Cwmbran used to be famous for two things: it was the largest town in the UK without a railway station, and it had Cwmbran Stadium.

Nearly every Saturday in the early 80s there was some international athletics match on BBC Grandstand, and there we all were, ringing up our families and saying 'switch on the telly, you can see where I live'.

And now? Well, we have a railway station, such as it is. Cwmbran Stadium's still there, having just had a refit, but it never seems to host anything major any more - certainly we don't get to ring anybody up and say 'switch on the telly ...'

Cwmbran Town Football Club occasionally manage to sneak into European competition and bring some Eastern European minnow to the town, but never anyone we'd heard of until the year they played Glasgow Celtic (left).
The away match had more people in the stadium than live in the whole of Cwmbran.

So what do we have? The biggest undercover shopping centre in Wales, apparently. Bluewater or Cribbs Causeway it isn't, but I suppose it's something to be proud of, except at Christmas when you can't get a parking space for love nor money. Actually you can't get a parking space for money because they're all free; perhaps that's a plus point. A big Sainsbury's, Asda, M&S, all the usual suspects.

Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre is worth a visit; cracking coffee shop and usually good exhibitions, depending on the time of year. The Community Farm is fun if you're into multi-coloured sheep or llamas (in fact finding a llama or two in a field in the town is fairly unusual, even for Wales).

Cwmbran does have a host of parks, sports facilities and swimming pools. I guess we don't know how well off we are for those until we go somewhere else, but it is pretty much possible to walk from one end of the town to the other through the parks, off the roads, and by the river.

But Cwmbran's main claim to fame? No more station-less; no more athletics on a Saturday afternoon, Cwmbran is immortalised in the car-window sticker seen all over Wales and spreading fast to the rest of the country. Anyone who's driven through Cwmbran will recognise it immediately, new town planner's disease.

The car sticker reads: 'Sorry if I'm driving in circles, I'm from Cwmbran, the home of the roundabout'. Because, boy, do we have roundabouts.