Crymych

Crymych () is a village of around 800 inhabitants and a community (population 1,739) in the northeast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated approximately above sea level at the eastern end of the Preseli Mountains, on the old Tenby to Cardigan turnpike road, now the A478. The village developed around the former Crymmych Arms railway station on the now-closed Whitland to Cardigan Railway, nicknamed Cardi Bach (Little Cardi). Crymych, which is twinned with Plomelin in Brittany, has an elected community council. The village has given its name to an electoral ward of Pembrokeshire that encompasses the villages of Crymych itself and Eglwyswrw. The community includes Hermon, Glandwr, Glogue and Llanfyrnach. The name Crymych translates into English as crooked stream referring to the River Taf which rises in the high ground above the village and takes a sharp turn in the valley at the north end of the village. Evidence of prehistoric occupation in the community is the Megalithic burial mound known as Crymych Wayside Barrow. First mentioned in an account of the Cemais Hundreds of 1468, Crymych has for centuries been an area of livestock farming. Other than the Crymych Arms public house, which dates from at least 1861 but possibly as early as 1812, little existed at the spot before the extension of the Whitland and Taf Vale Railway to Crymych in 1874. The community then grew rapidly as a service and transport centre for the surrounding uplands, and acquired a reputation as the "Wild West of West Wales', reflected in the tongue-in-cheek appellation of Cowbois Crymych by which residents are sometimes known. The village was sometimes referred to as Crymmych Arms, after the name of the station, for example in a report of an Eisteddfod in 1876. The agricultural show was first held in 1909, and was equally successful in subsequent years. A regional livestock market existed in the village for many years; a new purpose-built site was developed north of the village, also accommodating a number of other traders.