Port Talbot

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Coordinates: 51°35′26″N 3°47′55″W / 51.59055°N 3.79859°W / 51.59055; -3.79859

Port Talbot
Welsh: Aberafan/Porth Talbot
Port Talbot Centre.jpg
Port Talbot Centre
Port Talbot is located in Wales2
Port Talbot

 Port Talbot shown within Wales
Population 35,633 
OS grid reference SS755895
Principal area Neath Port Talbot
Ceremonial county West Glamorgan
Country Wales
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town PORT TALBOT
Postcode district SA12, SA13
Dialling code 01639
Police South Wales
Fire Mid and West Wales
Ambulance Welsh
EU Parliament Wales
UK Parliament Aberavon
Welsh Assembly Aberavon
List of places: UK • Wales • Neath Port Talbot

Port Talbot (Welsh: Aberafan or Porth Talbot) is an industrial town in south Wales, UK, with a population of 35,633 in 2001.[1] Port Talbot is now a part of the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot county borough.

Contents

[edit] History

Arms of Port Talbot

The town grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan (English name Aberavon), which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan became industrialised following the establishment of a copperworks in 1770. A dock was opened in 1839 and named for the Talbot family,[2] local landowners who were related to the pioneer photographer, William Henry Fox Talbot. The Talbots were patrons of Margam Abbey, an ancient Cistercian foundation, and also built Margam Castle. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890) (Liberal Member of Parliament for Glamorgan from 1830 until his death) saw the potential of his property as a site for an extensive ironworks, which opened in early 1831.

CRM Talbot's daughter Emily Charlotte Talbot (1840-1918) inherited her father's fortune and became just as notable in the development of ports and railways. With assistance from engineers Charles Meik and Patrick Meik, she set about creating a port and railway system to attract business away from Cardiff and Swansea. The Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company opened a dock at Port Talbot and the Llyfni Railway in 1897, followed by the Ogmore Valley Extension and the South Wales Mineral Junction Railway (almost all these lines were closed as part of the Beeching Axe cuts in the mid 1960s, but some bridges and viaducts remain and many of these railway routes have re-emerged as recreational cycle tracks). By 1900, the dock was exporting over 500,000 tons of coal; it reached a peak of over three million tons in 1923. In the same year, the borough of Port Talbot was created, incorporating Margam, Cwmavon and the older town of Aberavon.[2]

In 1952 the completion of the Abbey Works made Port Talbot the home of one of Europe's largest steelworks and (with 18,000 employees) the largest employer in Wales. This was followed by the establishment of a chemical plant at Baglan Bay by BP in the 1960s. In 1970 a new deep-water harbour was opened by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, capable of discharging iron ore vessels of 100,000 deadweight,[3] a tenfold improvement on the old dock. By the early 21st century, due to further modification and dredging, the harbour is capable of harbouring vessels of over 170,000 deadweight.[4] Following the demise of the West Glamorgan county council, the Port Talbot borough council was absorbed into the larger unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot in 1996.


[edit] Geography

Margam Castle, not far from the Abbey

The town is built along the eastern rim of Swansea Bay in a narrow strip of coastal plane surrounding the River Afan estuary. Swansea is visible on the opposite side of Swansea Bay. The local beach along the edge of the bay is known as Aberavon Sands which is situated between the River Afan and the River Neath. The other beach in Port Talbot is Margam Sands (or more popularly known as Morfa Beach). The north eastern edge of the town is marked by the River Neath. A very significant landmark in the town is the Port Talbot Steelworks.

Air quality is relatively poor over a large area of the town. In 2007 there were 45 exceedences of the European and National allowed Pm10 limits, which are set at 35 exceedences.

[edit] Sport

Sporting teams in Port Talbot include:

Margam Forest to the northeast of the Port Talbot is used as a venue for a stage of the annual Wales Rally GB. In the past, the rally route has traversed Margam Country Park.

Afan Forest Park to the north of the town has a number of dedicated mountain biking trails.

Port Talbot has an array of higher-level football. With two historically dominant football teams in the town (Port Talbot Town F.C. and Afan Lido F.C.), also Welsh Football League First Division high-flyers Goytre United F.C. are based just outside of Port Talbot. The town's nearest Welsh Premier League team is Neath Athletic A.F.C, which is only located a few miles away from Port Talbot. Llanelli A.F.C., Swansea City F.C. and Cardiff City F.C. are also large clubs which are in close vaccinity of Port Talbot.

[edit] Education

There are five comprehensive schools situated within the Port Talbot area:

A campus of Neath Port Talbot College is located in the Margam area. The Margam campus was previously called Afan College.

[edit] Community Archives Wales, Port Talbot Historical Society

Port Talbot Historical Society is a society founded in 1954 and based in Sandfields Library, in the Communities First area of Sandfields.

The group is dedicated to the research and recording of local history and have published a number of books over the years. There is a core of 10 -15 active members who will be engaged in the Community Archives Wales project aiming to archive this information digitally.

[edit] Media

In 2005 the area was granted its first dedicated radio station when Afan FM, the inspiration of a group of local young people headed by 19-year-old Craig Williams - [4] - was awarded a 5 year licence by Ofcom to serve Port Talbot and its neighbouring town of Neath. Afan FM currently transmits to the area on 107.9FM and online via its website. The station is based at its new broadcasting centre on Aberavon Seafront. The station also transmits to the neighbouring town of Neath on 97.4FM.

The area is also served by The Wave (96.4MHz), Swansea Bay Radio (102.1MHz), Real Radio (106MHz) and Nation Radio (107.3MHz) as well as the BBC. Radio Phoenix also operates a Hospital Radio service for the patients & staff of Neath Port Talbot Hospital in Baglan Moors.

