Aberavon (Wales)
Aberavon (also Aberafon , Welsh Aberafan ) is a historic borough in Wales that became part of the city of Port Talbot .
At the beginning of the 12th century, Caradog ap Iestyn , the Welsh Lord of Afan , built a castle on the west bank of the mouth of the River Afan to protect a ford . The castle was destroyed in an attack by the Welsh prince Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1153 and was probably not rebuilt until the 13th century. A settlement was built around the castle, in which the church of St Mary is first mentioned in 1254. In 1304, Leisan de Avene , the Lord of Afan, gave the settlement its first charter . In the second half of the 14th century, the Lords of Glamorgan took control of Afan. Around 1373 Edward le Despenser , the Lord of Glamorgan, confirmed the charter to the borough. The castle, on the other hand, was probably no longer inhabited at this time and fell into disrepair; its remains were dismantled and built over between 1876 and 1897. The small town was affected by floods several times, including a. during the great floods of the Bristol Channel in 1607 . When the River Afan flooded on July 25, 1768, St Mary's Church was badly damaged and the bridge over the Afan was destroyed. A new single arch bridge was built according to plans by William Edwards , this was replaced by a larger bridge in the 19th century. Industrialization began as early as the beginning of the 18th century with the establishment of iron works , and from 1770 a copper works was built near the city. At the beginning of the 19th century, more industrial operations emerged and the population of the borough rose rapidly. In the 19th century, the old, tidal port was no longer able to cope with the growing traffic, which is why Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot began building a new port around 1836 , which was soon called Port Talbot . In 1860 the rapidly growing industrial city received a new charter, in 1921 the Borough of Aberavon was merged with the Margam Urban District Council to form the Borough of Port Talbot .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ British listed Buildings: Church of St Mary, Aberavon. Retrieved September 4, 2015 .
- ^ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan. Volume III - Part I: The early castles. RCAHMW, 1991, ISBN 0-11-300035-9 , p. 155