41-622: Llandarcy is a village near Neath in the Neath Port Talbot county borough , Wales , and was the site of the first oil refinery in the United Kingdom. It was originally designed as a garden village to house the workers for the BP refinery built between 1918 and 1922. The village is near junction 43 of the M4 motorway . Llandarcy was chosen as a site for a refinery because Neath Rural District Council
82-813: A campus located at Baglan Energy Park in Port Talbot. The Baglan campus houses a Renewable Hydrogen Research and Development Centre. A separate daily edition of the South Wales Evening Post is published for the Neath Port Talbot area. The paper's publisher, Reach plc , also produces a free weekly paper, the Neath Port Talbot Courier , which is inserted in Thursday's edition of the South Wales Evening Post. The local council publishes
123-601: A domestic, Welsh Premier League game, which was typical of the Welsh Premier League. After Neath became a municipal borough in 1835, the borough council was based at Neath Town Hall in Church Place before relocating to Gwyn Hall in Orchard Street in 1888. Neath District Council, which was formed in 1974, was absorbed into the larger unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot on 1 April 1996. The town encompasses
164-501: A doorman, lorry and bus driver, died of lung cancer on 17 June 1990, at the age of 49, and took his secret with him to the grave. The BP refinery also operated a sports and leisure club. When the refinery closed in 1998, the leisure facilities were acquired by Llandarcy Park Ltd. They redeveloped the site to a new health and fitness club, a restaurant and hotel. Llandarcy hosts the Virgin Active Health & Racquets Club, formerly
205-616: A large Roman marching camp that would have accommodated thousands of troops. These finds indicate some of the unusual measures the Romans took during the resistance of the native Silures . The fort at Neath was abandoned around 125 AD for fifteen years and again around 170 AD for a century before the final Roman withdrawal around 320 AD. The Antonine Itinerary ( c. 2nd century ) names Nido (or Nidum ) as one of nine places in Roman Wales . St Illtyd visited
246-449: A new transmitter for the Neath area. This would give residents of Neath access to the radio station, which already transmitted to the neighbouring area of Port Talbot . The new transmitter for the Neath area was commissioned by Government regulator Ofcom on Thursday 23 October 2008. Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot ( Welsh : Castell-nedd Port Talbot ) is a county borough in
287-773: A quarterly, Community Spirit , produced and funded in conjunction with seven other public sector partners. Community radio station is XS broadcasts to both Neath (97.4) and Port Talbot (107.9). Nation Radio Wales briefly broadcast to the wider South Wales region from studios in Neath, but is now based in Cardiff. The county borough is within the local commercial radio licence areas of Hits Radio South Wales , its sister station Greatest Hits Radio South Wales , Swansea Bay Radio and Heart South Wales . Neath Port Talbot used to be twinned with: In 2015, Neath Port Talbot terminated all its twin city relationships for financial reasons. The following people and military units have received
328-592: Is a market town and community situated in the Neath Port Talbot County Borough , Wales . The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,258 in 2011. Historically in Glamorgan , the town is located on the River Neath , seven miles (eleven kilometres) east-northeast of Swansea . The town's English name ultimately derives from " Nedd "
369-544: Is a conservation area as its construction followed the lines of the Cadbury village. The village was the site of the murders of schoolgirls Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd in 1973. Their killer's identity remained a mystery until 29 years later, in 2002, when DNA evidence was taken by South Wales Police from the grave of Joseph Kappen , confirming him as the killer. Kappen, who lived in Sandfields, Port Talbot and worked as
410-537: Is at Victoria Gardens, a five-minute walk from the railway station. National Express services call at the railway station. From Victoria Gardens, First Cymru provides direct inter-urban services to nearby Swansea and Port Talbot in addition to South Wales Transport who provide many similar local services. The A465 skirts the town to the north east and provides a link to the M4 . In 2008 plans were announced to regenerate around 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land in and around Neath town centre. The site once occupied by
451-536: Is evident by a number of Celtic hill forts , surrounding the town. The Romans also recognised the area's strategic importance and built an Auxiliary Fort on the river's Western bank around 74 AD. Much of the site is on the grounds of Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School but archaeological digs have also found gate-towers that extended out beyond the fort's walls (a feature unique in Roman Britain) and
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#1732855983795492-575: Is provided by a range of institutions. St. Joseph's Catholic School & Sixth Form Centre in Port Talbot and Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera have traditional sixth form settings. NPTC Group operates from several sites within the county borough. The largest sites are located in Neath, Port Talbot and Pontardawe. The first dedicated higher education site in Neath Port Talbot opened in 2015 when Swansea University opened its science and innovation campus in Crymlyn Burrows . The University of South Wales has
533-403: Is the largest employer with approximately 3,000 staff (although in 1979 its predecessor employed 12,600); other large employers include General Electric , Hi-Lex Cable Systems Ltd (closing in 2021 ), TRW Steering Systems recently closed, Envases (UK) Ltd, Crown Food UK & Ireland, Toyoda Koki, Sofidel , Cornelius Electronics, Excel Electronics Assemblies, and Tedeco. Port Talbot is also
