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	County Town: Cwmbrân County Population: 92,000 (estimate)
	Torfaen used to be part of the much larger historic county of Monmouthshire, and now covers an area of 126 sq km (49 sq miles). Torfaen comprises of a valley 19 km (12 miles) long, which stretches the full length of the narrow county. The river running through it is the Llwyd (once known as "Torfaen", meaning "rock breaker"). A small part of the northeast of the county lies within the Brecon Beacons National Park.
	The Romans settled in Monmouthshire during the 1st century AD, at which time they built many forts. Some time after their departure in 400 AD, Saxons tried to invade the region but the local people resisted so fiercely that it was not until the Normans conquered the county in the late 1060s that English settlements finally appeared, at which point many castles were built in South Wales.
	Heavily industrialised by the 19th century, Torfaen's historic industries are being replaced by light manufacturing and engineering. Pontypool is the site of the Valley Inheritance Exhibition Centre, focusing on the past of the mining valleys, and visitors to the Big Pit Mining Museum in Blaenavon, 10km (6 miles) northwest of Pontypool, can descend into a mine that was working until 1980.
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