The Home of the Scarlets Rugby Team, the home of Industry, poets, novelists and last but not least, the home of me !
Llanelli (Meaning Church of St. Elli in English), is the largest town in the county of Carmarthenshire and West Wales, it sits on the Burry estuary on the west Wales coast, approximately 13 miles west of the city of Swansea and 12 miles east of the administrative town of Carmarthen.
Amongst other things, it is famous for its proud rugby tradition. Llanelli is a fast growing town with large residential, leisure and retail developments, most of which Im afraid to say is still in development, but should be completed in my lifetime (I hope!)
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.
Historically a minor town, Llanelli grew significantly in the 18th and 19th centuries with the mining of coal and later the tinplate industry and steelworks.
It 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 South Wales, saw significant and sustained economic decline from the late 1970s.
Llanelli has a proud brewing tradition, with the Felinfoel brewery in Felinfoel, located just outside the town, this brewery stil churns out loads of the frothy nectar, however, for me, I call it Feeling Fowl Beer, (Felinfoel - Feeling Fowl - Get it? lol)
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.
The site of the old brewery is not in a poor state and should
be demolished, but as with many derelict buildings in the UK, it is probably a listed building, waiting for investment.
Oh, The Sport... the main cause of traffic jams to the town!
Rugby Union - Stradey Park is the famous rugby union ground, home first to Llanelli RFC and, from 2003, also home to the Llanelli Scarlets regional rugby team. It was one of the stadiums used during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, hosting the Argentina v Western Samoa game on October 10.
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 New Zealand.
The Scarlets side emerged 9-3 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.
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, 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.
The Media Side:
Home of a Large S4C studio (Welsh Channel 4), the studio took over the old derelict Tesco store in the centre of the town, and was set to save the towns decaying shopping centre. Major investment came with it, but alas, all too late, as out of town shopping became more favourable, and the centre of the town has sunk back to its old ways.
Tinopolis, one of the UK's largest independent media producers is also within the S4C studios. 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.
The town has its own radio station, Scarlet FM and newspaper, the Llanelli Star.
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 in Parc Howard, Llanelly house and Kidwelly castle.
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 and a National Hunt racecorse at Ffos Las in Trimsaran.
Some local attractions include:-
* The Millennium Coastal Park The Coastal Park as it is Referred to locally runs adjacent to the towns of Llanelli and Burry Port. The park attracts over one million visitors a year, which makes it one of the most popular visitor destinations in the UK, as well as a centre for a host of outdoor pursuits.
* The Millennium coastal path, which spans 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 500 acres of parkland. Cefn Sidan, a beach within the park that has won the coveted Blue Flag award, is approximately 8 miles long and half a mile to the sea at its narrowest at low tide. It also has a lifeguard-patrolled area. CIAO LINK ! : http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Pembrey_Country_Park__6799160
* WWT National Wetlands Centre, located about 1 mile 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 has also starred in the first series of the BBC television show, Restoration.
* Kidwelly Castle, Kidwelly. (approx. 10 miles west of Llanelli) CIAO LINK ! : http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Kidwelly_Castle_Carmathenshire_South_Wales__679915 9
* Burry Port Marina (approx. 3 miles west of Llanelli)
* Park Howard Museum 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.
* Middleton, the National Botanic Garden of Wales (approx. 10 miles north of Llanelli)
* The Gower Peninsula. Penclawdd in north west Gower is located about 3 miles across the estuary. Much of the west Gower can be viewed from the Llanelli coast. CIAO LINK ! : http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Gower_Peninsula_Wales__90885
Putting your feet up.. (Story of my life!)
Theatre Elli, the town\'s only theatre so far, is part of the Llanelli Entertainment Centre. 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. Millions of pounds are also being spent on regenerating the town centre shopping district. These plans are in addition to the proposed new stadium for the Llanelli Scarlets in the Pemberton area.
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 marathon (March) * Llanelli triathlon - Organised by Clwb Triathlon Llanelli (May) * Kidwelly Carnival and Airshow - held at nearby Kidwelly (July) * Wales Ladies Championship of Europe - golf tournament (August) * Into the Future Festival - educational event about the environment and technology, organised by the county council (August) * Llanelli Big Day Out - pop music event (August) * Llanelli Beer Festival - official CAMRA event (August) * Llanelli Christmas Carnival (November)
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.
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 Bryngwyn, Glan-y-Môr (Burry Port), St. John Lloyd\'s 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 (My old School!)
Further and Higher Education
Coleg Sir Gâr (Carmarthenshire College) has a 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.
So there we have it, Llanelli, My Home, Youre more than welcome, anytime!
(INFO Wiki for facts and figures)
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