Llanelli.html



Coordinates: 51°41′00″N 4°09′41″W / 51.683471, -4.161369

Llanelli
Ymlaen Llanelli "Forward Llanelli"
Llanelli shown within the United Kingdom
Population	46,358 1
OS grid reference	SN505005
Principal area	Carmarthenshire
Ceremonial county	Dyfed
Constituent country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LLANELLI
Postcode district	SA14-15
Dialling code	01554, 012672
Police	Dyfed-Powys
Fire	Mid and West Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
European Parliament	Wales
UK Parliament	Llanelli
Welsh Assembly	Llanelli
Website: llanellitowncouncil.co.uk
List of places: UK • Wales • Carmarthenshire

Llanelli (English: Church of St. Elli), pron. [ɬaˈnɛɬi], the largest town in the county of Carmarthenshire, in south-west Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately 13 miles (21 km) west of the city of Swansea and 12 miles (19 km) east of the administrative town of Carmarthen. Amongst other things, it is famous for its proud rugby tradition. Formerly an industrial town, its now the focus of large residential, leisure and retail developments.

Llanelli is also surrounded by many small villages and communities known collectively as Llanelli Rural. A large proportion of these communities, more notably those that immediately surround the town are often unofficially referred to as Llanelli.³

History

see also Timeline of Llanelli history

Parish Church of St. Elli

Historically a minor town, Llanelli grew significantly in the 18th century and 19th century with the mining of coal and later the tinplate industry and steelworks. Many of these industries were served by the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway which opened in 1803.

Llanelli became such a significant regional producer of tin that it was referred to as "Tinopolis" by the latter half of the 19th century. The closure of coal mines and competition from overseas steel plants meant that Llanelli, like many other towns in southern Wales, saw significant and sustained economic decline from the late 1970s.

Economy

In 1991 Llanelli was as a distinct Travel to Work Area, but the 2001-based revision has merged the locality into a wider Swansea Bay Travel to Work Area.⁴

The area around Llanelli in eastern Carmarthenshire is home to a number of manufacturing companies, much of which service the automotive industry.⁵ The traditional industries of Llanelli have been in gradual decline over the past decades and the local government have responded by developments in the service sector such as the Machynys golf course, new retail parks at Trostre and Pemberton, and the Millennium Coastal Park, to help attract tourism.⁶ To support the manufacturing sector, the Technium Performance Engineering centre was developed at Llanelli Gate as a business incubator for businesses in the automotive, motorsport and aerospace sectors. Llanelli is part of the Swansea Bay Travel to Work Area.

Brewing

Llanelli has a proud brewing tradition, with the Felinfoel brewery in Felinfoel, located just outside the town.⁷

Buckley's brewery

The Reverend James Buckley was an ordained Methodist minister, born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1770. After moving to Llanelli towards the end of the 17th century, he became involved in the establishment of a small brewery in the town. After the death of the owner, the Rev. Buckley came into the possession of the brewery and changed its name to Buckley’s Brewery. In 1998, the brewery was purchased by Brains Brewery, and production was transferred to their Cardiff brewery. However, Brains continue to produce The Reverend James, a bitter named in memory of the Reverend.⁸

Sport

Stradey Park

Rugby Union - Stradey Park is the rugby union ground, home to the Scarlets regional club and local club Llanelli RFC. It was one of the stadiums used during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, hosting the Argentina v Western Samoa game on October 10. Stradey Park is now being re-developed, and both the Scarlets and Llanelli will have a new home at the newly built Parc y Scarlets in Pemberton.

The Welsh folk song Sosban Fach ("Little Saucepan") is mostly associated with Llanelli RFC. Many rugby clubs have notable scalps collected from touring international sides, but on 31 October 1972, Llanelli claimed perhaps the greatest by beating the New Zealand All Blacks. The Scarlets side emerged 9-3⁹ winners at Stradey Park. The celebrations continued in the town's drinking dens late into the evening and it truly was the day when the pubs ran dry in the town of Llanelli.

There is also a strong junior rugby core in Llanelli, including club sides such as Felinfoel, New Dock Stars and the Llanelli Wanderers. In 2005, Coedcae School won the Inter-Schools Cup of Wales with an 8 - 5 victory over Brynteg Comprehensive.

Rugby League - Llanelli's rugby league club are called the West Wales Sharks and play in the Welsh Conference Premier.

Football - Stebonheath Park is the home of football club Llanelli A.F.C.. Although Llanelli has a rich rugby heritage, football is also a very popular pastime. As a result there are many active local football teams such Trostre Sports AFC, which is one of the area's best local football teams.

