AMMANFORD, urban district, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Pop. (1931) 7,160. Situated near the junction of the river Am man with the Loughor 17 miles E. of Carmarthen town. This region has associations with Welsh folk-lore, particularly the hunting of Twrch Trwth (Mabinogion), and with the Physicians of Myddfai (a village in East Carmarthenshire). In the 18th and 19th centuries considerable quantities of local carboniferous limestone were burnt and carried long distances by road to West Wales for marling purposes. Ammanford grew with the export trade in coal, and its importance increased especially after 1885 as the use of anthracite spread. After 1900 rapid strides were made and Ammanford doubled its population in ten years— (1901) 3,500; (1911) 6,074. With the growing demand for an thracite in place of steam coal in modern industry (1918-28) and the amalgamation of almost all the anthracite collieries in South Wales into a large unit with world-wide influence and markets, Ammanford and district have escaped to some extent the universal depression in the coal industry since 1918. The population is still increasing and new pits were sunk in 1928.
Ammanford has a station on the Pantyffynon-Garnant branch of the G.W.R., and is also served by Pantyffynon and Tirdail on the Llanelly and Llandilo branch line over parts of which the G.W.R. and L.M.S.R. have running powers. Ammanford was made an urban district in 1903 and since 1918 is included in the East Carmarthenshire (Llanelly) parliamentary area.