63) Ysgol Bae Baglan School

A personal one, this one. Ysgol Bae Baglan is Port Talbot's new, state of the art 'Super School', created with the merger of two comprehensive and a primary school in Port Talbot, and one comprehensive in Neath. Mine was one of them, and so I became one of the very first teachers in the school. It is a remarkable looking building - from some angles it reminds me slightly of the Millennium Falcon. Ysgol Bae Baglan - YBB for short, first opened in 2016.

62) Ware House Gym

It’s fair to say that this building sits rather uncomfortably between the 1920s houses and shops on either side, and the 1990s supermarket a little further along the road. It certainly looks as if it has not been a gym, or indeed an ordinary shop all its life, and this impression is correct. Does it look all that much like a former cinema, though? Maybe when you see it from the back, and get an impression of the real size of it. This was opened in 1936, although it closed as a cinema decades before I moved to the town. I look at the building and it makes me wonder how a town the size of Port Talbot ever supported the number of cinemas it once had. To give you an idea, when I first moved in 1986, the town had one working cinema, the Plaza, one cinema about to reopen before the end of the year, the Picturedrome, one converted former cinema, the Regal (this one), and one completely derelict cinema, the Odeon. At least a couple of other former cinema buildings in Aberavon were demolished in the rebuilding of the town centre in the 1970s. I’m not certain of this, but I think that in the late 1940s, after the war, there may even have been as many as 6 cinemas working in Port Talbot. Cinema going was at an all time high at that time – television ownership didn’t really start to soar until the Coronation in the 1950s. Even so, though, 6 cinemas! I’ve never been inside the building – well, it is a gym, after all – but as an exterior it isn’t that striking. But I’m drawn to it because of the way it’s been repurposed. It’s fairly obvious if you look at my sketches and read the text that I like striking, pretty, or impressive older buildings, but I’m not so blind that I can’t see that an empty building quietly mouldering away does nobody any good. As an alternative to demolition, repurposing a building like this works for me.

61) Former St. John's Church, Pontrhydyfen

Any urban sketching expedition can turn out to be a voyage of discovery. Or, to put it another way, I never set out intending to sketch this building. Pontrhydyfen, probably most famous for being the birthplace of Richard Burton, has two remarkably picturesque structures in the shape of its aqueduct, and its viaduct. Those were actually what I set out to sketch on the day that I made this one. There is a road, accessible to pedestrians, which goes across the Aqueduct, and I followed this one away from the centre of Pontrhydyfen, and round the corner, and lo and behold, I came upon this. It was previously St. John’s Church, but now it’s a charming looking residence, and I take my hat off to the people who have converted it. I couldn’t resist sketching it there and then.

60) Baglan Shops and library

Baglan is a very nice residential area, largely perched on a hill side at the west of the town. In fact Baglan touches onto Briton Ferry, which is the easternmost part of Neath, the neighbouring town. These buildings are in the centre of Baglan, together with a social centre, Baglan library and a park. Baglan is one of those areas of the town which has the feeling of a leafy village, although a much larger village than Velindre, since there are over 6000 people who live here.

59) Town Centre Stone Bridge Canopy and Tescos

Here we are then, the first sketch I've made since making the blog. 

You can't really see it from this picture, but the canopy in the centre in the background of this sketch was erected over the Aberavon Bridge as a Millenium project. The bridge itself was originally buit in 1842, and widened in 1893. It was grade II listed in 1979 as a particularly good example of that type of 19th century stone bridge. The bridge links what was once Bethany square, and the junction of Station Road and Forge Road with the open area flanked by Ebenezer Chapel, the Civic Centre/ Princess Royal Theatre complex, and the Aberavon shopping centre. The building under the scaffolding on the left is Aberavon House, a dour 1970s office block and one of my least favourite buildings in the whole town. It is currently undergoing renovation, and one presumes an attempt to improve its appearance. Good luck with that. There are things you just can't polish. You know what I'm talking about. 

