The village was a small
hamlet until the late 19th century; the majority of housing is therefore traditional terraced housing from the early 20th century. A map of 1885 shows the Melin (mill) and the Welsh
Calvinistic Methodist chapel, Capel y Babell. The grave of
William Thomas (Islwyn), a 19th-century poet in the Welsh language, can be found here. Cwmfelinfach was home to a
coal mining community during the early to mid 20th century. The colliery, known as "
Nine Mile Point", opened in about 1905 and closed in 1964. Nine Mile Point Colliery was the site of the first ever
sit-in of miners; during 1935 there was a "stay-down strike" involving 164 colliers. They were protesting over the use of "Scab" miners (men not members of the
Miners' Federation of Great Britain, unlike the rest of the "Points" workforce) and their ordeal only ended after the company promised that no non-Federation men would be employed at the colliery; the stay-down strike lasted for 177 hours. Miners from other collieries in the area, some taking similar action, supported their action. ==Transport==