Recent Sketches

 

Level Crossing Station Road

This is one of my favourite Port Talbot subjects for a sketch - the level crossing in Station Road. The crossing went when the centre of the town was redeveloped in the 1970s, and it's hard to argue that this was not a good thing to do - traffic apparently used to crawl through the centre of town due to this. I'm not sure when the photograph this one was based on was taken - 1950s I'd guess judging by the cars.

The rest of the pictures on this post are all of Baglan Past and Present. The art deco/modernist house above is currently owned by Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts. Its proper name is Sunray House.

McDonalds - A48 Baglan

The building in this picture still stands, but sadly it's not the Travellers Rest pub any more. This is a shame. I played in quizzes there when we had a quiz league in Port Talbot, and it was always a good evening when we played in the Travellers Rest.

This is the lodge adjacent to Baglan Park. 

I like this building a lot. I'm guessing that it was the lodge for the old Baglan Hall, which was originally a Jacobean manor house. 

Baglan Hall was originally built in the 1600s, although it was extensively remodelled more than once, It was eventually acquired by Port Talbot Corporation, and demolished in 1958, to make way for Baglan Park.

The Baglan Bay Hotel is another much missed venue, which was demolished c. 2005

Baglan shops

The West End Garage on the Pentyla Baglan Road - built before the M4, when this was the main route west out of Port Talbot. 

The former Baglan Community Centre. A few years ago it was a sad, unlovely run-down concrete block. Acquired by Baglan Community Church, it is now a smart, sleek and welcoming place. 

Cavalli's Transport Cafe stood where McDonalds now stands on the A48.

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.

4) St. Catherine's Church, Baglan - pen and ink

This was the first sketch I made using a specialist sketching pen with a very thin nib, and in retrospect I think that it's the first sketch I made where you can see what would become my urban sketching style starting to emerge. It's a very simple sketch, but it has a lovely graphic quality which the previous sketches don't. I like St. Catherine's a lot. I like a good spire, but also St' Catherine's, with it's leafy surroundings, has something of the aspect of a country church, despite being only a couple of hundred yards away from a busy junction with the M4 motorway.

St. Catherine's is built in 1875-82 is the mother church in the parish of Baglan, which lies in the Western end of Port Talbot, adjacent to Briton Ferry, which is part of the town of Neath. In the local government reorganisation of the mid 90s, Port Talbot joined with Neath and the Lliw Valley to form a Unitary Authority, a County Borough.