TheRhymney River (Welsh:Afon Rhymni) is ariver in theRhymney Valley,South Wales, flowing throughCardiff into theSevern Estuary. The river formed the boundary between thehistoric counties ofGlamorgan andMonmouthshire until in 1887, the parishes east of the river,Rumney andSt Mellons, were transferred from the jurisdiction ofNewport, to Cardiff in Glamorgan.[1]
The river flows south from its source nearRhymney throughNew Tredegar,Bargoed,Ystrad Mynach,Llanbradach toCaerphilly at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. Then pastBedwas,Trethomas,Machen,Draethen,Llanrumney andRumney and itsestuary into theRiver Severn.
TheRhymney Valley was created as aglacial valley. Sourced within the valley, on the southern edge of theBrecon Beacons, the Rhymney River descends steeply through the town ofNew Tredegar towardsYstrad Mynach, and then onwards south across a flat plain before entering theSevern Estuary to the east of Cardiff. The villages of Groesfaen, Deri, Pentwyn and Fochriw are located in the Darran Valley and not the Rhymney Valley, which joins the Rhymney Valley atBargoed.
Covering a distance of 30 miles (48 km), the catchment is divided into two distinct parts:[2]
Being located in part of theSouth Wales coalfield andSouth Wales Valleysiron-producing area, the resultant black river had poor water quality through most of the 19th and 20th centuries. The river is culverted in many of its upper sections, including a tunnel under the former factory complexes inRhymney, exiting atPontlottyn.[3] Since the closure of the last of the coal mines in the late 1980s, the water has become much cleaner and is now full of fish and insect life and supports plenty of other wildlife. The river now supports a healthy stock ofgrayling and naturalbrown trout, and much work has been undertaken to remove former industrial restrictions on the river to allow the fish to gain access to its upper reaches.[4] The river is in the care ofNatural Resources Wales and theSouth East Wales Rivers Trust.[2]
51°29′N3°07′W / 51.483°N 3.117°W /51.483; -3.117
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