Port Talbot
| Port Talbot | |||
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| Coordinates | 51 ° 35 ′ N , 3 ° 48 ′ W | ||
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| Residents | 37,276 (as of 2011) | ||
| administration | |||
| Part of the country | Wales | ||
| region | South wales | ||
| Preserved County | West Glamorgan | ||
Port Talbot is a town in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot in Wales .
geography
The city lies at the confluence of the River Afan in Swansea Bay , in the northwest it extends to the confluence of the River Neath . Large parts of the residential development are on the steep slopes of the hills, which rise immediately behind the narrow coastal plain, while the narrow coastal plain is dominated by a steel mill and the large deep-sea port.
history
The Port Talbot region was settled before Roman times, but the city developed out of the medieval borough of Aberavon , which was built around a castle built in the early 12th century. The settlement received a first charter in 1302 from Leisan de Avene , Lord of the Welsh rule Afan , other settlements in the area were Baglan, Bryn, Cwmafan and Margam, where the Cistercian monastery Margam Abbey was founded in 1147 . Margam Abbey was dissolved during the Reformation until 1537 and was eventually acquired by Sir Rhys Mansel , who converted the monastery into a mansion. The mansion remained in the possession of the Mansel family and in 1750 was inherited by a branch of the Talbot family. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot built the new Margam Castle between 1830 and 1840 , which his descendants owned until 1941. In 1973 the mansion and park were acquired by Glamorgan County Council and the park has been freely accessible ever since.
Coal was already being dug in the Afan Valley in the Middle Ages , and in 1717 the Mansel family operated their first blast furnace for iron smelting . Around this time, coal mining in the Afan Valley was also expanded. From 1770, when the English Copper Company built a copper smelter in Taibach , the region began to develop rapidly. In 1820 the Margam Tinplate Works' tinplate plant was built in Aberavon, around the same time steel production began in Cwmafan. The copper smelter was also relocated to Cwmafan in 1835, while iron, copper and coal mining was carried out in the nearby Afan Valley. The medieval port was by far no longer sufficient for the increasing ship traffic, so that from 1836 Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot began building a new port. In 1850, the South Wales Railway , chaired by Talbot, reached the industrial town, unofficially named after the port of Port Talbot , since 1837 . In 1863 a railway through the Afan Valley connected Port Talbot to the South Welsh coal mines in the Rhondda Valley . From the last quarter of the 19th century, the importance of iron and steel production exceeded that of copper processing, and Port Talbot became an important export port for Welsh coal. In 1906 the Port Talbot Steel Works was founded. The population grew rapidly due to industrialization. Aberavon was already considered a dirty industrial town in the 1830s, and the cramped housing conditions led to severe cholera epidemics in 1832, 1849, 1855 and 1866 , until a sewerage system was built in 1868. In addition, there were numerous accidents in the mines, which often resulted in dozens of dead and injured. The sixth major accident in the Morfa coal mine since 1847 claimed 88 lives in 1890, and in 1913 the mine was closed.
In 1860 Aberafon received a new charter, after the First World War the Borough of Aberavon and the Margam Urban District Council were merged to form the Borough of Port Talbot in 1921 . As a result of the economic crisis after the Second World War, the Welsh steel industry was to be concentrated in Port Talbot, and from 1947 the Abbey Works , one of the largest steelworks in Europe, which in 1961 employed over 18,000 workers. Other branches of industry such as the tinplate works, however, were closed after the Second World War, but from 1961 a BP chemical plant was built near Baglan Bay, which was closed again by 2004. A gas-fired power plant was built in place of the chemical plant . In 1968 the last coal mine in Port Talbot was closed, until 1970 the deep water port was expanded. Despite several economic crises, Port Talbot's steel industry remains considered the most important in the UK.
The Borough of Port Talbot became part of the new County West Glamorgan in 1974 , and in 1996 it was combined with Neath and Pontardawe to form the new Neath Port Talbot County Borough.
Population development:
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1801 | 2175 |
| 1931 | 40,672 |
| 1965 | 51,322 |
| 2011 | 37.276 |
traffic
In 1966, a stilted motorway through Port Talbot opened as the M48, which is considered the first motorway in Wales. Today the route is part of the M4 , the inner city was relieved by the construction of bypasses until 2007. The city has a train station on the South Wales Main Line .
Sport, leisure and culture
Aberavon RFC rugby club was founded in Port Talbot in 1876, and the city's football clubs include Port Talbot Town and Afan Lido FC .
The city offers few historical sights, high expressways and the steel mill dominate the cityscape. The last remnants of Aberafon Castle had already been leveled and built over in 1895, from 1971 to 1976 large parts of the old town of Aberavon were demolished, for which a large shopping center was built. In 1972, in the nearby Afan Valley north of the city, a country park, today's Afan Forest Park , was set up as a recreational area; to the southwest is Margam Castle , whose park is also open to the public. With Aberavon Seafront , the city has a wide sandy beach with a promenade. To the southeast of the city is another beach, Margam Sands , also called Morfa Beach .
In 1932 the national iceddfod took place in Taibach Park and in 1966 in Port Talbot. At Easter 2011, Michael Sheen, who grew up in Port Talbot, performed the 72-hour play The Passion in Port Talbot, followed by the world premiere of the accompanying film The Gospel in us in 2012 .
sons and daughters of the town
- Peg Entwistle (1908–1932), American actress
- George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy (1909–1997), politician
- Geoffrey Howe (1926-2015), politician
- Bernard Fox (1927-2016), actor
- John Rees (1927–1994), actor
- Edwin Regan (* 1935), Bishop Emeritus of Wrexham
- Philip Jenkins (* 1952), historian
- James Hook (born 1985), rugby player
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Official population figures 2011 ( MS Excel ; 291 kB)
- ^ BBC Wales: Opening of the Abbey Steelworks, Port Talbot. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
- ^ Welsh History Month: Port Talbot's skyline is dominated by the towering blastfurnaces of its steelworks. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
- ^ Welsh History Month: The M4 in South Wales. Retrieved September 4, 2015 .
- ↑ Visit Neath Port Talbot: Port Talbot. Retrieved September 3, 2015 .
- ↑ Visit Neath Port Talbot: Aberavon Seafront. Retrieved September 2, 2015 .