58) Glanafan School Demolition

Glanafan School was Port Talbot’s Grammar School until the move to comprehensive education. It began life as the Port Talbot County School in 1896. Glanafan was one of the three schools which merged to form the school in which I now teach, Ysgol Bae Baglan. The school was important to me because it was in Glanafan I did my teaching practice while training to be a teacher in 1986. More than that, all of my children attended Glanafan for five years each.

This brings us up to date. From now on, every sketch has been created since starting the blog.

57) Talbot Memorial Park Gates and Lodges

The Talbot Memorial Park is next door to St. Theodore’s Church, which is significant since I believe that this was also largely the creation of the Talbot family of Margam Park. The inscription shows that the Park was first opened in 1925. It’s a grade II listed structure, as are the two lodge houses on either side of the gates. As you enter the park, the house on the right is occupied, but the house on the left is in need of some renovation, and is fenced off to prevent access.

56) Bridge over River Afan to Aberafan Shopping Centre

The River Afan passes through the centre of the town, past the Aberafan shopping centre, and this bridge gives direct access into the shopping centre. It’s small and inoffensive, considering that it must have been built in the 1970s, and I rather like it. The building above the shopping centre is a tower block which was probably an eyesore from the day it was built. Certainly I don’t remember there ever being a time when I wouldn’t have rated it high on the list of Port Talbot’s ugliest buildings. It’s currently being refurbished, hence the sheeting and scaffolding.

55) My Back Yard

I was babysitting the grandchildren, my sketchbook was within easy reach, as was my sketching pen. The children of course don’t stay still long enough to be sketched while they are awake. They love playing in my garden, so this combined looking after them with making a sketch. Everybody’s happy.

54) Vivian Park Lodge, Sandfields/Aberavon

I would guess that this rather appealing house was something to do with the park itself once upon a time , since it’s set back from the road and actually within the boundaries of the park so it seems, although it is fenced off from the rest of the park. Vivian Park is home to one of Sandfields’ only listed buildings, the War Memorial.

53) Dan Y Bryn Road and M4 Motorway

An unremarkable residential Street, yes. However, what I really like about it – and I admit that you can’t see this in a single sketch, is the way that the M4 here bends right round, and you can actually see it in your rear view mirror at the other end of the road, at the same time as you can see it through your windscreen, which you can see in this sketch.

52) Port Talbot Bus Station, Town Centre

Port Talbot bus station is one of those 1970s buildings which steadfastly refuses to look anything much other than tired and depressed, however much you try to tart it up with bright plastic and paint. When I first moved to Port Talbot it was open to the elements, and nobbling cold in the winter when there was a headwind. In the 1990s metal frames were erected between the concrete columns, and doors were installed which at least made the interior a little more hospitable

51) Beach Hill Footbridge, Aberavon

A well known Port Talbot landmark when I first moved here was known as Beach Hill. Basically It was a hump backed road bridge which carried Victoria Road in Aberavon over the two lane highway of the Afan Way. A body of public opinion was very disgruntled when the decision was taken to replace the bridge with a road junction, which has admittedly made it far easier to join the Afan Way, and this rather elegant footbridge.

50) Neath Port Talbot Hospital Car Park Sunday Car Boot Sale

This sketch brings up the halfway mark.I remember talk about building the hospital here on Baglan Moors as early as 1986 when I first moved to the town. A mere 17 years later it was opened, in 2003. The hospital car park hosts a car boot sale every Sunday morning from the late Spring until the early Autumn. This is another busy sketch, but that’s par for the course considering the subject matter.

49) Arriving at work in Ysgol Bae Baglan - 7:15 am

This is another personal sketch. It shows the edge of the school building, and gives you just a hint about what a remarkably modern piece of architecture the building is. My two colleagues were unaware that I was sketching them as they walked.

48) The Rolling Mill Public House, Cwmavon

Here’s an old Port Talbot quiz question. Which was the first pub in Port Talbot opened after the end of World War II? Answer – this one, the Rolling Mill in Cwmavon. It takes its name from part of the steelworks.

