Trefforest
Encyclopedia
Treforest is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the south-east of Pontypridd
Pontypridd
Pontypridd is both a community and a principal town of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales and is situated 12 miles/19 km north of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...

 in the county borough
County borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...

 of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 situated in the Treforest electoral ward along with the village of Glyntaff
Glyntaff
Glyntaff is a small village to the south-east of Pontypridd, in the County Borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales situated in the Treforest ward along with the village of Trefforest.-Education:...

 (or Glyn-Taf), being part of the Pontypridd Community. With Treforest running along the west banks of the River Taff
River Taff
The River Taff is a large river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons — the Taf Fechan and the Taf Fawr — before joining to form the Taff north of Merthyr Tydfil...

  while Glyntaff runs along its east banks.

Treforest extends from immediately south east of Ynysangharad Park
Ynysangharad Park
Ynysangharad Park is a cricket ground in Pontypridd, Glamorgan. The ground was first established in 1870, but the first recorded match on the ground was in 1924, when Glamorgan played their first first-class match there against Derbyshire...

 where the A4058 link from the A470 joins the A473 Broadway (south of the adjoining wards of Graig and Trallwn), all the way to join the Tonteg
Tonteg
Tonteg is a village around three and a half miles from Pontypridd, south Wales. It is north west of Cardiff and four miles north east of Llantrisant. The village is within the community of Llantwit Fardre...

 ward in the south (part of the community of Llantwit Fardre
Llantwit Fardre
Llantwit Fardre is a large village situated on the A473, Pontypridd to Bridgend , road near the Welsh towns of Pontypridd and Llantrisant. Confusingly, Llantwit Fardre is also the name of the old parish and the community area that takes in the villages of Llantwit Fardre, Tonteg and Church...

).

The village is historically connected with the Crawshay family
Richard Crawshay
Richard Crawshay was a London iron merchant and then South Wales ironmaster.Richard Crawshay was born in Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire...

 who established a major tinplate works in 1835. Treforest is now known for its association with the University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

, originally established as The School of Mines at Treforest in 1913.

The confusingly named Treforest Industrial Estate is not part of Treforest or its electoral ward, most of which is not even within Pontypridd. Instead this falls partly within the area of Upper Boat (Pontypridd), but mostly within the Willowford area of Ton-Teg (Llantwit Fardre) and Nantgarw (Taffs Well ward)

Transport

Treforest has one railway station, ( is in The Willowford area between Tonteg
Tonteg
Tonteg is a village around three and a half miles from Pontypridd, south Wales. It is north west of Cardiff and four miles north east of Llantrisant. The village is within the community of Llantwit Fardre...

 and Nantgarw
Nantgarw
Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, near Cardiff.From an electoral and administrative perspective Nantgarw falls within the ward of Taffs Well, a village some 2.5 miles south, but historically fell within the boundaries of Caerphilly, which is a major town...

). The station is located on the Merthyr
Merthyr Line
The Merthyr Line is a commuter railway line in South Wales from central Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare. The line is part of the Cardiff urban rail network, known as the Valley Lines...

 and Rhondda
Rhondda Line
The Rhondda Line is a commuter railway line in South Wales from Cardiff to Treherbert. The line follows the Merthyr Line as far as Pontypridd, where it then diverges to continue along the Rhondda Valley.The places served by the line are listed below:...

 lines between Pontypridd and Treforest Estate railway stations.

Education

Treforest is home to two primary schools, Parc Lewis and St. Michael's, though a third school, Trefforest Primary, closed in 2006 despite the petitions from parents, governors and local councillor as a result of a process commenced by the 1999-2004 administration on the Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. The University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

's Trefforest campus is located in the village.

Culture

The population of Treforest consists substantially of students living away from home, who often leave the village during the summer months and return in the new academic year. Notable bars and pubs in the area include The Otley Arms, 'The Forest' (or as its formally known, the cot), Flagstones tapas
Tapas
Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold or warm ....

 bar, and The Pick & Shovel. Treforest is home to association football team Treforest Town F.C., this mid sized semi-professional cub has a purpose build stadium and club facilities.

