March 2026
While I was doing my stint as volunteer warden at Ty’n Cornel, I was keen to visit the nearest village seven miles away to meet people at the community café: Caffi Dewi. The previous week, two of the Founding Members for the linked Community Benefit Society, Siop Ni CBS Cyfyngedig, had made the onerous journey from the village to Ty’n Cornel hostel to deliver information booklets seeking further consultation on the new initiative. The round journey of fourteen miles includes two miles each way on roads so potholed and muddy / stony that even getting into second gear can feel ambitious and certainly takes my Peugeot 107 to the limits of its capability; the rest of the journey is on single track roads with passing places. This degree of determination shown by the Founding Members to consult all potential interested groups in their quest to improve village facilities and increase the resilience of the community certainly deserves support! I was more than impressed by their dedication.
The new possibilities open to consultation in addition to using the old Church Hall building adjacent to the village car park as a shop include installation of a cash-point machine; a computer and learning room with internet access and Wi-Fi as well as a learning space for learning Welsh, numeracy, literacy and other activities; a health information room supported by the local NHS Board; parcel drop-off; extension of Caffi Dewi – more time open / more extensive menu; a heritage and history museum for the village; excess garden vegetable swap and share and more….
I parked in the village car park, noticing an information board outlining the history of the community. The settlement dates back to Roman times. Llanddewi Brefi derives the second part of its name from a legend involving two oxen. The oxen were hauling stone up a steep hill when one of them collapsed and died. The other bellowed loudly nine times and because the bellow was so loud the place became known as Llanddewi Brefi (Brefi means bellow). The first part of the name follows from 520 AD when St David (Welsh patron saint – Dewi Sant in Welsh) held the Synod of Brefi here. “Llan” refers to a church or holy place in Welsh placenames. The legend tells that when the crowd gathered they were unable to hear Saint David so in a miracle he raised the ground from underneath himself and was standing on a small hill. This remains the site of the Parish Church today.
The church remains active with regular services and there was even a poster advertising a Diocesan day out at Pentecost, meeting on Carmarthen Showground and including coach transport laid on to the location.
I arrived at the Community Centre which was bustling with people. A talk on nutrition given by a local NHS worker had already started – I hadn’t realised that this was taking place and after my hostel cleaning duties I had to put the rubbish in the box on my way to the village and drop off the used hostel bedding to the lady who does the laundry so I wasn’t able to get there early. Hence I crept in and sat near the door at a table with two elderly ladies from the village. Other people attending included a range of village folk and some people with learning disabilities along with their carers. The speaker was expertly engaging his audience and encouraging interaction; he was also being realistic in his recommendations. I was impressed by this initiative as I am aware that rural communities can be left out of this type of event and concentration of effort is frequently restricted to the larger centres of population.
A volunteer waitress spotted me quickly and presented me with a menu so I was soon served a cafetiere of coffee and a toasted hot cross bun. Payment was by donation only – definitely an inclusive environment.
After the talk had ended, the two women I was sitting with engaged me in conversation. Amazingly one of them had been born at the hostel when it was still a farmhouse. Her family had lived there until 1951 and she recounted stories of weekly boarding at Llanddewi Brefi School from the age of five as it was too onerous a journey to make daily.
Sadly the village school closed in 2018 and children up to age 16 now travel to their nearest school at Tregaron about 3.5 miles away, where, according to its website, most of the curriculum is covered in the Welsh language. Interestingly as the painted “zig-zags” remain outside the school, I hadn’t realised previously on driving through that the school had closed and been repurposed as housing.
Both the women I was talking with had lived their whole lives in the area. They seemed unconcerned by how remote it is and that they currently drive weekly to Lampeter (8-10 miles each way) or even to Aberystwyth (over twenty miles each way) to stock up on food and necessities. Historically there were many shops in the village; as late as 1970, there were still four shops. Unfortunately the final village shop closed relatively recently. That is clearly providing impetus and a real need for the community shop to open.
Another woman approached me to ask me to consider joining in objections to two planning applications locally for 120m tall meteorological masts for up to seven years as a precursor for a wind farm with twenty industrial turbines. She gave me a few copies of an information sheet and details about making an objection as well as unrelated information leaflets about the local 2026 open gardens scheme. It would save her needing to travel up to the hostel which she had intended to do if she hadn’t seen me. There is certainly a lot going on in this community – especially considering that only around five hundred people live in the village.
I left the Community Centre to wander around the village. I spotted a community defibrillator mounted on a wall near the village centre. There’s an open public convenience too. I also noticed information about the next annual horticultural show, being held in August and a very long list of all the entry classes: clearly a major occasion in the local annual calendar.
The New Inn was definitely still open for business, offering bed and breakfast, food and appearing to be important both for visitors and local people. The Foelallt Arms has recently reopened on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – bucking the trend of decreased facilities in the rural community.
Overall it seems very positive that there is a mood of self-help in the village with a nucleus of people keen to embrace the community and spearhead initiatives, supported by volunteers who are enthusiastic to assist in development of new services and facilities both for themselves and for visitors. At least that’s what I think as an outsider -it’s an exciting and challenging time for Llanddewi Brefi.
Where's Kathryn? 