Torfaen

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Torfaen County Borough
England Anglesey Flintshire Wrexham Denbighshire Conwy Gwynedd Ceredigion Pembrokeshire Carmarthenshire Swansea Neath Port Talbot Bridgend Rhondda Cynon Taf Merthyr Tydfil Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Vale of Glamorgan Cardiff Newport Torfaen Monmouthshire PowysTorfaen
About this picture
Administrative headquarters Pontypool
surface 126 km²
Residents 91,075 (2011)
Welsh speakers 14.5%
ISO 3166-2 GB-TOF
ONS code 00PM
Website www.torfaen.gov.uk

Torfaen is a principal area with county borough status in south east Wales. The name Torfaen literally means rock breaker in Welsh and means the landscape along the course of the Afon Llwyd ("gray river"), which rises near Blaenavon .

geography

Torfaen is bordered by the town of Newport to the south, Monmouthshire to the east and northeast , Blaenau Gwent to the northwest and Caerphilly to the west .

The county is in the historic county of Monmouthshire. It roughly corresponds to the valley of the Afon Llwyd, the easternmost valley of the southern Welsh valley landscape. The Afon Llwyd valley is very urbanized. Viewed from north to south, Torfaen consists of the villages of Blaenavon , Abersychan , Pontypool , Griffithstown, New Inn and Cwmbran . T. already merge into one another.

population

Torfaen has 90,700 inhabitants. The largest towns are Cwmbran with 47,300 inhabitants and Pontypool with 35,400 inhabitants. 14.5% of the population speak Welsh.

history

Torfaen was formed in 1974 as a district of the then newly established administrative county of Gwent . Introduction of one-tier local government in Wales, Torfaen became an independent administrative district on April 1, 1996.

politics

Torfaen is considered a stronghold of the Labor Party ( Labor Party , Welsh Y Blaid Lafur ), the constituency of Torfaen in the (slightly different from the boundaries of the administrative district) in both 2005 general election and 2007 in elections to the National Assembly for Wales could win.

Local election results

year Labor Plaid Cymru Conservative party Liberal Democrats Independent
candidates
1995 ... ... ... ... ...
1999 39 0 1 2 2
2004 34 0 1 2 7th
2008 18th 3 5 2 16

Attractions

The town of Blaenavon (Welsh: Blaenafon), located high in the valley of the Afon Llwyd, is one of the centers of early industrialization and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The city's main attractions include the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway and the Big Pit , Wales' national mining museum .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Official population figures 2011 ( MS Excel ; 291 kB)
  2. ↑ KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas
  3. ↑ [1]