The town is served by several newspapers. The Port Talbot Guardian was a weekly paper published by Media Wales, part of the Trinity Mirror group, but ceased publication in October 2009. The Swansea-based daily South Wales Evening Post and the weekly Courier and Tribune are also distributed in the town and are published by South West Wales Publications, part of the Northcliffe Media group.

Neath Port Talbot Council publish a quarterly newsletter entitled "Pride" - which is delivered to every home in the Neath Port Talbot area.

Can i gymru is usually filmed in Port Talbot.

[edit] Transport

Port Talbot is served by the South Wales Main Line at Port Talbot Parkway railway station where there are local as well as direct intercity trains to Swansea, Cardiff, London and Manchester. Port Talbot bus station, located adjacent to the Aberafan Centre in the centre of the town is the main bus transport hub in the town. It is a National Express stop. Local bus services are provided by First Cymru, South Wales Transport & Veolia Transport Cymru . The bus station's layout is very distinctive for the fact that buses always have to perform a 270° clockwise turn to exit the station.

The M4 motorway cuts through the town from south east to north west, crossing a central area on a concrete viaduct, junctions 38 to 41 serve Port Talbot, with junctions 40 and 41 being in the commercial heart of the town. This busy urban stretch of the M4, with tight bends, 2-lane carriageways, short narrow slip roads and concrete walls on both sides, was the first length of motorway in Wales when it opened to traffic in 1966.[5] The road has a speed limit of 50 mph enforced with a speed camera in the Eastbound direction. The stretch through Port Talbot town centre is a particular traffic congestion blackspot and there have been calls to close the slip roads at junctions 40 and 41 to improve traffic flow.[6] However some commuters oppose this plan since it would add more time to their journey. A new dual carriageway relief road, the Port Talbot Peripheral Distribution Road (PDR)[5], is planned for completion in 2012. The new carriageway will serve as a distributor road to the south west of Port Talbot, beginning at M4 Junction 38 ending near Junction 41.

The Port Talbot Docks complex consist of an inner set of floating docks and an outer tidal basin. Construction of the tidal basin began in 1964 and the whole basin covers about 500 acres.[7] The tidal basin is capable of handling ships of up to 170,000 dwt and is used mostly for the import of iron ore and coal for use by nearby Port Talbot Steelworks. The inner floating docks were constructed in 1898[8] and were closed in 1959. They were re-opened in 1998 for commercial shipping but in March 2007 for the import of some steel products [9] and are capable of handling ships of up to 8,000 dwt.[10] There have been proposals for the development of an intermodal freight terminal at the port.

[edit] Economy

Water vapour rises in front of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot Steelworks

Heavy industry is a visible feature of Port Talbot's economy. The coastal strip of the town features Port Talbot Steelworks, a large BOC industrial gases plant and a gas-fired power station. Three further power plants are being planned or commissioned, they are at Margam adjacent to the BOC plant, near the Aberavon Beach sea front and a recently announced £60m project within Corus to utilise by-product gases.

On 20 November 2007, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) granted consent for the world's largest biomass power station to be built at Port Talbot.[11] This is expected to begin operation in 2010, and to provide enough electricity (from wood from environmentally-managed forests, mostly in North America) to supply half the homes in Wales with electricity.

Potential future development currently centres around the peripheral distributor road to the south, Baglan Industrial Park and Baglan Energy park to the west, Port Talbot Docks to the southwest, Margam Country Park to the east and the Afan valley to the north. In March 2009 Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council announced a regeneration project for Port Talbot town centre and docks, with a masterplan for new homes, offices, light industry, retail developments and improvements to the railway station.[12]

[edit] Blue Flag Beach

The beach area of the town has recently been improved and the council have announced it has been awarded the Blue Flag beach status for water quality and beach facilities. [13]. In 2008 the beach failed to meet the blue flag criteria of 80% or higher of the seawater samples taken being excellent quality. [14] These samples are used to determine if a blue flag can be flown in 2009 [15].

[edit] Notable Port Talbot people

(in alphabetical order)

[edit] Sea Rescue

Port Talbot Coastguard celebrates its centenary in 2008 with a proud history of rescues in the last 100 years. The crew are now the mud rescue team for the Swansea Bay area.

2007 was a typically busy year with a beached whale making world news. They also took part in flood relief efforts in Gloucester and while all are volunteers, they spent Christmas morning responding to pagers after it was thought a whale had come ashore once more which turned out to be a log, much to everyone's relief. Updates can be found at http://www.ptcg.co.uk

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/census2001/ks_ua_ew_part1.pdf
  2. ^ a b John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur I. Lynch, ed (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 697. 
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
  5. ^ The Motorway Archive. M4 in Wales - Coryton to Baglan
  6. ^ ‘End road chaos by closing M4 slip road’ - icWales
  7. ^ Port Talbot Coastguard Search and Rescue Emergency Team History
  8. ^ Complete.pdf
  9. ^ Port Talbot Docks Handles First Steel Cargo For Nearly Four Decades
  10. ^ Associated British Ports
  11. ^ BBC NEWS | Wales | South West Wales | £400m wood chip plant approved
  12. ^ NPT CBC - Port Talbot Consultation
  13. ^ Press Releases - 22 May 2008
  14. ^ [3]
  15. ^ http://www.blueflag.org/Materiale/Download+docs/BeachCriteriaExplanatoryNotes2008
  16. ^ Page Title

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Electoral wards of Neath Port Talbot county borough
Aberavon
Neath
v • d • e
Communities of Neath Port Talbot county borough
v • d • e
Local government in Wales
Principal areas
established in 1996
Counties and districts
1974–1996
Counties
established before 1889
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