47) Tata Steelworks

A few years ago a new road was opened to enable traffic for the steelworks, Sandfields and the docks to avoid having to drive through the town. This road also provides the best close up vantage points of the steelworks. This sketch shows the tops of the blast furnaces, which are in their own way just as iconic structures for the town as are the three cranes in the docks. This is the only sketch so far in which I’ve used both sepia and black pens.

46) Talbot Athletic Ground

This picture was another which I made from the top of Tydraw Hill. The sports ground you can see is the Talbot Athletic Ground, the home of Aberavon RFC. I liked this view because, as well as taking in the rugby ground, it also looks out to the docks, and gives you an idea of just how close we are to the sea even in the centre of the town. On another personal note, the rugby club is important to me, since it’s the venue for a Thursday night quiz which I regularly play in, and set questions for from time to time.

45) Afan Argoed Country Park- Former Cynonville Station

In the Afan Valley, between Pontrhydyfen and Cymmer, Port Talbot can boast the idyllic Afan Argoed Country Park. Back in my running days this was a great venue, and it’s very much a mecca for mountain bikers. Amongst the trails which pass through the park is one which is based on an old railway line. The track has long since been removed – during the 1960s Beeching reforms, I believe – but the platforms of the old Cynonville Station still remain, with a stone barbecue shelter having been obligingly built since. They are charmingly overgrown too, which all adds to the atmosphere of the place. Lovely.

44) Former Bryn Siriol Senior Citizens' Centre, Cymmer

I knew nothing about this building when I made this sketch other than the fact that I recalled passing it as I drove through Cymmer a couple of years ago, and thought it would be a good subject for a sketch. What it is, is the former Bryn Siriol Senior Citizen’s Centre which closed several years ago. It began life, I believe, as rural council offices, and has always served the community of Cymmer in one civic role or another. From the sketch it looks in quite decent nick, but sadly seems quite dilapidated when you get up closer to it.

43) Aberafan Shopping Centre Interior

I sketched this one surreptitiously while leaning on a square column on a Saturday morning at about 9 am. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the interior of the building is extremely attractive, but if I can say nothing nicer about it, at least it’s a light and airy space, eve when it’s full of shoppers a little bit later on in the day.

42) Port Talbot Parkway Railway Station

This is the first sketch I made with a new sepia toned sketching pen. Iit shows another side of the roadworks, and the newly built station. I’ve tried hard to like this station, but failed. This is probably my favourite angle of the station, and it shows that there has been an attempt to build a futuristic looking building. What you don’t get from this sketch, though, is the fact that grey brick has been used extensively for it – a choice of material which usually makes a building look prematurely dingyfied in my opinion.

41) Ysgol Bae Baglan Car Park

This is a more personal one. I am an English teacher by trade, and I spent my whole career up to this academic year in a school in Neath. It has been amalgamated with two Port Talbot comprehensive schools and a Port Talbot primary school, and we are all now teaching inside Ysgol Bae Baglan, a brand new, state of the art facility. This is the view of the car park and out towards the hills and Swansea Bay which you can see from my classroom window. I hasten to add that I sketched this on a lunchtime and not while I was trying to teach a lesson!

40) Nat West Bank Station Road - Line and Wash

I made a video of the way that I made this line and wash sketch. Some you win . . . I know it’s not great. As I said, sometimes I just don’t get colours, even though it’s not for the want of trying.

39) Old Police Station and Roadworks

Along with remodeling Port Talbot Parkway railway station, the whole area around it is being transformed into a transport hub which will include spaces for buses. I can see the sense in this. However, at the moment the massive roadworks on probably the busiest road route from one part of the town to another is causing massive disruption. So it seemed to me that I ought to be sketching at least one aspect of the roadworks. This sketch shows the old police station, which has been unoccupied for some time now. It’s a rather uninspiring blaock which I imagine was probably built during the dull as ditchwater 1970s, and I believe that demolition is due to start soon.

