Historic Information
about the Neath Port Talbot Areas
The historic market town of Neath, is approximately
7 miles away, it hosts the remains of the Roman castle, and the Medieval Neath Abbey once called “
The Fairest Abbey in Wales”. to this day there is a working cattle market. Neath’s annual September
Fair has one of the oldest fair charters in the UK- granted in 1280 and attracts visitors and traders from all over Britain.
In 1881 the Welsh Rugby Union was Founded in the Castle Hotel, Neath.
Near the
viaducts of the village of Pontrhydyfen was the birthplace of actors Richard Burton and Ivor Emmanuel. Sir Anthony Hopkins
was born in the village of Taibach.
The vale of Neath’s history was written about by the
late Alexander Cordell, author of the famous trilogy of books which include ‘Song of the Earth’. Alexander Cordell
wrote about Resolven and Rheola and the rest of the Neath valley which boasts a proud industrial heritage
dating back to the industrial revolution and the importance of the Neath & Tennant canal which played a huge part in the
valleys coal mining history which at one time carried more than 200,000 tonnes of coal a year. The canal can now be enjoyed
by a barge and on foot and is only minutes away from Mountain View.
