{{infobox uk place |static image	|static_image_captionYmlaen Llanelli"Forward Llanelli" |latitude 51.683471 |longitude -4.161369 |country Wales |welsh_name |official_name Llanelli |unitary_wales Carmarthenshire
population	46,358
population ref	|lieutenancy_wales Dyfed |constituency_westminster Llanelli |constituency_welsh_assembly Llanelli |post_town LLANELLI |postcode_district SA14, SA15 |postcode_area SA |dial_code 01554, 01267 |os_grid_reference SN505005 |websitellanellitowncouncil.co.uk }}

Llanelli (; , see below), the largest town in both the county of Carmarthenshire and the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales, sits on the Loughor estuary on the West Wales coast, approximately west-north-west of Swansea and south-east of the county town, Carmarthen. The town is famous for its proud rugby tradition and is a centre of tinplate production. In the mid 20th century, Llanelli was the largest town in the world where more than half the population spoke a Celtic language. It is ranked the 7th largest urban area in Wales. According to the 2001 UK Census returns 29.69% of Llanelli town residents could speak the Welsh language. Llanelli is also surrounded by a number of villages and communities in the Llanelli Rural district. Some of these communities, more notably those that immediately surround the town, are often unofficially referred to as Llanelli.

History

:''see also Timeline of Llanelli history''

Historically a mining 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

The area around Llanelli in eastern Carmarthenshire is home to a number of manufacturing companies (including the Corus works at Trostre, and Dyfed Steels), many of which service the automotive industry. The Technium Performance Engineering Centre was developed at Llanelli Gate as a business incubator for businesses in the automotive, motorsport and aerospace sectors. The traditional industries of Llanelli have been in gradual decline over recent decades and local government has responded by promoting developments such as the Machynys Golf Course, new retail parks at Trostre and Pemberton, and the Millennium Coastal Park, to help attract tourism. The core shopping area has now largely relocated from the town centre to the Trostre/Pemberton area.

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

Brewing

Llanelli has a brewing tradition, with the Felinfoel Brewery in Felinfoel, located just outside the town.

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 18th 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 brewery in Cardiff. However, Brains continue to produce ''The Reverend James'', a bitter named in memory of the Reverend. It has now been partly demolished.

Sport

Rugby union — The town's rugby union teams—the Scarlets regional side, competing in the Rabo Direct Pro 12 League, and Llanelli RFC, competing in the Principality Premiership—play at ''Parc y Scarlets'', opened in November 2008 just outside of town in Pemberton.

Previously, the two teams had played at Stradey Park, home to Llanelli RFC for over 130 years. 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.

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 9–3 winners at Stradey Park.

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. The Sharks play out of Llanelli Wanderers RFC's home ground of Stradey Park.

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 Llanelli Open Bowls Tournaments, the oldest and most prestigious of which, the Roberts-Rolfe Open Singles event, has been run since 1926, and now has a first prize of £600. These are held from July to September in Parc Howard.

Golf—- The Llanelli area has three golf courses, including the Machynys Peninsula Golf & Country Club, Machynys Peninsula Golf & Country Club which is and has been the host of the Wales Ladies Championship of Europe since 2005; and Glyn Abbey Golf Club which was named Welsh Golf Club of the Year 2009.

Motorsports — The Pembrey Circuit is known as the home of Welsh Motorsport, providing racing for cars, motorcycles, karts and trucks. The Team Wales Racing team is also based here, setup and run by Jules Hatton.

Boxing — Llanelli is the home of former World Junior Kickboxing champion and championship level professional boxer 'Dynamite' Dean Phillips, former British Superfeatherweight Champion Neil Haddock, and former Welsh Heavyweight champion Chris Jacobs.

Bodybuilding — Llanelli is birthplace and home to IFBB Pro James 'Flex' Lewis, Mr. Olympia 202 competitor and a Gaspari Nutrition athlete.