Bowls - Llanelli hosts the annual Welsh International Open, which is part of the World Bowls Tour. The event is held at the Selwyn Samuel Centre.

Golf - The Llanelli area has three golf courses, including the Machynys Peninsula Golf & Country Club,¹⁰ which is and has been the host of the Wales Ladies Championship of Europe since 2005.

Motorsports - The Pembrey Circuit is known as the home of Welsh Motorsport, providing racing for cars, motorcycles, karts and trucks.

Media

The town has its own radio station, Scarlet FM and newspaper, the Llanelli Star.

Llanelli is home to Tinopolis, one of the UK’s largest independent media producers. The company has many subsidiaries, which produce over 2,500 hours of broadcast television, including English language television programs such as Question Time for the BBC and Welsh language television programs such as Wedi 7 for S4C.¹¹

Llanelli was the focus of popular TV show Most Haunted Live in June 2006 for a three-night investigation with Yvette Fielding and David Wells. The programme was brought to the town by Llanelli's resident paranormal investigation team Ghost Watch Wales and included a stay at Parc Howard Masion, Llanelly house and Kidwelly castle.

Leisure and tourism

Over the past decade, the emphasis on heavy industry that once played an important part in the district has changed to an emphasis on creating tertiary sector employment in leisure and tourism. Llanelli is now being developed as a leisure and tourism destination, with many ongoing developments such as the new Llanelli Scarlets rugby stadium, the Old Castle Works leisure village (see below) and a National Hunt racecorse at Ffos Las near Trimsaran¹²

Local Attractions

Some local attractions include:-

• The Millennium Coastal Path, which spans 21 km (13 miles) of coastline from Loughor to Pembrey, offers views of the Gower peninsula and the opportunity for traffic-free cycling.
• Pembrey Country Park is situated on the outskirts of Llanelli, and consists of about 2 km² (500 acres) of parkland. Cefn Sidan, a beach within the park that has won the coveted Blue Flag award, is approximately 13 km (8 miles) long and half a mile to the sea at its narrowest at low tide. It also has a lifeguard-patrolled area.
• WWT National Wetlands Centre, located about 1-mile (1.6 km) east of Llanelli, is one of nine wetland nature reserves managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
• Llanelly House is one of Llanelli's most historical properties, an excellent example of an early 18th century Georgian town house. The house, located directly opposite the parish church, is currently in a poor state of repair, however the town council has recently purchased it with plans to completely restore the house for civic and public use. The then Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire, Thomas Stepney originally built the house in 1714. It is written that John Wesley, the early leader of the Methodist movement, stayed at the house several times during his many visits to the town. The house was also featured in the first series of the BBC television show, Restoration.
• Kidwelly Castle, Kidwelly. (approx. 10 miles (16 km) west of Llanelli)
• Burry Port Marina (approx. 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Llanelli)
• Parc Howard Museum ¹³ is set in the grounds of Park Howard. The museum houses a collection of Llanelli Pottery an art collection and material related to the history of the town.
• [1], the National Botanic Garden of Wales (approx. 10 miles (16 km) north of Llanelli)
• The Gower peninsula. Penclawdd in north west Gower is located about 3 miles (4.8 km) across the estuary. Much of the west Gower can be seen from the coast along Llanelli.

Leisure

Theatre Elli, the town's only theatre so far, is part of the Llanelli Entertainment Centre.¹⁴ It is one of the few recreational facilities in the town at the moment, however there are plans currently under development for a multi-screen cinema, an arts theatre (likely to replace Theatre Elli) and ten pin bowling on the former Old Castle Works site located near North Dock and Sandy.¹⁵ Millions of pounds are also being spent on regenerating the town centre shopping district.¹⁶ These plans are in addition to Parc y Scarlets.

Throughout the year, there are many festivals, carnivals and events held in or near Llanelli. Some of these include:-

• Welsh International Open, a competition of the World Bowls Tour (February)
• Llanelli half marathon¹⁷ (March)
• Llanelli triathlon - Organised by Clwb Triathlon Llanelli¹⁸ (May)
• Kidwelly Carnival and Airshow - held at nearby Kidwelly¹⁹ (July)
• Wales Ladies Championship of Europe - golf tournament²⁰ (August)
• Into the Future Festival - educational event about the environment and technology, organised by the county council²¹ (August)
• Llanelli Big Day Out - pop and live music event²² (August)
• Llanelli Beer Festival - official CAMRA event²³ (August)
• Llanelli Christmas Carnival (November)

Location

grid reference SN500000

Latitude and Longitude: 51°41′N 04°09′W / 51.683, -4.15 (51.68, -4.16) (World gazetteer)

Nearby towns and cities (closest - furthest): Burry Port, Gowerton, Kidwelly, Carmarthen, Swansea, Whitland, Neath, Tenby.

