I Never Knew That About Wales by Christopher Winn

Author:Christopher Winn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Port Talbot and Margam

From Longest Orangery to Longest Steelworks

AT PORT TALBOT is one of the last remaining steelworks in Britain. Film director Ridley Scott said that Port Talbot at night, with its endless miles of fiery smoke stacks and belching chimneys, was the inspiration for his vision of the future in the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner. Port Talbot was once one of the biggest steelworks in Europe. The Abbey Works is over 1 mile (1.6 km) long.

Abbey

The abbey referred to is MARGAM ABBEY, just across the motorway to the south-east. It was founded as a Cistercian house in 1147 by Robert of Gloucester, and grew into one of the largest and wealthiest in Wales. Most of it has disappeared, but the magnificent Norman nave of the abbey church is now used as the parish church. Two campanile bell towers were added in the 19th century, giving the church an Italian look, all of which makes the superb Norman doorway and pillars come as an unexpected delight.

The medieval buildings beside the church, which once housed one of Britain’s oldest schools, are now the home of the Margam Stones Museum, an extraordinary collection of early Christian sculpture, dating from Roman times to the 11th century. The star of the collection is, without doubt, the intricate 10th-century CROSS OF CYNFELYN.

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