CWMGORS PANEL
Bronze Age burial cairns on Penlle’rfedwen and Mynydd Uchaf are evidence that people were living and farming in the Cwmgors area over 4,000 years ago. Some 400 years ago, the area was a remote, rural corner of the Manor of Caegurwen. A survey of the manor made in 1610 names “Cors y Feisach”. This is the cors (bog) which is referred to in the farm name Cwm-y-gors, which later gave the village its name.
This quiet rural society was to be change dramatically in the 19th century, when the demand for top quality anthracite coal saw a big expansion in the mining industry locally. By the 1870s, several small collieries were being worked, with the larger Cwmgors Colliery opening in 1888. This pit grew to be one of the largest in the area and was employing over 400 men at the start of the First World War. The Duke Colliery, south of Cwmgors, became the site of the Abernant super-pit, which employed over 1000 men in the 1980s.
The arrival of hundreds of miners and their families towards the end of the 19th century saw the village of Cwmgors appear and begin to grow. St Mary’s Church was built in 1886, followed by Baptist, Independent and Wesleyan Methodist chapels – sure signs of a growing mining community.
Cwmgors was famous for its brickworks. Bricks stamped with the name “Cwmgorse” can be found in many buildings in the district and beyond. The village also once had its own brewery, built at the back of the Abernant Inn, or the “Brew” as it was known.
A school was built in 1912 and by the 1920s, a general store (the Rock Shop), a Post Office, tailors & drapers, sweet shops & tobacconists, a butchers, ironmongers and fruit shop had opened to serve what had become a bustling community. Cwmgors even had its own cinema, The Gaiety Cinema, and a Workingmen’s Hall.
As early as 1895, the Curwen Stars rugby team was playing at Parc Howard, Cwmgors. Cwmgors Colliery had its own team in the 1920s. In 1927, the two teams were disbanded and Cwmgors RFC was founded. It is still going strong today, although its clubhouse is now based in Gwaun Cae Gurwen. Cwmgors produced three Welsh international players during the 1930s, Claude Davey, Will Davies and Emrys Evans. Davey captained Wales to their historic victory over the New Zealand All Blacks in 1935.
IMAGES On Panel:
Area on 1831 OS map
1905 OS map showing village developing
Cwmgors RFC players – colour image
Claude Davey, Will Davies, Emrys Evans. Will Davies famously played for Wales in Swansea having come straight off his shift at the Cwmgors Colliery
Brewery workers
Cwmgorse Colliery
A Cwmgorse brick.
GCG Growler These trains used to run between Pontardawe and Gwauncaegurwen via
Abernant Inn
A colour postcard of the early village.