38) Old Railway Bridge, Velindre

I mentioned in my comments about the sketch of Velindre Bridge from Tydraw Hill that there are only two ways in and out of Velindre. This is the second. The old bridge used to carry a single track railway line which I believe ran from the Afan Valley to the docks. The road out of Velindre runs underneath the bridge.

37) Brian's Fish and Chips

Like the market, I sketched this on a Saturday, originally intending to capture some of the boot sale stalls. However, I found as I began to sketch that I was far more interested in the backs of the buildings on Station Road than I was in the chap sitting in the boot of his car on the bottom right hand corner of the sketch. I love the higgledy piggledy arrangement of the roofs here.

36) Station Road and canopy

This side of station road has had its own steel canopy since the 1980s, although the original structure was replaced by this rather less obtrusive and more elegant affair.

35) Tesco Car Park - Shopping on Sunday

I sketched this one from my car, while Mrs. C. was taking care of a little bit of Sunday shopping. When I first moved here it just wouldn’t happen – the supermarkets didn’t open at all. I like the sea of car roofs here. In the distance you can see the back of the Ebenezer Chapel, and the main building that you can see houses the Civic Centre and the Princess Royal Theatre. This Tesco was actually built on a huge open car park – they were able to build the whole supermarket and it still left them with a very substantial car park of their own.

34) Port Talbot Saturday Outdoor Market

This is one of the ‘busiest sketches I’ve ever made. Every Saturday morning a market takes place in the main car park behind the shops on Station Road. When I first moved here all those years ago the market was a big event. It’s a long way past its heyday now. A few genuine market stalls are still clinging on, but there’s a lot of blank spaces where there used to be stall, and many of the stall that are there are really car boot sale stalls. Still, the whole thing still made for a lively enough scene, in which the figures are just as important as the stalls, if not more so.

33) Tydraw Hill

To make this sketch I walked a few yards down the road towards Velindre from the position where I made the previous sketch, and took a photograph. I made a Youtube video on which I challenged myself to make a sketch based on the photograph in no more than 15 minutes. Bearing in mind the time constraint I set myself, and the fact that I don’t sketch particularly quickly I don’t think that this is actually a bad effort. Given more time, though, I would have either included more shading and detail OR I would have applied some water colour to it.

32) Velindre Bridge from Tydraw Hill

I used to live in a part of Port Talbot called Velindre. It’s not far from the town centre – a five minute walk really, but there’s only two ways into the area, which actually gives it a sense of community and almost a village feel. Coming from the town centre you have to cross a bridge to get there. When I first moved to Velindre in 1987 it was a very nice stone bridge, which has since been replaced with an inoffensive metal affair. This sketch was also made from my vantage point on Tydraw Hill, and shows the former Glanafan Lower School building.

31) Aberafan Shopping Centre

Prior to my visit to Prague it would never have occurred to me that I might make a sketch of the shopping centre. Yet it seemed an obvious thing to do after I’d started sketching the town again after my return. The shopping centre is probably the most obvious result of the town centre redevelopment in the 1970s. When you look at books of old photographs of Port Talbot centre, it’s easy to become critical when you see the buildings that were lost. However, talking to people who lived in the town at the time, it is a fact that a level crossing not far from where the shopping centre stands now used to cause huge traffic problems in Station Road.

30) Tata Steel works from Tydraw Hill. Line and Wash

The steel works had already featured in the background of a couple of earlier sketches, but it was high time that I produced a sketch in which the steelworks was the star. Put simply, if you want to show Port Talbot, then sooner or later you have to show the steelworks. It’s not overstating the case to say that the steelworks has been absolutely vital to the town for well over a century now. I made this sketch standing on the top road from Taibach to Cwmavon in the Afan Valley. It’s a great vantage point, and this was only the first sketch I made from this position.

29) St. Joseph's RC Church, Water Street. Line and Wash

St. Joseph’s is a Roman Catholic Church, which was built in 1930 to replace a building from the 1860s, and it belongs to the Catholic diocese of Menevia. For a 20th century church, I like this a lot. I believe that it was built largely through the efforts of Port Talbot’s Roman Catholic community, including my wife’s grandparents.I made a video, currently available on Youtube, which shows the different stages I went through to produce what I think is possibly my favourite line and wash sketch.

