Cuisine of Neath Port Talbot

Blast Furnace #5 at Port Talbot steel works

The cuisine of Neath Port Talbot (Welsh: Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is distinguished by the area's long and varied history. During the Roman era, Neath was an important garrison on the road to west Wales. During the Middle Ages two great monasteries dominated the area and owned much of the agricultural land. After the dissolution of the monasteries the gentry owned the best land but with the onset of the Industrial Revolution a centre of industry developed around Neath. During the 20th century Baglan and Port Talbot became important centres for petrochemical products and steelmaking.

Background

The administrative entity of Neath Port Talbot covers part of the upper Swansea Valley, the Vale of Neath and the valley of the River Afan. Glaciers from the last ice age have carved these into U-shaped valleys that have cut through the surface of the South Wales Coalfield. These valleys are aligned in a westerly direction while rivers further east, such as the River Taff, are aligned in an easterly direction. This is because the west-flowing rivers are subsequents, and formed after the east-flowing rivers, which are consequents.

The cataract of Melincourt near Neath, engraving by S. Sparrow (fl. 1770–1780) of a painting by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733–1794). From the collection of the National Library of Wales

The South Wales Coalfield contains the coal that led to the early development of industry in this area. The Vale of Neath is the approximate dividing line between the eastern coalfield, with its steam-bituminous coal, and the western coalfield, with its anthracite and semi-anthracite coal. The Vale of Neath is also an important transport route and holds the A465 road which connects Neath to Abergavenny and then runs on to England.

To the south of Neath Port Talbot is Swansea Bay which has its eastern point at the mouth of the River Afan and ends at Port Tennant and Swansea docks. The coastline is low-lying, and the average rainfall is 40 inches but the mountains rise steeply from the coastal plain and, according to Evans, this has "an astonishingly wet effect" with average rainfall of 60 inches in the northern section of the Vale of Neath.

Tudor Edwards notes that:

the Vale of Neath has yet much beauty especially on its Brecknock side, for while the Vale proper extends to the village of Pont-nedd-fechan, the extensive watershed of the Neath river ranges well beyond

He goes on to write that:

The intriguing village of Pont-nedd-fechan is set where the hills converge and near the confluence of four mountain streams. This is the Arcadia of these mountains, serene and bright, with its stone bridge over the Neath

All the rivers of the South Wales Coalfield have not yet been graded and their upper courses therefore have numerous waterfalls which on the river Neath are spectacular. The area sits on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and is popular with tourists.

Medieval period

Lewis writes that the Normans established priories in various parts of Wales to keep the Welsh people under control. These were subservient to English or French abbeys elsewhere and served as outposts of Norman influence. However, over time they often identified themselves with Welsh people.

Neath Abbey

Margam Abbey was founded by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester in 1147 and he endowed it with lands between the River Afan and Kenfig. It has a 13th-century chronicle which is held by Trinity College, Cambridge.

According to Lewis

The Cistercian order was far the most powerful in Wales. Its houses were built in remote spots where the monks, as we have seen, became great breeders of sheep; they were good to the poor and kept open house for the wayfarer. Valle Crucis, Strata Florida, Cwm Hir, Neath and Margam are some of the best-known Cistercian abbeys.

The importance of the area during this period is reflected in the size of the garrison at Neath Castle which may have been larger than the garrison at Cardiff during the 13th century. In 1259 it resisted a Welsh army of 7,000 foot soldiers and 80 men in armour.

Industrial period

The market town of Neath underwent dramatic transformation during the Industrial Revolution. Bowen describes it as an example of "typical little fortress-market towns before the coming of the age of industry". However, it experienced "a rapid and sudden expansion in size" due to industrial development.

In 1584 the first smelting house was built at Neath by copper miners from Cornwall. Copper ore was transported from Cornwall to the Neath area for smelting with coal. Later, lead and silver from Ceredigion were also treated here and by the 17th century Neath had become a busy industrial centre, producing copper, silver, and lead from non-ferrous metal ores delivered by sea via the River Neath. However, as industrial activity intensified during the 19th century, Neath was superseded by the Lower Swansea Valley which became dominant in these industries By the 20th century the increasing scale of production meant that bigger factories needed larger sites, and industrial production moved to the coastal areas of Margam and Port Talbot where iron and steel production became concentrated. This led to the area's substantial growth in population and its transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial society

Meat

A butcher's shop on the High Street, Port Talbot during the early 20th century. The shop is advertising New Zealand lamb. During this period the development of international trade and transport of refrigerated cargo meant that perishable goods, such as meat, could be transported over long distances cheaply.

