Post by Penddu on May 9, 2020 15:30:28 GMT
Aberavon (Aberafan) constituency is based on the town of Port Talbot. It mostly follows a coastal strip squeezed between Swansea Bay and the rugged hills inland, and forms the eastern end of the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot.
The contituency name means the mouth of the river Afan (anglicized in spelling to Avon but not in pronunciation: A-van not ay-von) which runs down the Afan Valley through Port Talbot. Aberavon is also the name given to the local rugby team - and to the large 1970s housing estates to the west of the port.
The constituency is dominated by the huge Port Talbot steelworks. Originally built by the Steel Company of Wales - not a nationalised corporation but a private joint venture made of local steel companies - it employed 18,000 at its peak in the 1960s when it was the largest steel works in Europe. It was nationalised and privatised - not once but twice - and is now owned by Tata Steel. It is still the largest steelworks in UK and one of the largest in Europe but with an uncertain future due to unstoppable Chinese competition. The steelworks is still known locally as the Abbey Works, or simply as Margam - as it was originally named after the nearby Margam Abbey which overlooks the works.
The steel works were originally fed by locally produced coal and iron ore, but all raw materials are now imported through the port of Port Talbot - named after its 19th century developer Maunsel Talbot of Margam - and which later gave the town and steeworks its name.
The Baglan area was built around the Baglan Bay chemical refinery which closed in the 1990s, and Briton Ferry is best known for its two high level bridges on the A48 & M4 across the River Neath.
The constituency crosses the River Neath into the Coedffranc area of Neath, (more usually referred to as Jersey Marine) which was built around the former Llandarcy Oil Refinery, and also included the Ford Swansea factory. Both of these have now closed and have been replaced by modern housing estates and the new Swansea Bay campus of Swansea University.
To the northeast, the constituency reaches inland up the Afan Valley which is heavily forested and very rugged, and apart from a few isolated ex-mining communities such as Cymmer and Glyncorrwg is relativley unpopulated.
Politically this is a one-horse town, where Welsh Labour is absolutely dominant. One non-political claim to fame is that the constituency has arguably the highest number of Hollywood stars per capita of any Welsh (or maybe UK) constituency including the late Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen.
The contituency name means the mouth of the river Afan (anglicized in spelling to Avon but not in pronunciation: A-van not ay-von) which runs down the Afan Valley through Port Talbot. Aberavon is also the name given to the local rugby team - and to the large 1970s housing estates to the west of the port.
The constituency is dominated by the huge Port Talbot steelworks. Originally built by the Steel Company of Wales - not a nationalised corporation but a private joint venture made of local steel companies - it employed 18,000 at its peak in the 1960s when it was the largest steel works in Europe. It was nationalised and privatised - not once but twice - and is now owned by Tata Steel. It is still the largest steelworks in UK and one of the largest in Europe but with an uncertain future due to unstoppable Chinese competition. The steelworks is still known locally as the Abbey Works, or simply as Margam - as it was originally named after the nearby Margam Abbey which overlooks the works.
The steel works were originally fed by locally produced coal and iron ore, but all raw materials are now imported through the port of Port Talbot - named after its 19th century developer Maunsel Talbot of Margam - and which later gave the town and steeworks its name.
The Baglan area was built around the Baglan Bay chemical refinery which closed in the 1990s, and Briton Ferry is best known for its two high level bridges on the A48 & M4 across the River Neath.
The constituency crosses the River Neath into the Coedffranc area of Neath, (more usually referred to as Jersey Marine) which was built around the former Llandarcy Oil Refinery, and also included the Ford Swansea factory. Both of these have now closed and have been replaced by modern housing estates and the new Swansea Bay campus of Swansea University.
To the northeast, the constituency reaches inland up the Afan Valley which is heavily forested and very rugged, and apart from a few isolated ex-mining communities such as Cymmer and Glyncorrwg is relativley unpopulated.
Politically this is a one-horse town, where Welsh Labour is absolutely dominant. One non-political claim to fame is that the constituency has arguably the highest number of Hollywood stars per capita of any Welsh (or maybe UK) constituency including the late Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen.