28) J.R.Motor Spares building, Talbot Road - line and wash

We’re back on the A48 out of town here, the same road that is home to the Plaza, Taibach Library and Ffrwdwyllt House, all of which featured in earlier sketches. JR Motor Spares is housed in a building I like. I’m not sure when it was built – my guess is the 1920s, but I don’t know for certain. Judging by old photos I’ve seen there were buildings of a similar style in Aberavon which were demolished to make room for the town centre.

27) Boats on the Afan line and wash

This was made on the same day as the previous sketch, from a position just a few yards further along the path, looking down on the boats that were actually on the Afan that day. . It’s far more impressionistic, since I made the conscious decision to apply as few ink lines as possible, and let the watercolour do more of the work. I quite like the reflections of the boats, and again, as my attempts at line and wash go, it’s not that bad.

26) Boat high and dry, Aberavon. Line and wash

If you walk along the path from the plate girder bridge up onto the Beach, you pass the estuary of the River Afan, and you can often see boats upon it. This boat was on a sort of platform affair, out of the River, and I liked the look of it, so I couldn’t resist sitting down and making a quick ink sketch with a couple of watercolour washes over the top of it. I ignored a few stares from cyclists and dog walkers as I did so. I think that this is one of my better attempts at applying watercolour to an ink sketch. The greenery is actually quite appealing.

25) Aberavon Beach, Mariners Quay - Line and Wash

Turning round on the spot on the vantage point from which I made the sketch with the cyclists, I made this line and wash sketch. The buildings on the right, collectively called Mariners Quay, are a residential development from the early noughties, which was partly built on the site formerly occupied by the Jersey Beach Hotel. I like Mariners Quay. The buildings do have a uniform quality, in terms of colour and style, but they have enough character to make them easy on the eye.

As a line and wash, I wouldn’t say that I’m completely happy with it, but then I never am with my watercolours. I think that I just don’t quite get colours.

24) Cyclists on Aberavon Beach

Both of the previous sketches were planned sketches, in the sense that I went to both places knowing that I was going to create a sketch, and pretty much what I was going to include in the sketch. This one wasn’t. It literally was a caught moment in time, when I had to work like the clappers to make these simplified sketches of the cyclists, and then sketch in where they had been once they’d gone. It’s an impulse sketch, and so much the better for it. This is the eastern end of the promenade of Aberavon Beach, and it’s a great place to cycle. Having the steelworks in the background is an added bonus as well.

You can see that this sketch marks a development in my attitude to what I choose to sketch, and the ways I choose to show the town, since it’s not about a man made structure at all.

23) The Three Cranes and ship

There’s a pathway which runs from the Aberavon end of the plate girder bridge, all the way uphill onto the promenade of Aberavon Beach. It passes by the docks, and one of the most iconic sights in Port Talbot, the three massive cranes which unload the ships carrying ore for the steelworks. I’ve always liked the 3 cranes, although I’ve never actually sketched the three of them before. . If you look on the bottom left, you’ll see I’ve also included a small figure of a lady who was walking her dog at the time. She would also feature in the next sketch. She works well for me, in as much as she give a sense of the massive scale of the cranes and the ship, especially when you consider that she was a lot nearer than they were when I made the sketch.

22) Plate Girder Bridge, Aberavon Docks

I've always had a thing about bridges. This bridge was built in 1903, after a decade in which the docks were massively redeveloped. The structure carried the main road from Aberavon to the docks. It was pedestrianised later, and carried a national cycle route. I used to cycle from my house to the beach, a route which took in this bridge. However at the moment the bridge, despite being a grade II listed building, is closed due to its instability, and urgently needs  work to make it safe for pedestrians and cyclists. Sadly, it’s not clear exactly how the cash strapped council are ioing to fund this.  

