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Aberavon RFC Players
Aberavon () is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town. Aberavon is also the name of the nearby Blue Flag beach and the parish covering the same area. History Little is known about Aberavon before Norman times. Bronze Age remains have been found in the hills behind the town. Roman artifacts have been found near the sea, including when the docks were being built in the 19th century. About 1090 the invading Normans deposed Iestyn ap Gwrgant, the ruler of Glamorgan. His son, Caradog ab Iestyn, was the only Welsh lord to retain lands in Glamorgan – the area between the Afan and Neath rivers – and he became the first of the Lords of Afan. Caradoc built a castle in Aberafan near the present site of St Mary's Church. This wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neath Port Talbot
Neath Port Talbot () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South West Wales, 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 List of Welsh principal areas by population, populous local authority area in Wales and the third most populous county borough. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 139,812. 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. Geography 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 the lower-lyi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Le Despencer, 1st Baron Le Despencer
Edward le Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser (24 March 1336, Essendine – 11 November 1375) was the son of another Edward le Despenser and Anne Ferrers, sister of Henry, Lord Ferrers of Groby. He succeeded as Lord of Glamorgan in 1349. Le Despencer went with Edward the Black Prince to France, and was present at the Battle of Poitiers. In recognition of his conduct in the French wars, he was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1357. At the same time, he also became a Order of the Garter, Knight of the Garter. He was a friend and patron of Jean FroissartWilliam Caferro, ''John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy'' (2006), p. 134. and the eldest brother of Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich. There is a statue of him on the top of the Holy Trinity Chantry Chapel in Tewkesbury Abbey, renowned as the "KNEELING KNIGHT". Family Edward married Elizabeth le Despencer, Baroness le Despencer, Elizabeth de Burghersh, daughter of Bartholomew de Burghersh, 2nd Baron B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenfig
Kenfig () is a village and former borough in Bridgend, Wales. It is situated inland on the north bank of the Bristol Channel, and just south-west of the M4 motorway. To the east is the town of Bridgend, at approximately , and the capital city of Cardiff, at . To the west lies Port Talbot, at approximately , and Swansea at approximately . Geography The area of sand dunes and the pool at Kenfig are managed by Bridgend County Borough Council as Kenfig Pool National Nature Reserve, the area designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The reserve has a visitor and interpretation centre, and a car park. The dunes are home to a variety of rare and endangered species of plants and animals, including a high concentration of fen orchid (or ''Liparis loeselii''). The current village, built further inland, is a continuation of the mediaeval one. Landmarks include ruins of Kenfig Castle. The Kenfig Burrows beach is used by naturists. History The village was established in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Talbot Steelworks
Port Talbot Steelworks is a steel mill in Port Talbot, Wales. It is the largest steelworks in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in the world. Over 4,000 people worked at the plant until the last blast furnace closed in October 2024. Around 2,000 employees remain after this time, processing imported steel slabs to produce rolled steel products. The mill is in the process of building a 320-ton capacity electric arc furnace which would be operational in late 2027. The majority of the steel slabs produced before September 2024 were rolled on-site at Port Talbot and at the Newport Llanwern site to make a variety of steel strip products. The remainder was processed at other Tata Steel plants or sold in slab form. After September 2024 imported steel slabs are used as inputs at those rolling plants. The works covers a large area of land which dominates the east of the town. Its two inactive blast furnaces and steel production plant buildings are major landmarks visible from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandfields, Port Talbot
Sandfields () is a mainly residential district of Port Talbot, Wales. The area is located in South Wales on a narrow coastal plain between Mynydd Dinas and the sea. The M4 motorway, A48 trunk road and South Wales Main Line run nearby. The area includes a council estate, industrial areas and a seaside resort at Aberavon Beach. Background The Sandfields estate, consisting mainly of semi-detached houses, was built between 1947 and 1955 to initially house workers for Port Talbot steelworks. In 2017, 1,800 of the 3,000 homes were owned by a social housing provider. Government The area encompasses the electoral wards of Sandfields West and Sandfields East, part of the Neath Port Talbot unitary authority. Prior to 1974 Sandfields was a ward to Glamorgan County Council, represented by a Labour Party councillor. Social conditions The two electoral wards covering Sandfields were ranked in top 50 most deprived wards in Wales in the 2000 Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aberavon Beach
Aberavon Beach (), also known as Aberavon Sands, is a three-mile (5 km) stretch of sandy beach on the north-eastern edge of Swansea Bay in Port Talbot, Wales. With its high breaker waves, it is popular with surfers. Aberavon Beach was awarded Blue Flag status in December 2007 and features in the ''Good Beach Guide'' published by the Marine Conservation Society. A traditional "bucket and spade" resort for the South Wales Valleys during the 1940s, '50s and '60s, Aberavon Beach was once an area of sand dunes known as Aberavon Burrows. Changing economic and social conditions led to the decline of the resort, but in 1998 the local authority published a strategy to improve the physical environment of the area and increase tourism. New facilities completed since then have included an amphitheatre, piazza and skateboard park, while a six-screen Reel Cinema opened next to the Afan Lido as part of a development called "Hollywood Park". However, associated plans for a bowling alley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taibach
