The River Afan (sometimes anglicized as Avon) is a river in southwest Wales whose river valley formed the territory of the medieval Lords of Afan. The town of Aberavon grew up on the banks of the river, and was later subsumed by the larger centre of population known as Port Talbot. The political constituency still retains the name Aberavon (on the Afan) however.
The river Afan begins its journey at the village of Cymer (meaning confluence) where the rivers Corrwg and Gwynfi join. The river runs in a more or less south-westerly direction parallel to the River Neath with which it shares its western watershed. In the east it borders the River Kenfig and then the River Llynfi a tributary of the River Ogmore. At its source, it also shares a watershed with the Rhondda Fach, a tributary of the River Taff.
For much of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the River Afan was severely polluted by the coal and iron industry. With the decline in the coal mining industry, the quality of the river improved in the 1960s and 1970s so that some salmon and sea-trout started to return to the river to spawn. A number of weirs on the river, built to sustain the industrial past, had to be made passable to allow fish to ascend the river. This required the creation of fish passes on some weirs such as on the Dock feeder weir and the demolition of others such as at Corlannau weir.
