What's Notable about Port Talbot 6: Industry

 Yes, industry. Port Talbot is an industrial town, and that’s nothing we should feel ashamed about. Now, you might well be thinking, okay, but industry’s not pretty, though, is it? True, it’s not, but that doesn’t have to mean that it’s ugly, or not worth looking at.

One industry is of course indelibly associated with our town, and that’s the steel industry. And you can by all means disagree if you wish, but I think you have to consider the steel works in any reckoning about what’s notable in Port Talbot. I’ve made sketches of parts of the steelworks on a number of occasions.

The steelworks dominate the town, and the blast furnaces dominate the steelworks. Beautiful? Well, maybe not, but on the other hand, beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. They are grand, magnificent, intricate, and an absolute joy to sketch. The play of light and shadow off all the different structures which combine in them makes them an interesting subject to draw at any time of day. Over the years I’ve become strangely fond of the appearance of the blast furnaces – whenever I’ve been away, and I first see them from the motorway, I feel that I’m nearly home.

I’ve also drawn the town’s other striking industrial structures several times. The ore cranes have a very similar appeal to the blast furnaces. They’re huge, for one thing. They’re intricate and functional for another. And more than anything else, they are a fantastic subject to sketch. I don’t think it’s going to far to call them iconic images of Port Talbot.

Dock Cranes

 

Two other views of the cranes. The sketch immediately above was sold privately. Each crane rises to as much as 120 feet high, and since they became operational in the 1960s each has lifted on average more than a million tons each year. 

Steelworks

I've sketched the steelworks several times. The top sketch was sold in 2019 to raise funds for Oxfam.

The Abbey Steelworks in Port Talbot was opened in 1951 and it was fully operational by 1953. At its peak, the steelworks employed over 18,000 people. 

 

101) Water Street Business Centre

What? Isn't the blog entitled 100 Faces of Port Talbot - not 101?! Well it is, and I'm not going to change the title. Still, the thing is this. I've enjoyed making these sketches so much that I just don't want to stop. So whenever I do another sketch of Port Talbot, then I'll add it to the blog. Hey, it's my blog - and I make the rules. 

So this is the Water Street Business Centre. For my first two decades in Port Talbot this building was actually the local Health Centre where I and my family would see our GP. That moved some time ago to a purpose built building in Sandfields which actually houses several different practices. For a while after the Health Centre moved this held a local radio studio. Now, though, it's a business centre, although how many businesses are based there I couldn't rightly say.

I wouldn't go so far as saying that I think this is a particularly handsome building, but I do like it as an example of the way that not every building built between the 50s and the end of the 70s is absolutely pug ugly. Damning with faint praise? Well, sorry, but I'm not going to lie. 

74) Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct

This is the other piece of monumental engineering for which Pontrhydyfen is justly famous. While it doesn’t have as many arches as the old railway viaduct (Number 66) Pontrhydyfen Viaduct)Pontrhydyfen Viaduct) and it’s a mottled grey, which I find less appealing than the viaduct’s red brick, this structure really bestrides the village. Add to that the fact that it’s an aqueduct, and you’ve got a very imposing and interesting structure. Researching this post I found a post written in the mid 80s for the schools’ Domesday Project – which explained that it was

“built in 1825 to supply water to the Blast Furnaces in Oakwood. It has 4 arches,is 459ft in length,75ft in height and 14ft wide. The bridge cost £16,000 pounds to build. Now it is used for cars and pedestrians. In February 1985 cracks were discovered on the Aqueduct and it was closed, thus cutting off a pedestrian access to Oakwood.”

I didn’t know that cars were ever allowed across – it is very narrow, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed driving across it. I’m delighted to say that the aqueduct seems pretty secure now, and I’ve walked across it many times.

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.

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.