South Wales, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

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• published: 20 Aug 2013
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South Wales is that region of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.2 million people and includes the capital city of Cardiff (population approximately 350,000), as well as Swansea and Newport, with populations approximately 170,000 and 150,000, respectively. It contains about three-quarters of the Welsh population.[citation needed] The Brecon Beacons national park covers about a third of South Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest mountain south of Snowdonia. The extent of the region is loosely defined, but it is generally considered to be the area surrounding the M4 motorway, including the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire and sometimes extending westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both South Wales and in West Wales there is considerable overlap in these somewhat artificial boundaries. Areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered part of Mid Wales. The language of the majority of people in South Wales is English, but there are also many who speak Welsh. In western parts of Glamorgan, particularly the Neath and Swansea Valleys, there remain significant Welsh-speaking communities such as Ystradgynlais and Ystalyfera, which share a heritage with the fellow ex-anthracite mining areas of eastern Carmarthenshire, as much as with the Glamorgan valleys. The local slang, dialect and phrases of the South Wales Valleys communities have been referred to as 'Wenglish', and are often used with comic effect. The dialect is found also in such coastal towns as Barry, as featured in the BBC hit comedy series Gavin and Stacey. Compared with such regional English dialects as those of Yorkshire, the local speech seems to be very little studied or appreciated. Welsh is now a compulsory language up to GCSE level for all students who start their education in Wales. This has meant that the strength of the language, as a second language, has increased considerably in the last twenty years. Several secondary schools offering Welsh medium education operate in this area, for example Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari in Pontyclun, Ysgol Gyfun Y Cymmer in Porth in the Rhondda, Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun in Penywaun in the Cynon Valley, Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in Pontypool, Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni in Blackwood, Ysgol Gymraeg Plasmawr in Cardiff and Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg in Church Village. A significant number of people from ethnic minority communities speak another language as their first language, particularly in Cardiff and Newport. Commonly spoken languages in some areas include Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic, Somali and Chinese, and increasingly Central European languages such as Polish. The traditional pastimes of the area include rugby and music. Today music ranges from the traditional Welsh Male Voice choirs of the Valleys such as Treorchy Male Choir to the South Wales hardcore scene which plays a dominant role in the Cardiff music scene. Bands such as Lostprophets, Bullet for My Valentine, Feeder, Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, Funeral for a Friend, The Automatic, Skindred, Foreign Legion, Kids In Glass Houses, The Blackout and Man Without Country all come from the South Wales area. In the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a vigorous literary and musical culture centred round eisteddfodau. Despite a few timid attempts to emulate this literature in English, it can be argued that few writers seem to connect with either the landscape or the literary tradition. The one exception, to some extent, can be considered to be Dylan Thomas. The South Wales Valleys and upland mountain ridges were once a very rural area of great natural beauty, noted for its river valleys and ancient forests and lauded by romantic poets such as William Wordsworth as well as poets in the Welsh language, although the interests of the latter lay more in society and culture than in the evocation of natural scenery. This natural beauty changed to a considerable extent during the early Industrial Revolution when the Glamorgan and Monmouthshire valley areas were exploited for coal and iron. By the 1830s, hundreds of tons of coal were being transported by barge to ports in Cardiff and Newport. In the 1870s, coal was transported by railway networks to Newport Docks, at the time the largest coal exporting docks in the world, and by the 1880s coal was being exported from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Marquess of Bute, who owned much of the land north of Cardiff, built a steam railway system on his land that stretched from Cardiff into many of the South Wales Valleys where the coal was being found. Lord Bute then charged taxes per ton of coal that was transported out using his railways.