Manafon is a small rural community located in the hills of Montgomeryshire, the Northern part of the Welsh county of Powys.

The remainder of the population lives in scattered farms and dwellings and in the small rural settlement of The Green.

He was a keen supporter of eisteddfodau, where he won many prizes, and he played an important role in establishing provincial eisteddfodic societies.

[15] It was during his time in Manafon that he first began to study Welsh and that he published his first three volumes of poetry, The Stones of the Field (1946), An Acre of Land (1952) and The Minister (1953).

Thomas's poetry achieved a breakthrough with the publication, in 1955, of his fourth book, Song at the Year's Turning, with an introduction by poet John Betjeman.