repeater of Kilvey Hill at Swansea. However, Efail Fach used the same frequencies as Cilfrew in the analogue TV days, and shares two frequencies with Cilfrew in the digital TV era. OFCOM claims that the site re-radiates Kilvey Hill directly. Efail Fach does indeed have a clear line-of-sight to Kilvey Hill (which is about 11.6 km away at a bearing of 259.5°). When it came, the digital switchover process for Efail Fach duplicated the timing at the Kilvey Hill 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.

Bryn (meaning: hill) is a village and community in Neath Port Talbot County Borough in Wales. It has a population of 913. The village is located in the hills between Cwmafan, in the Afan Valley, and Maesteg in the Llynfi Valley, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from Port Talbot and 2 miles (3.2 km) from Maesteg. The name of the village now familiarly 'Bryn', is Bryntroedygam. So wrote the first vicar of St Theodore's in Port Talbot. There was a farm situated above Meadow Row named Bryn-Troed-y-Garn as shown on the 1876 OS map, as many more immigrants came to 'Bryntroedygam' it seemed the name of the village was to be shorted to Bryn. 12% of the village (112 out of 913 people) speak Welsh. The population rose to 923 by 2011.

Cwmavon Glam railway station served the village of Cwmafan, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1885 to 1964 on the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway.

Cynonville Halt railway station served the village of Cynonville, in the historical county of Glamorganshire, Wales, from 1912 to 1956 on the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway.

Bryn railway station served the village of Bryn, Neath Port Talbot, Wales, from 1898 to 1964 on the Port Talbot Railway.

Bryn and Cwmavon (Welsh: Bryn a Chwmafan) is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales. The electoral ward comprises the parishes of Bryn and Cwmavon. Bryn and Cwmavon consists of some or all of the following areas: Bryn, Brynbryddan, Cwmavon, Pontrhydyfen in the parliamentary constituency of Aberavon. The largest settlement in the ward is Cwmavon. The rest of the ward consists mostly of woodland and open moorland. Bryn and Cwmavon is bounded by the wards of Pelenna and Cymmer to the north; Maesteg and Caerau of Bridgend county borough to the east; Margam, Taibach and Port Talbot to the south; Baglan to the west and Briton Ferry East to the northwest.In the 2017 local council elections, the electorate turnout for Bryn and Cwmavon was 42%. The results were: In the 2012 local council elections, the electorate turnout for Bryn and Cwmavon was 38.57%. The results were: