The Parish of Cilybebyll

A Report on the March Meeting of Resolfen History Society

This month’s speaker needed no introduction ,since Mr Jeff Childs has spoken to the Society on an annual basis since the 1990’s. True to form, Mr Childs has already agreed to visit the Society again in 2009!! This year Mr Child’s spoke on the Parish of Cilybebyll.

Cilybebyll is the smallest parish in the Neath area, however it includes a vast and complex history. Mr Childs began his talk in Ystalyfera on Darren Wyddon gazing over the vista of the Ynyscedwyn Ironworks and the undoubted evidence that the Swansea valley had been gouged by a glacier owing to its U shaped form. He then concentrated on the farms in the area of which many contained the name “Farteg”.

The main families of the area were the Herberts and the Lloyds and there was usually a family connection with the myriad homesteads and industrial features named in the talk, including the Tarenni colliery whose spoil heap can still be seen above Ynysmeudwy.

The Church of St.John the Evangelist

Mr Child’s then took the large audience towards Gellinudd and remarked that the derivation of the name was rather unclear. The Church of St John the Evangelist is the parish church, and Mr Childs noted that he had been confirmed there as a child. Plas Cilybebyll was also shown in its splendour including the rather strange edifice of a Zulu Kraal which had doubled as a lodge /gatehouse. A later photograph of the gatehouse which was a replica of a Zulu Kraal

Mr Gwyn Thomas thanked Mr Childs for another memorable evening and said that everyone was looking forward to hearing the second half of the story when Mr Childs would be discussing Alltwen, next year!

Trefor Jones