The town lies on the river Lliedi, although much of the river is not visible, most especially in the town centre, where the river is completely covered by roads and buildings.

Transport

Llanelli is located on the south coast of West Wales, but is linked to many national locations via good road, rail and air services. The town is linked to the M4 motorway via the A4138. There is also a link to Swansea via the Loughor bridge on the A484. Llanelli is served by regular local bus services between Swansea and Carmarthen and National Express Coaches between many major UK destinations.

Rail provides an important link to the town via Llanelli railway station which is located at Great Western Crescent south of the Town Centre. The station is connected to Fishguard and Swansea along the West Wales Line. The station is also the terminus of the Heart of Wales Line, which connects the town to Mid Wales and Leominster and Shrewsbury via the Welsh Marches Line. There are twice daily train services connecting the town with London Paddington and regular services to Cardiff Central, and Manchester Piccadilly. The district of Llanelli is also served by four local railway stations at Bynea, Llangennech, Burry Port and Kidwelly.

Cycling to Llanelli is another option as the town is connected to the National Cycle Network from the north on NCR 43, and along the coast from the east and west on NCR 4.²⁴ These routes are directly connected to the town centre via a cycle path.

The nearest passenger airport is Cardiff International Airport (50 miles) although there is a nearby minor airport at Pembrey.

Education

Primary and secondary

Llanelli has the same standard education model as most of Wales where Welsh medium and English medium students are segregated into different schools. The majority of children attend the English medium schools. The English medium secondary schools are St. John Lloyd's, Bryngwyn, Glan-y-Môr (Burry Port), and Coedcae.

There is also a network of Welsh medium primary schools (that include nursery classes), which feed into the only Welsh medium secondary school, Ysgol Gyfun y Strade (Stradey High School).

There is also a special school for children with disabilities based at Heol Goffa School, and a public school, St. Michael’s, based in the Bryn area.

Further and higher education

Coleg Sir Gâr (Carmarthenshire College) has its main campus at Graig near Pwll. It provides a college education for most of the towns further education students as well as a limited variety of vocational undergraduate degrees through the University of Wales. There are also sixth form collages at Ysgol Gyfun y Strade (Welsh medium) and St. Michael’s (English medium).

Prince Phillip Hospital is also home to a postgraduate centre for medical training run by Cardiff University’s School of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education.²⁵

Etymology of Llanelli

Pronunciation and spelling

The town's name is often mispronounced by non Welsh people, particularly those from outside the UK. The "ll"s in the name are pronounced as voiceless alveolar lateral fricatives (IPA symbol [ɬ]), a phoneme that does not exist in English. In England, where many people are aware that "ll" is not the same as "l" but are unable to pronounce it quite correctly, it is common to hear "Llanelli" approximated as "Clanethli".

'Llanelli' or 'Llanelly'

The spelling 'Llanelly' is an anglicised form which was used in government and official documents until 1965. This is evident in the name of the local historic building, 'Llanelly House'. It can also lead to confusion with the village and parish, Llanelly, which is in south-east Wales near Abergavenny.

Government

Llanelli Town Hall

Llanelli is within the Llanelli parliamentary constituency, which is presently represented by the elected Labour party member Nia Griffith MP, and the National Assembly for Wales constituency, which is represented by Plaid Cymru's Helen Mary Jones AM. Llanelli is run on a community level by Llanelli Town Council and Llanelli Rural Council (depending on the area of town) and Carmarthenshire County Council on a local government level. Note that Llanelli Rural Council addresses some part of the town, but mainly the Llanelli Rural community. Recently, there have been many decisions made by the Carmarthenshire authorities, including the Carmarthenshire County Council and Local Health Board that have been very unpopular and damaging to the communities of Llanelli. In reaction to this, there have been calls to reinstate the local government district of Llanelli either as a county or as the City of Llanelli, making the entire area independent of Carmarthenshire.

Twinning

Llanelli is twinned with the French town of Agen.

Town areas

Current developments

Llanelli Waterside

Llanelli Waterside, a joint venture between Carmarthenshire County Council and the Welsh Assembly Government, is a project that aims to drive the regeneration of the Llanelli area by transforming the waterfront into a business, leisure and residential community. Currently, there are two seafront housing developments under construction. Pentre Nicklaus Village, located on the Machynys Peninsula has been the subject of recent criticism for being above the price range of local people. Pentre Doc Y Gogledd (North Dock Village) in the historic North Dock area is currently being developed by David Mclean homes and is currently on the last phase of development.

Famous citizens