Treforest Estate

The Treforest Trading estate, later renamed Treforest Industrial Estate, originated with the formation of the 'South Wales and Monmouthshire Trading Estates Ltd.' in June 1936. This non-profit making company aimed to establish one or more trading estates in Wales, and the first sod was cut on 29 December 1936. By the end of 1937, three small factories had been completed and occupied. The first building contract awarded was a large factory for the British Coated Board and Paper Company Ltd (Wiggins Teape).

During World War 2, the factories on the estate played a major role in the war effort and national economy; many buildings were requisitioned by the Government and their occupants re-housed in makeshift buildings away from the estate. Extensions and new factories were built by Government departments.

Many of the companies on the estate were established by businesspeople who had arrived as refugees from nazi-dominated Europe. They had often been able to bring money and equipment with them.

By 1944, almost 16,000 people were being employed on the Estate. In 1960, the Estate came under the control of the 'Welsh Industrial Estates Corporation' and later the Welsh Development Agency.

Companies which have operated factories on the estate include BOAC
Boac
Boac may refer to:* Boac, Marinduque, a municipality in the Southern Philippines* Boac , an American rapper* British Overseas Airways Corporation, a former British state-owned airline...

, Aero Zip, Metal Alloys Ltd, Finetex Ltd, Ford. (Please expand this List)

Tom Jones

Treforest is the birthplace of singer and 1960s and 1970s sex symbol, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...

, who was born on 7 June 1940 at 57, Kingsland Terrace, Treforest. Tom has a telephone box in his Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 home from Pontypridd, which he imported as a souvenir of Wales.

Morfydd Llwyn-Owen

Morfydd Llwyn-Owen (1891–1918) was a Welsh composer born in Treforest and educated at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. She wrote hymns, choral music and orchestral works often inspired by Welsh literacy and folk songs. In 1917 she married psychoanalyst Ernest Jones
Ernest Jones
Alfred Ernest Jones was a British neurologist and psychoanalyst, and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and became its leading exponent in the English-speaking world where, as President of both the British Psycho-Analytical...

, but she died the following year at the age of 26.

Meic Stephens

Meic Stephens
Meic Stephens
Meic Stephens is a Welsh author and literary journalist. Stephens studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and at the University of Rennes in France. From 1967 until 1990 Stephens was Literature Director of the Welsh Arts Council...

 the literary journalist, translator, poet and author who was professor of creative writing and journalism at the University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

 was born in Treforest.

Tourist attraction

A notable tourist attraction, The World of Groggs
Grogg
A Grogg is a clay caricature made at the family run John Hughes world of Groggs which was established in 1965 in Trefforest near Pontypridd, Wales. Most Groggs are 9 inches tall or less and are made of a type of clay. Groggs are usually made of Popular Welsh rugby players, Welsh celebrities...

 is on the Broadway in Treforest.

TV series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...

and Sarah Jane Adventures are currently based at Upper Boat Studios
Upper Boat Studios
Upper Boat Studios is a television studio complex operated by BBC Wales and based in Upper Boat, a village on the outskirts of Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales. The studios were officially opened on 27 July 2006 by Welsh Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies, for the purpose of producing Doctor...

 on Treforest Industrial Estate (thought to be largest complex of its kind in Wales).

Places of worship

A number of places of worship exist in Treforest. The University of Glamorgan
University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan is a university based in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales with campuses in Treforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff...

 offers a chaplaincy service, and a Prayer room for the hundreds of Muslim Students. The chaplaincy also occasionally provides services in conjunction with Castle Square United Reformed Church. Other Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 churches in the village include St Dyfrig's Roman Catholic church off Broadway and Calvary Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

Church off Wood Road.
There are Over two old Synagogues not in use anymore.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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