Place:Aberavon, Glamorgan, Wales

Watchers
NameAberavon
Alt namesAberafansource: Family History Library Catalog
Aberafonsource: Family History Library Catalog
Aberavoniumsource: Orbis Latinus (1971) p 2
Afansource: Family History Library Catalog
Port Talbotsource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Sandfields East and Westsource: settlements absorbed in early 20th century
TypeTown
Coordinates51.6°N 3.783°W
Located inGlamorgan, Wales     ( - 1974)
Also located inWest Glamorgan, Wales     (1974 - 1996)
Neath Port Talbot, Wales     (1996 - )
See alsoLower Baglan, Glamorgan, Walescivil parish which was absorbed in 1921
Margam, Glamorgan, Walescivil parish which was absorbed in 1921
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Aberavon is a settlement in Neath Port Talbot County Borough in Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and southwestern part of the town.

In the 18th century industry began to appear in the area. Industrialists worked with the Talbot family of Margam Castle to divert the bottom of the Afan river to its present bed, and in 1836 opened a new harbour east of the river Afan with the name of "Port Talbot". The following decades saw significant industrial and population growth for Aberafan and the surrounding areas with people coming from north and west Wales, southwest England, and Ireland. A new borough of Aberavon came into being in 1861, though at the time it was still smaller than nearby Cwmafan or Taibach. Although there were small local collieries the area had become known for its metalworking industry.

In 1921 the neighbouring parishes of Lower Baglan, Margam and part of Michaelston super Avan were abolished and absorbed into Aberavon.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI on Glamorgan Lots of leads to other sources and descriptions of former parishes.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki on Glamorgan has recently been updated (early 2016) and looks remarkably like Wikipedia. Their map "Glamorgan Parish Map.jpg" enlarges to show all the original parishes. The sub-section "Parishes of Historic Glamorgan" lists all the parishes of Glamorgan and the newer preserved counties and principal areas in both English and Welsh. (Currently this website is still under construction.)

Maps

The first three maps are provided by A Vision of Britain through Time

These maps were found on Wikimedia Commons

These maps of Glamorgan post-1974 were found on another site and are very useful for sorting out the up-to-date geography of the area

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Aberavon. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.