A history like no other and a future brimming with potential

San Francisco rather than Ffos Las might have been the inspiration behind the Village People’s 1979 hit Go West but on a crisp autumn day in south-west Wales the lyrics fit the mood perfectly, for in the open air, where the skies are blue, life is peaceful at Ffos Las.

And of course from just about anywhere in Britain, far west is the only direction to get here. From its origin near the urban hub of Hammersmith, the M4 reaches 200 miles and 49 junctions to the west. Ignoring the first 47 of the motorway’s exits, Ffos Las is a 20-mile climb through rural Wales (you need not ask in which direction) from the 48th.

Nestled neatly between the former mining villages of Trimsaran and Carway, lies what was once the largest open-cast coal mine in Europe but which in 2009 became the first turf racecourse in 80 years to open in Britain.