Snooker- Llanelli is also the birthplace and home to Terry Griffiths OBE, snooker world champion in 1979 and runner up in 1988.Currently a world respected coach to players of all calibre and runs The Terry Griffiths Matchroom in the town centre.

Media

The town has its own newspaper, the Llanelli Star, an online community news magazine called Your Llanelli and a radio station, Scarlet FM. Other stations that cover the area are The Wave, Swansea Sound and sister station Radio Carmarthenshire, and a Hospital Radio Station for the Prince Phillip Hospital which is Radio BGM.

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 programmes such as Question Time for the BBC and Welsh language television programs such as Wedi 7 for S4C. Llanelli also has LTTV, which is an online community TV station for area.

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 racecourse at Ffos Las near Trimsaran

Local attractions

Some local attractions include: The Millennium Coastal Path, which spans 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 of parkland. Cefn Sidan, a beach within the park that has won the coveted Blue Flag award, is approximately long and half a mile to the sea at its narrowest at low tide. National Wetlands Centre, about 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 historic properties, an 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. John Wesley, the early leader of the Methodist movement, stayed at the house several times. The house was also featured in the first series of the BBC television show, Restoration. Parc Howard Museum is set in the grounds of Park Howard. The museum houses a collection of Llanelly Pottery (Llanelli spelt with a 'y' at the time of the pottery) an art collection and material related to the history of the town.

Leisure

Theatre Elli, the town's only theatre, 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 ''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)

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 and live music event (August) Llanelli Beer Festival — official CAMRA event (August)

Llanelli Christmas Carnival (November)

Location

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 underneath the town.

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 from 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 Craven Arms, and then 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. 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 Regional airport at Pembrey.

Education

Primary and secondary

The first Welsh-medium primary school, Ysgol Dewi Sant, was established in Llanelli in 1947. However, the majority of children in Llanelli attend English-medium schools. The English medium secondary schools are St. John Lloyd, Bryngwyn, Glan-y-Môr (Burry Port), and Coedcae; the only Welsh medium secondary school is Ysgol y Strade. There is also a special school for children with disabilities, Ysgol Heol Goffa, and a private 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 town's further education students as well as a limited variety of vocational undergraduate degrees through the University of Wales. There are also sixth form colleges 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.

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 ), 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 (Political)
Mayor	Cllr. Dyfrig Thomas
Carmarthenshire County Council
Leader	Cllr. Meryl Gravell
CountyCouncillors(Ward)	Cllr. M.J.P. Burns (Bigyn) Cllr. John Paul Jenkins>J.P. Jenkins (Elli) Cllr. J.E. Jones (Glanymor) Cllr. W.J. Lemon (Glanymor) Cllr. T Devichand (Dafen) Cllr. K.D. Rees (Lliedi) Cllr. P.H. Lewis (Lliedi) Cllr. K.P. Thomas (Tyisha) Cllr. R.T. Price (Tyisha)
United Kingdom Parliament
Nia Griffith	Labour Party (UK)>Labour
National Assembly for Wales
Keith Davies	Labour Party (UK)>Labour

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 Labour's Keith Davies 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

Bigyn

Bynea

Llanerch

Machynys

Morfa

Tyisha

New Dock

Sandy

Seaside, Llanelli

Stradey

Llanelli Town centre

Llwynhendy

Pwll

Burry Port

Pembrey

Kidwelly

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.

Notable people

:''See :Category:People from Llanelli''

Sports

Phil Bennett, fly-half, Wales and British Lions.

Jonathan Davies, rugby footballer

Dwayne Peel, rugby player, Wales and British Lions.

Ray Gravell, rugby player player for Wales, the British Lions and Llanelli RFC, actor and broadcaster.

Terry Griffiths, world snooker champion (1979).

Gareth Jenkins, coach: Llanelli RFC (1982–2003), Llanelli Scarlets (2003–2006), Welsh national rugby team (2006–2007).

