Llanelly Hill
Llanelly Hill is a village in south-east Wales. It is located on the slopes of a hill, which is also called Llanelly Hill. The village developed due to coal mining and limestone quarrying for the ironworks in Clydach and Ebbw Vale. It is in the parish of Llanelly,[1] which is currently in Monmouthshire but was historically in Brecknockshire.[2]
The Welsh name for the village was Rhiw Llanelli (also spelt as Rhiw Llanelly locally). "Rhiw" refers to the slopes of a hill. However the Welsh Language Commissioner decided in 2015 that it should be Bryn Llanelli - "bryn" refers to the hill as a whole so is not accurate for the settlement. After local complaints it was replaced with Llanelli Hill as the Welsh name, despite "hill" clearly not being a Welsh word.[3]
An earlier Welsh name for the village was Mynydd Llanelli - "mynydd" is another Welsh word for a hill.[4][5] In place names the word "mynydd" usually refers to a common or an area of unenclosed land instead, maybe this is where the name originally came from. This would make the English name Llanelly Hill, which could easily be re-analysed as Rhiw Llanelli and later as Bryn Llanelli.
As of 2022 Monmouthshire County Council still used the name "Bryn Llanelli".[6]