Bowen comments that during the Middle Ages each abbey in Wales had great flocks of sheep, with Neath Abbey having over 4000 sheep while Tintern Abbey had 2,300 sheep. The sheep would graze the uplands during the summer and the shepherds would live in a dwelling place known as a hafod. In the winter, the flocks would spend the winter in the lowlands and the shepherds would live in a dwelling known as the hendre. This movement is known as transhumance. Tudor Edwards writes of one hafod as follows:

the ruined chapel, high on the mountain [of Margam], which may have been built by the monks for the shepherds living on their hafod or summer pasture

Bowen writes that the Cistercians organised the export trade in wool and encouraged extensive sheep farming in the remote areas of the country.

Lamb is still reared on hill farms in the area and can be bought locally.

Welsh mountain sheep grazing near Duffryn 2 Yard Locomotive Shed, Port Talbot, during the 20th century when steam locomotives were working. The wool of the sheep has been darkened by soot from the steam locomotives.

Faggots are traditionally associated with Neath Indoor Market which contains cafes, butchers, delicatessens, bakeries, and stalls selling cooked meats, fruit, vegetables and confectionery.

Faggots have been described as the Welsh haggis and are popular with expatriates who return to visit Neath. The manager of Neath's town centre commented

People come from all over the world to enjoy faggots and peas here and, although it may not be haute cuisine, it is a regional delicacy that we have perfected.

Each type of faggot is different because there are different recipes. My mother used to cook faggots at home and she used a veil - the lining of a cow's stomach - to hold them firm during the cooking process.

Neath Indoor Market, main entrance

One third-generation market trader who has been selling faggots at Neath Market for more than 60 years, commented:

It's the dish they miss the most when they emigrate - which is why Neath wouldn't be Neath without faggots and peas

Cole's Butchers in Neath Market make faggots using pigs' liver and lights, onion, rusk and their own seasoning of spices, salt, and pepper. The faggots are cooked in trays of 80-100 for about 90 minutes at a temperature of 180c. They are made fresh daily and delivered across South Wales.

Faggots served with peas, mashed potatoes and gravy

The distinctive association of faggots with Neath means that the town considers itself to be the "faggots and peas capital of Wales" with faggots having the same iconic status at Neath Market as cockles and laverbread have at Swansea Market.

In an article in the Financial Times, Cerys Matthews writes that her grandfather used to sell homemade faggots in Neath Market and she also had professional faggot-makers on her maternal grandparents’ side. Matthews describes her mother's journey of culinary discovery, which has influenced her own cuisine, and explains how travelling abroad helped her mother understand the value of traditionally made local and world food:

In the wake of cheap flights to the continent, suspicions towards “foreign” food waned and within our Formica-walled kitchen, round the breakfast bar that shook with the spin of the washing machine beneath, my mother reconnected with the family’s home-cooking roots. We still ate chips but Mam’s menu started to vary. Welsh classics came out: cawl, laverbread with cockles and bacon, smoked haddock poached in milk or ham with parsley sauce, griddled sprats when the fish man came, home-baked Welsh cakes, bara brith and flapjacks. One year came the hefty and dangerous malt beer of Pembrokeshire — heat with the poker from the fire, serve hot with brown sugar and sit back and wait for it to hit you. But best of all? Her curries, learnt from her friends Madrika and Mrs Boorah. Out went the freeze-dried carrots and hello whole spices, freshly ground, puffed balls of roti and puri breads. Come the early 1990s, the transformation was complete, from a greens-hating Neath native emerged a herb-growing experimental exponent of feast-making in the heart of the home, and I salute her.

Bacon is a popular choice for traditional cooking in Wales and Tibbot has recorded two bacon dishes from Ystalyfera:

Bacon, Cheese, and Onions (Cig Moch a Chaws a Winwns) is a simple dish where bacon rashers are placed on an enamel or an oven-proof plate and covered with relatively thick slices of cheese. On top of this is placed a thick layer of chopped onion. This is covered with another plate and baked in a slow oven.

