Big Bellan Covert is found at the southern end of Gibraltar Lane. It is an outcrop of rock over limestone plates, the remnants of the last ice age. Covert has two meanings - not openly acknowledged and displayed or a thicket.
Today it is a wood, a memorial plantation with individual trees in memory of someone passed, but as a child this location was a hay field with a spinney (a small wood or copse) at the top. The topography of the area made many think it had an historic past with its natural battlements. A partial investigation of the area by a metal detector has found only spent gunshot but it takes many sweeps to build a complete picture.
A few years ago a local historian and author, Chris Woods, wrote an article on the inordinate number of topflight football players spawned locally in the late 19th century. The football field was located next to The Royal Oak, Treflach. If you have ever tried to run up this steep gradient you will understand where they got their stamina from - some thought there was something in the water. But working all day in either the coal mine or the quarry created lithe, fit athletes.
Its naming alone shows the prominence of this place in the hearts and minds of those who lived and struggled here before.