72) Concrete Penguins, Aberavon Beach

These concrete penguins, another set of concrete penguins a few feet away, and an adjacent concrete Blue Whale are well known, and now, well loved landmarks on Aberavon Beach. In bygone days the beach was home to a funfair, trampolines and a boating lake, but all of them were removed by the end of the 70s. The concrete penguins and whale were built in the mid 80s, just before I moved to the town in 1986. Now, don’t get me wrong, once you’ve clambered all over it there’s not a lot you can do with a concrete whale, and less you can do with a concrete penguin. Nonetheless, when the council announced plans to demolish them all to make a car park, there was something of an outcry, especially from local children, and the plan was cancelled. Having said that, there were a further set of penguins about half a mile along the prom, and they were removed, but then those ones were in a terrible state.