Taibach, also spelled as , is a community and suburban district of Port Talbot, Wales. It is a settlement centered on the main A48 road, sandwiched between the river Ffrwdwyllt and Margam. Parts of Margam are within the community boundaries. History The "little houses" of Taibach sprang up at the beginning of the 19th century in the parish of Margam as homes for colliery and other industrial workers, some way away from the historic village centre of Margam. With the expansion of industrial activity in the parish, and, in particular, the foundation of the new port at Port Talbot, the whole area became a single conurbation, as it remains, and Taibach was subsumed within it. Amenities The stretch of the A48 road through the area is the main shopping street and is named Commercial Road in the area. The area has a Carnegie library and is next to the Talbot Memorial Park, an urban park. In the grounds of the park lies St Theodore's Church. The parish church was built in 1901 b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cwmafan
Cwmafan (), also known as Cwmavon, is a large village and community in the Afan valley in Wales, lying within Neath Port Talbot County Borough. It had a population of 6,538 in 2011, increasing slightly to 5,615 at the 2011 Census. Cwmafan is known for having a high percentage of Welsh speakers. In many ways it is a suburb of the nearby town of Port Talbot which is less than to the south. The literal translation of ''Cwmafan'' from Welsh to English is complex, Cwm means valley with Afan as the name of the river flowing through, hence the village residing within the Afan Valley. It could be a version of Afon which means river, so literally the "River Valley", this is common in Wales and the UK with many rivers being called Afon or Avon. There is also a Saint Afan, which it is possible the river was named after. There have been other suggestions but none accepted locally. Geography The village is surrounded by hills: the biggest is Foel Fynyddau, which stands 370 m (1200&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margam Castle
Margam Castle, Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, is a late Georgian country house built for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. Designed by Thomas Hopper, the castle was constructed in a Tudor Revival style over a five-year period, from 1830 to 1835. The site had been occupied for some 4,000 years. A Grade I listed building, the castle is now in the care of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. The castle stands within Margam Country Park, the former estate to the house. The park is listed at Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. History The Margam estate was occupied in the Iron Age, and the remains of a hill fort from that period, Mynydd-y-Castell, stands north of the castle. After the Norman invasion of Wales, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, and Lord of Glamorgan, granted the lands at Margam to Clairvaux Abbey, for the establishment of a new Cistercian monastery which became Margam Abbey. Following the Dissolution of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merthyr Rising
The Merthyr Rising, also referred to as the Merthyr Riots, of 1831 was the violent climax to many years of simmering unrest among the large working class population of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales and the surrounding area. The Rising marked the first time the red flag was used a symbol of working class rebellion in the United Kingdom. Beginnings Throughout May 1831 the coal miners and others who worked for William Crawshay, took to the streets of Merthyr Tydfil, calling for reform, protesting against the lowering of their wages and general unemployment. Gradually the protest spread to nearby industrial towns and villages and by the end of May the whole area was in rebellion, and it is believed that for the first time the red flag of revolution was flown as a symbol of workers' revolt. Events After storming Merthyr town, the rebels sacked the local debtors' court and the goods that had been collected. Account books containing debtors' details were also destroyed. Among the shouts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dic Penderyn
Richard Lewis (1807/8 – 13 August 1831), known as Dic Penderyn, was a Welsh labourer and coal miner who lived in Merthyr Tydfil and was involved with the Merthyr Rising of 3 June 1831. In the course of the riot he was arrested alongside Lewis Lewis, one of the primary figures in the uprising, and charged with stabbing a soldier with a bayonet. The people of Merthyr Tydfil doubted his guilt, and signed a petition for his release. However, he was found guilty and hanged on 13 August 1831. After his death he was treated as a martyr in Merthyr and across Wales. Early life Richard Lewis was born in Aberavon, Glamorgan, Wales in 1807 or 1808, in a cottage named ''Penderyn''. He was the son of Lewis Lewis, a cordwainer and later a miner from Cornelly, and his wife, Margaret. He moved to Merthyr Tydfil with his family in 1819, where he and his father found work in the mines. He was literate with some chapel schooling. His family were Methodists, and his sister Elizabeth married the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol Channel Floods, 1607
The Bristol Channel floods of 30 January 1607 drowned many people and destroyed a large amount of farmland and livestock during a flood in the Bristol Channel. The known tide heights, probable weather, extent and depth of flooding, and coastal flooding elsewhere in the British Isles on the same day all point to the cause being a storm surge rather than a tsunami. Description On 30 January 1607, around noon, the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary experienced coastal and tidal flooding in many counties. Pre-dating any modern flood defence construction low-lying land in Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, and across South Wales was flooded. The devastation was particularly severe on the Welsh side, extending from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire to above Chepstow in Monmouthshire. Cardiff was the most badly affected town, with the foundations of St Mary's Church destroyed. The impact was extensive: it is estimated that 2,000 or more people were drowned; houses and villa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
