Parish of Cwmafan
Our Parish
The Parish of Cwmafan is in the Rural Deanery of Margam and the Diocese of Llandaff in the Church in Wales. It is also known as the Parish of Michaelston-super-Avon.
The parish, in its present form, was created on the 20th August 2003 when the remaining area of the Parish of Oakwood was merged into the Parish of Cwmavon and renamed the Parish of Cwmafan. However the area has been a parish in its own right since 1563 when it started keeping records for the Parish of Michaelstone Super Afan.
Situated in the Afan Valley between the towns of Port Talbot and Neath, it encompasses the villages of Cwmafan and Pontrhydyfen.
Two large 19th-century bridges span the valley: a railway viaduct ('the red bridge') and a former aqueduct, known locally as Y Bont Fawr (The Big Bridge). The latter, built by John Reynolds and completed in 1825, is 459 feet (140 m) long and over 75 feet (23 m) high. It supplied the water which powered the giant waterwheels of the Cwmavon blast furnaces. It remains in use today, the canal which it once carried having been filled in, as a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists.
The old ecclesiastical name for the parish was Llanfihangel Ynys Afan, which translates into English as The Church dedicated to St Michael standing in the pasture lands of Afan. It was also known as Michaelstone-super-Avon and is first mentioned in documentary sources in 1537.
There was a strong Christian tradition in this area dating from the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries through the influence of Welsh Saints such as Dyfrig, Teilo and Dewi.
From papal bulls (letters) sent in 1180 from the monks of Margam Abbey (est. 1147) to Rome there was a church dedicated to St Michael in Ynysafan. This Church would have been linked with Rome until the act of Reformation in 1538.
