From 1135 the Normans wrested the region from the Prince of Deheubarth and formed the basis for the Marcher Lordship of Kilvey of comital rank.

After the Laws in Wales Act 1535 abolished Marcher lordships, the region was incorporated into the county of Glamorgan.

In 1750 the principal mineral properties were acquired by Chauncy Townsend and they remained in his family until his great-grandson, Charles Henry Smith, relinquished them in 1872.

It is often stated that the pit was sunk in the 1770s by a Captain John Scott, but there is no truth in this: it probably derives from a garbled oral tradition.

[5] Today the area consists of an urban belt centred on the A48 road and M4 motorway where new housing was built in the early 2000s.

It has its own railway station to the east, served by the Transport for Wales Rail Swanline service between Cardiff and Swansea.

After a landslip when the line opened in 1850, Brunel designed four flying arches to hold the cutting walls apart.