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Cwmifor

Coordinates: 51°54′47″N 3°57′01″W / 51.91306°N 3.95028°W / 51.91306; -3.95028
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Cwmifor is a small village in Carmarthenshire.[1] It is a part of the Manordeilo and Salem community and is located between Llandeilo and Llandovery, near to the A40.

The village consists of a number of dispersed farmhouses, most of which were built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, a number of small houses were built near to the A40, transforming the village into a 'small nucleated settlement'.[2]

Welcome sign, Cwmifor
Southbound sign, entering Cwmifor village

History

It is likely that the name Cwmifor derived from a person's name ('Cwm Ifor' translating as ‘Ifor's Valley’). An extensive Neolithic (4000-2200 BC) occupation site comprising numerous pits and post-holes, with finds of burnt bone, flints and charcoal, was recorded at Cwmifor.[3][4]

A Roman Road known as the Via Julia ran east to west at the northern extremity of the settlement.[5] A turnpike road was established in the eighteenth century and followed the line of the Roman road although the course through Cwmifor was straightened under Thomas Telford in the 1820s.[6]

The village remained a dispersed settlement into the 1880s, with an Ordinance Survey map from 1886 showing a public house, a parish church, and a Baptist chapel. Several prominent farms and houses are also named on the map, many of which remain today (Cae Mawr, Pen-y-Waen, and Penhill).[7]

In 2002, Carmarthenshire Council earmarked the village primary school for closure. According to one report, the school had twenty three pupils at the time of the decision.[8] In 2007, it was reported on social media that the school had a total of seven pupils.[9]

Landmarks

St Paul's Church is a nineteenth-century church in Cwmifor. While is was originally designed as a Roman Catholic church, it became an Anglican chapel of ease once it was completed. The church is built of squared stone.[10]

A Baptist chapel was built in 1789, enlarged in 1836 and renovated in 1864. It is built in the simple round-headed style with a long-wall entry plan.[11][12]

St Paul's church, Cwmifor
Church of St Paul, Cwmifor

The village hall, or reading room, is next door to St Paul's Church.

References

  1. ^ "#GetOutside: do more in the British Outdoors". OS GetOutside. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  2. ^ "CWM-IFOR - MANORDEILO". Dyfed Archeological Trust. Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Dyfed Aarchaeology" (PDF). Dyfed Archaeology. Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Neolithic Farming and Wild Plant Exploitation in Western Britain: Archaeobotanical and Crop Stable Isotope Evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal BC)" (PDF). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 85: 193–222. 2019.
  5. ^ "View map: Carmarthenshire XXXIV.NW (includes: Llandeilo Fawr Rural; Llangadog.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  6. ^ "Ystrad Tywi". Dyfed Archaeological Trust. Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "View map: Carmarthenshire XXXIV.NW (includes: Llandeilo Fawr Rural; Llangadog.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  8. ^ "Parents fight school closure plans". BBC News. 12 September 2002. Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Twitter". Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "St Paul's Church, Cwm-ifor, Manordeilo (421081)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Cwmifor Welsh Baptist Church (6354)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  12. ^ "See Around Britain". Retrieved 25 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

51°54′47″N 3°57′01″W / 51.91306°N 3.95028°W / 51.91306; -3.95028