574-534: The Provincial League but, because of local problems, a number of the "home" fixtures were raced at St Austell . The Dragons introduced the Australian rider Charlie Monk to British speedway. After a season at Long Eaton Archers , Monk went on to have considerable success at Glasgow . The team also featured South African Howdy Cornell. In the early 1960s there was also stock car racing held at Neath Abbey, opposite
615-483: The Swansea Urban Area . The population in the region reached its peak in the 1930s. Census figures show a population of 151,563 in 1931. The population has shown a steady decline throughout the rest of the 20th century. The population stood at 134,471 in 2001. In the 1990s, most areas within the region showed a fall or little change in population with the notable exception of Bryncoch South and Margam where
656-724: The electoral wards of Neath East , Neath North , Neath South and Cimla . For the House of Commons at Westminster, Neath and the surrounding area are part of the Neath constituency. As of 2021 , its Member of Parliament (MP) is Christina Rees of the Labour Party . In the Senedd , the Neath Senedd constituency is represented by Jeremy Miles ( Labour ), and by the wider South Wales West electoral region which returns four additional Members of
697-460: The south-west of Wales . Its principal towns are Neath , Port Talbot , Briton Ferry and Pontardawe . The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf to the east, Powys and Carmarthenshire to the north; and Swansea to the west. Neath Port Talbot is the eighth-most populous local authority area in Wales and the third most populous county borough. The population at
738-435: The 2022 local elections, Labour failed to retain control over the council after losing several council seats. The unitary authority contains two whole constituencies which are: In 1991 Neath & Port Talbot was a distinct travel to work area (albeit with different boundaries to the current county borough), but the 2001-based revision has merged the locality into a wider Swansea Bay travel to work area. In June 2008,
779-574: The English kings Henry II , John , and Edward I visited. Neath was a market town that expanded with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century with new manufacturing industries of iron , steel and tinplate . The Mackworth family , who owned the Gnoll Estate were prominent in the town's industrial development. Coal was mined extensively in the surrounding valleys and
820-536: The Glamorgan Health & Racquets Club, which has a range of indoor and outdoor sports facilities, and the Llandarcy Academy of Sport, which has one of only two indoor grass training fields in Wales. The disused land from the scaling down of the oil refinery has found a number of new uses. Part of the site is now occupied by offices of Natural Resources Wales . The land near the old refinery entrance close to
861-683: The Gnoll Park, and Neath Indoor Market . Neath hosted the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1918, 1934 and 1994. The Welsh Rugby Union was formed at a meeting held at the Castle Hotel in 1881. Neath Rugby Football Club , the famous and successful "Welsh All Blacks", play at The Gnoll . Motorcycle speedway was staged at the Abbey Stadium in Neath in 1962. The Welsh Dragons, led by New Zealander Trevor Redmond , raced with some success in
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#1732855983795902-696: The M4 junction 43 is now a business park. All of the remaining brownfield land occupied by the refinery is being re-developed into a new village called Coed Darcy . The Prince's Trust is an interested party in this development, which seeks to develop the site as an "urban village" in the same vein as the Poundbury village project in Dorset . 51°38′25.00″N 3°50′53.00″W / 51.6402778°N 3.8480556°W / 51.6402778; -3.8480556 Neath Neath ( / n iː θ / ; Welsh : Castell-nedd )
943-563: The Neath area and established a settlement in what is now known as Llantwit on the northern edge of the town. The church of St Illtyd was built at this settlement and was enlarged in Norman times. The Norman and pre-Norman church structure remains intact and active to day within the Church in Wales . The Welsh language name for Neath is Castell-nedd , referring to the Norman Neath Castle,
984-549: The October 2024 about 141,900. The population in the coastal areas is mainly English-speaking, whereas in the valleys in the north of the borough there are many who are Welsh-speaking. The local authority area stretches from the coast to the border of the Brecon Beacons National Park . The majority of the land is upland or semi-upland and 43% is covered by forestry with major conifer plantations in upland areas. Most of
1025-550: The Senedd (MSs). As with the rest of the British Isles , Neath experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters, often high winds, and low sunshine levels. Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School is situated on the outskirts of the town, opposite a campus of NPTC Group (which was previously Neath Port Talbot College . Cefn Saeson Comprehensive School is in the village of Cimla . Two other comprehensive schools serve
1066-571: The construction of canals and railways made Neath a major transportation centre and the Evans and Bevan families were major players in the local coal mining community as well as owning the Vale of Neath Brewery. Silica was mined in the Craig-y-Dinas area of Pontneddfechan , after Quaker entrepreneur William Weston Young invented the blast furnace silica firebrick , later moving brick production from
1107-492: The economic activity and employment rates in Neath Port Talbot were below the Welsh average. However, earnings for full-time workers were higher than either the Welsh or British average. Manufacturing accounts for over 22% of jobs in the county borough compared to under than 14% in Wales as a whole; just under 70% of local jobs are in services compared to a Welsh average of nearly 80%. The Port Talbot Steelworks , operated by Tata ,
