As you sit in the centre of Abercregan, you can’t help but be amazed at what you can hear: nothing. This tranquil and beautiful village in the Afan Valley sits 10 miles north-east of Port Talbot and is small enough that saying it has a ‘centre’ doesn’t seem quite right. It has one road in and one road out — and it's the same road.
There is nothing here but a few houses, nice walks and a stunning mountainous backdrop which dwarfs the tiny community below. But it wasn’t always this quiet. Close your eyes and listen to the silence and you can almost hear the noise that used to fill these hills. The hustle and the bustle. The school, the pub, the shops (yes, plural), the Post Office, the football club, the fish and chip hut.
All of that, today, has gone. The only thing that remains is the memories and the people who have to drive to the next village to get a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.
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On the way into Abercregan, you cross an ancient and impressive bridge which towers over the delicious River Afan that runs beneath it. Then you travel along the only road that can take you into the village itself. You’ll find a few houses on the right-hand side, a few more further down, and then a couple of rows of homes as you turn down towards the site of the old school, outside of which sits a permanent reminder by way of memorial stones embedded in the floor which tell you of the years gone by.
“It’s quite isolating for the people living here,” said Nicola-Jayne Davies, a local councillor who lives in neighbouring Glyncorrwg. "There’s no pub, there’s no shop, places where people can get together. I know a few people go to the pub across the bridge in the next village - that’s the only place you can socialise if you live here.
"People would want more things here but it would be down to someone coming in and investing in the village. It’s something that would be difficult to achieve.”
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The nearest town to Abercregan is Maesteg, some five miles and fifteen minutes away. There is a bus every two hours which can take you to the neighbouring village or on the ten-mile journey to Port Talbot, but it’s a lengthy journey if you just want a few things from Tesco.
“There are other villages with similar issues, but up here it is unique," said councillor Davies. "It’s the only village that doesn’t have anything, when it used to have everything.
“There is still a community here, though. Everyone looks out for everyone else up here. If someone has an issue the community would be there for them at the drop of a hat. But over the years the village has not had the level of investment needed and that’s why things have closed down.”
More than fifty years ago a number of homes in Abercregan were demolished as the authorities embarked on a practice called ‘slum clearance’ - a renewal strategy with the aim of transforming low income living areas.
It was decided that these homes were no longer fit for habitation and they were pulled down, along with the memories that remained within them. That process, coupled with the decline and eventual death of the mining industry, put paid to what Abercregan was and had been for generations.
One woman who has seen it all is Mairwen Goodridge. She was born here, 78 years ago, used to serve as a councillor for the area and still lives here today. Not in the same house, mind. In fact, her current home is her seventh in Abercregan. Not bad seeing as the village only has a few dozen houses. At least the removals would have been relatively straightforward.
“I became a councillor in 1974 because of what they were doing to the valley,” she said. “They demolished a whole row of houses, and then another two rows of houses. Most of the men living here would have been working in the local mines, and we had everything here then. We had shops, we had a Post Office, we had the working men’s club, the pub. We had a welfare hall, and fish and chips - and they were lovely fish and chips I can tell you!
Mairwen’s mother ran the post office in Abercregan for many years, only retiring in the late 1990s. It was run from the family home, in one property in the village when Mairwen was a baby before the family, and the post office, moved to another house.
As she sits in her lounge, with the stunning hillside acting as a postcard up against her window, she explains that she’s one of the lucky ones because her daughter lives nearby, making it easier for her to leave her beloved village to carry out what should be the simplest of tasks for most: going to the shops.
“I lost my husband last year and he was the driver,” she said. “I did try to drive but it wasn’t for me! I haven’t been on the bus since before lockdown but I am fortunate that my daughter lives in the village so I can go shopping with her.
"I used to walk to the shop in the next village, no problem, but as you get older it’s more difficult. I can’t do that now. It is isolating here because we used to have so much more. A man used to come round in a van selling fruit and veg, a baker would come round, we even had an ice cream van.
"We had everything here, and it's become really tough for the people who don’t have any family. Mind you, there aren’t many of them left - I think I’m the oldest person in the village now.
