Cwmifor

It is likely that the name Cwmifor derived from a person's name ('Cwm Ifor' means "Ifor's Valley"). An extensive Neolithic (4000–2200 BC) occupation site comprising numerous pits and post-holes, with finds of burnt bone, flints and charcoal, was recorded at Cwmifor.{{Cite web|title=Dyfed Aarchaeology|url=https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/tywiimages/ETbrochure.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2021|website=Dyfed Archaeology|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625170701/https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/tywiimages/ETbrochure.pdf |archive-date=2021-06-25 }}{{Cite journal|date=2019|title=Neolithic Farming and Wild Plant Exploitation in Western Britain: Archaeobotanical and Crop Stable Isotope Evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal BC)|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/A1A7351C293BCD3DB1A5C23CEA478BEE/S0079497X19000124a.pdf/neolithic_farming_and_wild_plant_exploitation_in_western_britain_archaeobotanical_and_crop_stable_isotope_evidence_from_wales_c_40002200_cal_bc.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society|volume=85|pages=193–222}}

A Roman road known as the Via Julia ran east to west at the northern extremity of the settlement.{{Cite web|title=View map: Carmarthenshire XXXIV.NW (includes: Llandeilo Fawr Rural; Llangadog.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952|url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102179324|access-date=2021-12-20|website=maps.nls.uk}} A turnpike road was established in the eighteenth century and followed the line of the Roman road although the course through Cwmifor was straightened under Thomas Telford in the 1820s.{{Cite web|title=Ystrad Tywi|url=https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/HLC/HLCTowy/area/area196.htm|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2021|website=Dyfed Archaeological Trust|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625170659/https://dyfedarchaeology.org.uk/HLC/HLCTowy/area/area196.htm |archive-date=2021-06-25 }}

A meeting of a group of Rebecca Rioters took place in graveyard of village's Baptist Chapel in 1843 and was reported in The Times.{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Henry Tobit |url=http://archive.org/details/rebeccaherdaught00evanuoft |title=Rebecca and her daughters, being a history of the agrarian disturbances in Wales known as The Rebecca Riots. [Edited by G.T. Evans] |last2=Evans |first2=G. T. |date=1910 |publisher=Cardiff Educational Pub. Co |others=Robarts - University of Toronto}} This is one of the few meetings of the Rebecca Rioters infiltrated by the press.

The village remained a dispersed settlement into the 1880s, with an Ordnance Survey map from 1886 showing a public house, a parish church, and a Baptist chapel. Several prominent farms and houses are also named on the map, many of which remain today (Cae Mawr, Pen-y-Waen, and Penhill).{{Cite web|title=View map: Carmarthenshire XXXIV.NW (includes: Llandeilo Fawr Rural; Llangadog.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952|url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102179324|access-date=2021-12-20|website=maps.nls.uk}}

In 2002, Carmarthenshire Council earmarked the village primary school for closure. According to one report, the school had twenty three pupils at the time of the decision.{{Cite web|date=12 September 2002|title=Parents fight school closure plans|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2253284.stm|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2021|website=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021101094850/http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/1/hi/wales/2253284.stm |archive-date=2002-11-01 }} In 2007, it was reported on social media that the school had a total of seven pupils.{{Cite web|title=Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/positiveparents/status/5727437488914432|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210708204213/https://twitter.com/positiveparents/status/5727437488914432 |archive-date=2021-07-08 }}

St Paul's Church is a nineteenth-century church in Cwmifor. While it was originally designed as a Roman Catholic church, it became an Anglican chapel of ease once it was completed. The church is built of squared stone.{{Coflein|desc=St Paul's Church, Cwm-ifor, Manordeilo|num=421081|access-date=25 June 2021}}

A Baptist chapel was built in 1789, enlarged in 1836 and renovated in 1864. It is built in the simple round-headed style with a long-wall entry plan.{{Coflein|desc=Cwmifor Welsh Baptist Church|num=6354|fewer-links=yes|access-date=25 June 2021}}{{Cite web|title=See Around Britain|url=https://seearoundbritain.com/venues/welsh-baptist-chapel-cwmifor-carmarthenshire|url-status=live|access-date=25 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625170701/https://seearoundbritain.com/venues/welsh-baptist-chapel-cwmifor-carmarthenshire |archive-date=2021-06-25 }}

File:Church of St Paul, Manordeilo - geograph.org.uk - 428758.jpg

The village hall, or reading room, is next door to St Paul's Church. Manordeilo and Salem Community Council meet in the village hall each month.{{Cite web |title=Manordeilo and Salem Community Council: Home |url=https://manordeilosalemcc.org.uk/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=manordeilosalemcc.org.uk}}

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Category:Populated places in Carmarthenshire