As a sketch this scores through being a complete scene, but also, through being the first f my sketches in which I've included the steelworks at all. 

21) Station Road , Consitutional Club and figures

What the previous sketch lacked was figures. There is actually one figure walking along the road, but it’s really difficult to see unless you know where to look. This sketch of the Con club includes several figures, and it’s far better for it. It isn’t perfect – I wish I’d decided to edit out the foliage, but it is at least a truthful scene since the trees are there. I mentioned Urban Sketching as a concept and movement in the introduction post. One of the tenets of the movement, enshrined in its manifesto, is a dedication to capturing moments in time, and the figures for me do the trick of making this sketch just that.

You might also notice the figure on the right is cut off by the edge of the sketch. I like the feeling it gives of someone actually walking away off the page, and it's a feature I've used more than once since making this sketch. 

20) Station Road from the police station

Right after I returned from Prague I didn’t start sketching the town again straightaway. What I did do was to start going out in my car to places like Brecon, Laugharne and Cardiff, and to make sketches there, using the same approach that I’d used for many of my sketches in Prague. By the time I sketched this one I’d come to the conclusion that I should be sketching whole scenes, which placed individual buildings within their true contexts. I should be sketching the town, not concentrating on the pretty stuff to the exclusion of everything else. I should be using figures where possible. If you compare this one with sketch 7, my previous sketch of Station Road. This was sketched from the eastern end of the road, by the old police station

19) Old Aberavon Fire Station

Just around the corner from where the Craddock Arms stood is the former Aberavon Fire Station. According to the band engraved around the middle of the façade, the building was opened in 1912. It’s no longer a Fire Station, and hasn’t been for decades. The town has a much newer fire station between Taibach and Margam, and I have a clear memory of the building being derelict when I first moved to Wales in 1986. Now, as shown in the sketch, the building has been given a new lease of life having recently been renovated for use as a community based Employability Centre. This is an imaginative solution from the council, and does show that they have a commitment to saving the town's architectural heritage. 

18) Craddock Arms Pub, Aberavon

This sketch was based on a photograph which I took before I went to Prague, and completed after I returned. In the interim, sadly, the building had been demolished. I’ve already said how I think my style changed and developed when I returned from Prague, and I stick by this, but you’d be hard pressed to tell that from just looking at this sketch. Incidentally, because I was making this from a photograph, I made a Youtube instructional video while I was sketching it.

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.

16: St. Theodore's Church, Taibach

This is a less successful line and wash picture, in my opinion. It focuses on the details of one of the side doorways of the church. I do live literally less than 100 yards from this church, and it's surely one of the biggest in the whole of Port Talbot.

In 1901 it became the mother church of the parish of St. Theodores. The building of the church was heavily subsidised by Emily Charlotte Talbot - a member of the family after whom the town is named - who inherited Margam Castle after the sudden early death of her brother Theodore.

15) Forest Veterinary Practice, Theodore Road

I still think of this building as the Afan Arts Centre, which was a previous incarnation of the same building. This sketch was made from the adjacent Talbot Memorial Park, ad I have to say it's possibly my most successful ink and wash picture. There's loads of things I like in architecture, and a hotch potch of pitched roofs is one of them, and this has a great collection of roofs, which I concentrated on in this sketch. This is one of the last three sketches I made before the trip to Prague, which I mentioned in the introduction post, and which was so important to me for the reasons I've already gone into.

14) Kash Supermarket, Bailey St., Aberavon

Unless you know what to expect, when you see the Kash Supermarket for the first time it should come as a bit of a surprise. Most of the old shops and commercial buildings in Aberavon were demolished during the 1970s remodelling of the town centre. Bailey Street is a very quiet, small residential street, amidst other quiet residential streets and absolutely not the kind of place you'd expect to find a minor art deco gem like this one. I believe that the building was built before World War II as a Co op originally. Incidentally, Bailey Street is so named because it stands on the location of the bailey of the medieval castle which stood there once. This also explains how nearby Castle Street got its name.