Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen

Village and community in Neath Port Talbot, Wales

Gwaun Cae Gurwen (Gwauncaegurwen) is a village and community in Neath Port Talbot, South West Wales. Historically a part of Glamorgan, Gwaun Cae Gurwen is a parish made up of the electoral wards of Gwaun Cae Gurwen and Lower Brynamman.

The name Gwaun Cae Gurwen is believed to be an alteration of what was originally gwaun cegerwen (i. e. "white hemlock heath" in Welsh, ceger being a dialect form of cegid). In local usage, the name is often shortened to "Y Waun", meaning "the heath" in Welsh.

Gwaun cae Gurwen was a mining village in the west Wales anthracite district. There were six or seven pits in the early 1920s.

Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Gwauncaegurwen (Gwaun cae Gurwen Welsh Primary School) used to be on Heol y Dŵr (Water Street) which is where the Pwll y Wrach estate is based. It has since been moved to Heol Newydd (New Road), overlooking the village, and the former school transformed into a wood workshop. Secondary age children in the area have the choice of going to Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera in Ystalyfera (for full Welsh medium education), Ysgol Dyffryn Aman (for Welsh and English medium education), or Cwmtawe Community School (for English medium education).

The Welsh Language Board reported in 2009 that 67.9% of the population of Gwaun Cae Gurwen can speak, read or write in Welsh. 10–19 year olds were the group with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers.

The area is represented in the House of Commons by Christina Rees, and in the Senedd by Jeremy Miles; they both represent the Neath constituency. The electoral ward mentioned above has a population taken at the 2011 census of 2,910.

Cwmgors RFC play their home games at Parc y werin, Gwaun Cae Gurwen. Their clubhouse is also situated at New Road, Gwaun Cae Gurwen.

At one time, almost all of the land of The Waun was owned by the Jones Family who also owned the "Pwll y Wrach Estate". It was run by the Head and later by their sons (and spouses). They still own parts of the land of the village but most has been sold off. Both farmhouses connected to the Estate are still standing. They are: Pwll y Wrach and Glangwrach. Pwll y Wrach is the main house where the head of the family lived. It is no longer a farming estate but continues to own much of the land in the village. The name means the Witch's Pool in English, because of an old Welsh myth that the witches lived in it because of the greeny blue colour and would sometimes come out to haunt the locals.