Derek Quinnell, rugby player player for Wales, British Lions and Llanelli RFC

Eirian Williams, snooker referee.

Steve Naylor, bodybuilder,7 times overall Mr Wales,Overall Mr Europe 2004,Overall Mr Britain 2005

Flex Lewis, bodybuilder, IFBB Pro, Mr. Olympia 202 Competitor, Jr Mr Europe 2004,Overall Mr Britain 2007,Jr Mr Universe 2006

Kyle Letheran, Plymouth Argyle F.C goalkeeper.

'Dynamite' Dean Phillips, boxer, Junior World Kickboxing Champion. Commonwealth/IBF Intercontinental/Welsh Lightweight title challenger.

Neil Haddock, boxer, British Superfeatherweight Champion/European Lightweight title challenger.

Chris Jacobs, boxer, Welsh heavyweight champion.

Byron Stevenson, Wales international footballer.

Jeff Evans, First Class Cricket Umpire

Dai Greene, athlete 400m hurdler, world champion and Gold medalist for IAAF championships at Daegu, South Korea

Government and politics

Lord Elwyn Jones, Labour Lord Chancellor 1974-79.

Rod Richards, former Conservative member of parliament for Clwyd North West and former leader of the Conservative party at the National Assembly for Wales

Michael Howard, British politician, former leader of the Conservative party

Art, media and entertainment

Rachel Roberts (actress), actress

James Dickson Innes, artist

Huw Edwards, BBC newsreader

Pam Ferris, actor.

Jessica Garlick, Eurovision Song Contest 2002 UK entrant and ''Pop Idol'' finalist

Deke Leonard, rock musician, author, raconteur and TV panellist

Natasha O'Keeffe, television actress

Gareth Hughes, silent film actor, born in Halfway/Pemberton

Christopher Rees, singer, songwriter, musician.

Donald Swann of Flanders and Swann

Huw Thomas, ITN newscaster

Imogen Thomas, former ''Big Brother'' contestant and glamour model

Ronald Cass, film writer and composer

Leslie Cass, songwriter and brother of Ronald Cass

Gary Griffiths, opera singer

Sophie Dee, adult film actress

Terry Morris (Artist and Photographer), artist and photographer

Other

Rev'd Dr Leslie John Griffiths, The Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, Methodist Minister.

Richard Taylor, TV Presenter, Author and Minister.

Sir John Meurig Thomas, chemist

Brian Trubshaw, pilot of first flight of British Concorde

Llanelli Community Heritage. Blue Plaques and local history.

Dorothy Squires (Recording artist - 1915 to 1998)

Llanelli is reputed to be the Most Haunted Town in Wales (http://www.yourllanelli.org.uk/llanelli-ghosts) & (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reportedly_haunted_locations_in_the_United_Kingdom)

Trivia

People from Llanelli are sometimes nicknamed "Turks". The origin of this name is uncertain. One theory is that many Turkish sailors once called at the port of Llanelli during their voyages.

Llanelli has hosted the National Eisteddfod five times: in 1895, 1903, 1930, 1962, and 2000.

During the 1950s, Trefor and Eileen Beasley campaigned to get Llanelli Rural Council to distribute tax papers in Welsh by refusing to pay taxes until their demand was met. The council reacted by sending in the bailiffs and selling their furniture to recover the money owed. The Beasleys' neighbours bought the furniture and returned it to them. The council finally reversed this policy during the 1960s when they accepted that the Welsh language should be equal with the English language.

See also

Llanelli railway strike, 1911

References

External links

Llanelli Rural Council

Llanelli Town Council

Carmarthenshire County Council Guide to Council-run services/Attractions in Llanelli

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Llanelli and surrounding area

Llanelli Community Heritage Promoting Llanelli's rich heritage

Category:Ports and harbours of Wales Category:Communities of Carmarthenshire Category:Towns in Carmarthenshire Category:Populated coastal places in Wales

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