1148-466: The flatter areas of the valleys and some parts of the coast. Neath with a population of 47,020 is the largest town, followed by Port Talbot (35,633), Briton Ferry (7,186), Pontardawe (5,035), and Glynneath (4,368). The majority of the population live in the coastal plain around Port Talbot and the land around the River Neath in the vicinity of Neath. Many of the larger towns in the borough lie within
1189-426: The lower-lying flat land is near the coast around Port Talbot. An extensive dune system stretches along much of the coast, broken by river mouths and areas of development. The upland areas are cut by five valleys: Vale of Neath , Dulais Valley , Afan Valley , Swansea Valley (or Tawe Valley), Upper Amman Valley . Modern settlement patterns reflect the industrial history of the area, with urban development along
1230-577: The monastery Neath Athletic A.F.C. was the town's largest football team, playing at Neath RFC 's ground, The Gnoll, and played in the top flight of Welsh football , the Welsh Premier League , until the club was wound up in 2012. In the 2006–07 season, Neath Athletic A.F.C. were promoted from the Welsh Football League First Division to the Welsh Premier League. Neath Athletic A.F.C. had an average of 300 supporters attending
1271-444: The new authority was announced. The whole of the Neath Port Talbot area was once part of the county of West Glamorgan , which in turn is part of the historic county of Glamorgan . Since local government re-organisation in 1996, Neath Port Talbot is governed by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council . Neath Port Talbot is a staunch Labour stronghold, who have been in power since the authority's formation in 1996; although after
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1312-554: The original Welsh name for the River Neath and is known to be Celtic or Pre-Celtic . A meaning of 'shining' or 'brilliant' has been suggested, as has a link to the older Indo-European root *-nedi (simply meaning 'river'). As such, the town may share its etymology with the town of Stratton, Cornwall and the River Nidd in Northern England. The town is located at a ford of the River Neath and its strategic situation
1353-542: The population grew by 47.29% and 41.36% respectively. Local council estimates show the population to have grown during the 2000s. On 1 April 1996, Neath Port Talbot was created from the former districts of Neath , Port Talbot and part of Lliw Valley . Originally known as "Neath and Port Talbot" in the legislation, the name change happened on the following day. At the time of the reorganisation, many local people expected that Neath and Port Talbot districts would become separate unitary authorities, and there were protests when
1394-531: The previous civic centre was to be redeveloped as a new shopping centre. The area around the Milland Road Industrial Estate and with the area around the Neath Canal were also to be redeveloped. The proposals included an "iconic" golden rugby ball-shaped museum, a library, heritage centre and other new facilities. In March 2008, the county's new radio station, Afan FM , announced plans to install
1435-473: The refinery were gradually scaled back in the late 20th century, and the site closed in 1998. The village was named after William Knox D'Arcy , a founding director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (the forerunner of BP). Consisting of exactly 100 houses and flats, each property was designed to be different, and they are all of stone construction, with a community centre and local shop. The village
1476-419: The site for Neath Port Talbot Hospital which is situated on Baglan Way, Port Talbot. The local Neath Port Talbot Council is the education authority in the area which operates primary schools and secondary schools within the county. The local education authority operates 6 infant schools, 6 junior schools, 56 primary schools, 11 secondary schools and 3 special schools. Further Education in Neath Port Talbot
1517-511: The son of the landlord of the Castle Hotel, served as a Royal Marines officer with Nelson aboard HMS Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar . The River Neath is a navigable estuary and Neath was a river port until recent times. The heavy industries are no more; the town is now a commercial and tourism centre. Attractions for visitors are the ruins of the Cistercian Neath Abbey ,
1558-720: The town: Llangatwg Comprehensive School in Cadoxton and Ysgol Bae Baglan in Baglan . Neath railway station is on the South Wales Main Line . Great Western Railway and Transport for Wales serve the station with services westbound to Swansea , Carmarthen and the West Wales Line and eastbound to Port Talbot Parkway , Bridgend , Cardiff Central and London Paddington . Trains also run via Hereford and Shrewsbury to Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly . Neath bus station
1599-467: The works at Pontwalby to the Green in Neath. The town continued as a market trading centre with a municipal cattle market run by W.B. Trick. Industrial development continued throughout the 20th century with the construction by BP of a new petroleum refinery at Llandarcy . Admiral Lord Nelson stayed at the Castle Hotel en route to Milford Haven when the fleet was at anchor there. Lt. Lewis Roatley,
1640-463: Was the only council in the country at that time which could guarantee the requisite daily volume of water required by the refinery. This was supplied from the recently constructed reservoir at Ystradfellte , which was proposed and promoted by Councillor Howells of Skewen. Llandarcy's proximity to Swansea docks , where crude oil could be transported by sea from the Middle East was incidental. Llandarcy
1681-526: Was the source of the fuel pipeline PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) which supplied fuel to the D-Day landings . The site was damaged by Luftwaffe bombing in 1940. At its peak the refinery was a major employer in South West Wales , with over 2,600 workers. However, it was also responsible for industrial pollution at nearby Crymlyn Bog , an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest . Operations at