Taibach, also spelled as , is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

district of

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community (Wales), community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which d ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It is a settlement centered on the main

A48 road The A48 is a trunk road in Great Britain running from the A40 at Highnam, west of Gloucester, England, to the A40 at Carmarthen, Wales. Before the Severn Bridge opened on 8 September 1966, it was a major route between England and South Wale ...

, sandwiched between the river Ffrwdwyllt and

Margam Margam is a suburb and community (Wales), community of Port Talbot in the Wales, Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway. The community had a population of 3,017 in 2011; the built up area being l ...

. 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 A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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

, the whole area became a single

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

, as it remains, and Taibach was subsumed within it.

Amenities

The stretch of the

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 A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

. In the grounds of the park lies St Theodore's Church. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

was built in 1901 by Miss Emily Talbot in honour of Saint

Theodore of Tarsus Theodore of Tarsus (; 60219 September 690) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus, but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After studying there, he relocated to ...

, and in remembrance of her late brother of the same name. The eastern border of the park is formed by the Ffrwdwyllt

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

. Ffrwdwyllt literally translates to 'wild torrent' in English. The river is popular among local anglers, especially in late autumn. To the east of the area is the Eastern

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, the primary school attended by actor

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...

, under his real name of Richard Jenkins. The old Eastern Primary School is now the Taibach Community Education Centre, and was built the same year as Margam Castle in 1831. Taibach has its own Taibach Rugby Club. The Labour politician and life peer Lord Heycock of Taibach took his title from this area, which had been the home of the Heycock family since about 1800.

Government and politics

Taibach falls within the

parliamentary constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Aberavon 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 Por ...

. Since the 2022 local elections Taibach has been part of the Margam and Tai-bach

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

(including

and Margam Moors), which elects three councillors to

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (or simply Neath Port Talbot Council) is the local authority for the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, one of the 22 Principal areas of Wales, principal areas of Wales. The council was controlled by the ...

. Taibach was the name of the electoral ward for Taibach prior to the 2022 elections, coterminous to the

. The

of Taibach included the district of Taibach and parts of Margam to the southwest and the village of Goytre to the north. However, most of the ward is open countryside and

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

spread over a steep hill. In the 2017 local council elections, the results were: In the 2012 local council elections, the electorate turnout was 38.99%. The results were:

Activity

*''

SNAC Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) is an online project for discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records in regard to individual people, families, and organizations. The project SNAC is a digital research project t ...

'' (27 April 1993 – present) ()

Nearest places

Port Talbot docks The Port of Port Talbot is located on the River Afan estuary next to Port Talbot Steelworks in the industrial town of Port Talbot, South Wales. The whole basin complex covers about , consisting of: an inner set of floating docks, developed from ...

* Goytre *

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. Aro ...

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Taibach and surrounding area
{{Neath Port Talbot communities Former wards of Neath Port Talbot Communities in Neath Port Talbot