17) Margam Castle

I should probably have put the last two sketches in context. I made the previous two sketches, and this sketch, within a week of being diagnosed with depression, and being signed off work for what eventually stretched to two months. Put bluntly, when I was at all with it, I really didn't know what to do with myself. So this was made at a time when sketching was just something I could do which I could get absorbed in, and while I was sketching I didn't have to listen to any of the negative thoughts going through my head whenever I was awake.

As for Margam Castle, well it's Port Talbot's own former stately home. It was built for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot - and it's his family from which Port Talbot takes its name. The Castle was built between 1830 and 1840, in the newly fashionable Victorian Neo Gothic style.Talbot's cousin, Henry Fox Talbot, took some of the world's first photographs in Margam Castle.

Today it's run by the County Borough Council, and is fully protected as a Grade I listed building. The Castle itself is just one of the attractions open to the public, and with entrance free after you've paid to park your car, it's a good day out.