“All we’ve seen over the years is closures. I do like the tranquillity here but I would also like somewhere that we can go; it would be nice if there was somewhere where you could just sit and have a chat and a coffee, just a little building where you could meet different people of different ages. It is frustrating. It’s as if the council in general treat us as poor relations - other places nearby have a lot more than we do.”
So what is the answer? To campaign, to preach, to lobby? Mairwen sounds exhausted at the thought. She’s done that, and got the t-shirt.
“I’ve done all that before," she said. "I’ve shouted my mouth off over the years but it doesn’t make any difference. We used to have such a close community in Abercregan. We had good guys and bad guys but it was a community, and the community spirit when I was young was fantastic. One time my chimney caught fire and the whole street came to help. Today, since living on my own, you do realise how isolated people are up here."
That could change in the near future if ambitious plans for the Afan Valley are realised. It is hoped that a multi-million pound adventure resort - under the Wildfox Resorts brand - will open in the area and not only bring hundreds of jobs but also put the valley - including Abercregan - on the map.
Planning permission has now been granted for the project, which is being pushed forward by the man who helped launch Center Parcs in the UK, Peter Moore. You can read more about the scheme here.
That may not increase the number of amenities on offer in Abercregan itself, but it will drive interest in the area as a whole and attract people of working age who currently may not fancy the commute into Port Talbot, Neath or Swansea.
When the lack of amenities in the village was put to Neath Port Talbot Council, the authority said "it is unfortunately the case that following years of austerity and other factors such as digital disruption, services have closed in a number of places across the county borough, as seen more broadly across the UK".
A spokeswoman for the council added: "We have just published our new corporate plan which identifies the development of thriving and sustainable communities as a new objective for the council. We acknowledge that there is a need to give greater priority to this.
"We have set out a small number of priorities for next year in our plan - for example we have recently expanded our network of local area co-ordinators and one of their roles is to identify opportunities to support communities to develop initiatives that meet a local need.
"Abercregan is part of the wider Afan Valley area which could benefit considerably in terms of jobs and other commercial/community opportunities which could spin off from the Wildfox Resort plan which could deliver transformational change. The council is also proposing to invest £264,000 in community improvements in the Cymmer ward, of which Abercregan is a part of."
At the ‘dead end’ of the village where you can go no further, there is a large and impressive home where the local school once stood. The school itself closed in 1982 after 70 years and was demolished in 1998. The man who bought the land was Alan Trusz, a 57-year-old retired steelworker.
He's Abercregan born and bred and went to the village school, which is now, in a way, his home. His kitchen was, for decades, the school yard.
“My childhood home was knocked down in the 1970s and my parents moved to Port Talbot," said Alan. “I later lived in the village of Croeserw (1.5 miles away) but when this spot became available we just thought it was the perfect opportunity to come back here.
“When I grew up here the village was ten times bigger than it is now, but most people here have transport so it’s OK. For me, Covid didn’t make much of a difference - in fact I saw more people then because going out for a walk was all you could do around here. We’re lucky, we’re from the village and we know everyone, and there is still a community here.”
For Alan, he moved from the village at the age of 14 and came back in 2003. It’s a lot different now to the place he grew up in, but he will never leave here again.
“It was always my intention to come back here at some point,” he said. “And I definitely don’t want to leave. I find it nostalgic walking around sometimes, remembering what used to be what in the school. I have a lot of good memories here.”
Abercregan is not the same village that Mairwen Goodridge grew up in. A lack of investment, an abandoning of small rural communities, and modern life itself has seen to that.
The baker, the fruit and veg man, the local shop, the post office and the pub across many villages and towns in Wales are long gone, replaced by cheaper prices and more ‘convenience’ at a supermarket a bus ride away, while nights at the social club or the bingo hall have been replaced by the warmth and ease of an evening in front of a plethora of streaming services.
In many ways, things are easier today, but in many ways they are not. You still have communities, but they are not extended families like they were in decades past.
Despite the eerie silence, Mairwen will never move from Abercregan. She tried it once temporarily when her husband had a job in Leicester, but she lasted six months before the pull of these wonderful Welsh hills proved too much.
“There is nothing to do here apart from walk, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” she said. “I’ve moved around the village but not out of it! This place is what I’m used to. It’s my home.”
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