Bacon and Cabbage (Cig Moch a Chabaits) is made from bacon, or a ham joint, which is left to stand in cold water overnight to remove excess salt. The meat is then boiled until tender. The cabbage is then cooked in the stock from the meat and then drained. potatoes are boiled separately in a saucepan and the water from the potatoes is used to make a parsley sauce. Some milk, butter and chopped parsley is added to the potato water. To this is added flour mixed with cold water. The sauce is then boiled for a few minutes and is then served with the potatoes, cabbage, and slices of bacon. Tibbott writes that this was a "popular dish prepared for the miner's evening meal in south Wales".

Ed Thomas, is a Welsh film producer who spent his formative years in Ystalyfera where his family owned a butcher's shop for over a century. Thomas's drama Pren ar y bryn has been influenced by this experience: “Shot in our hometown on the edge of Bannau Brycheiniog, it shows how the small, local and authentic can have an international reach and appeal.” In the drama, Penwyllt is the fictional town based on Ystalyfera.

During the 20th century meat was often eaten on a Sunday in the form of a traditional Sunday roast dinner. In her autobiography, Yan Boogie, Eileen Baker writes about her upbringing in a typical working class railway family living in Ystalyfera where the traditional Sunday roast was the highlight of the week's dining:

On Sundays, we enjoyed the traditional joint of prime beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, but for the rest of the week we lived on left-overs made into soups, or toast with dripping. The latter was delicious.

The Sunday dinner provided the basis for Monday's dinner

I would also eagerly anticipate Monday’s meal of bubble and squeak which comprised a meat and vegetable fry-up of the remnants of Sunday’s dinner. It was cooked in a large heavy frying pan over the fire until the underside had turned a crisp golden-brown. When it was ready, my mother would gently turn the frying pan upside down, expertly flipping its savoury contents on to a large hot plate. She would then slice it into portions for us. This was without doubt my favourite dinner of the week

Baker recounts that the weekly diet followed a regular pattern, with a meat dish on most days. The full roast beef dinner would be eaten on Sunday, Bubble and Squeak on Monday, Minced Meat Pie with potato top on Tuesday, Liver and bacon, tripe and onions on Wednesday (or cawl during the winter), Soup with suet dumplings on Thursday, a fish pie on Friday and Bacon with Laver Bread on Saturday.

Baker writes that, despite the Great Depression the family ate well until 1932 because housewives were good managers:

Our mothers were good managers and wasted nothing - they could make a meal out of practically anything

In addition some groceries were not expensive

Meat, especially prime beef, was cheap - as were its products; suet, bones, lard (used for cooking and pastry).

Chicken would be eaten occasionally especially if the family raised chickens in the yard or at an allotment.

Wild game in the region includes wildfowl, hare and venison. Hare can be found on the hills around Glynneath and Godre'r Graig.

Margam has a large deer park which was established during Norman times and extends to about 200 hectares. It holds Red deer, Fallow deer and is Père David's deer. The deer are culled to control numbers and the venison is sold locally.

Père David's Deer in Margam Deer Park.

The coast of Neath Port Talbot once had extensive marshes. During the 19th century these were used by large flocks of waterfowl. During the 20th century this area was developed for industrial use, in particular the steelworks at Port Talbot. However, Neath estuary, which is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest, remains the third largest relatively unspoiled floodplain in Wales and has a grazing marsh which is used by wildfowl. Nearby is Margam Moors which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and is the last remaining example of the coastal levels of West Glamorgan. The pond at Kenfig and Eglwys Nunydd reservoir are places to find geese and ducks, although they are all now protected. The extensive wetlands may explain why the last Sea Eagle to live in Wales was found here.

Fish

In 1188 Gerald of Wales passed through Neath accompanying Archbishop Baldwin of Forde who was preaching and raising money to support the Third Crusade, they rode from Ewenny to Margam and crossed the River Neath to Swansea. At that time the River Neath was, according to Evans, the most dangerous and inaccessible river in South Wales.

Receipts of the Castle of Neath with the Town for the years 1314 to 1316 show receipts from “Farm of fisheries and weirs” of 33s. and 4d., and the accounts show fish farming took place at Glynneath and Glyntath.

Today there is a fishery at Tyn-y-Graig which has trout farmed in river-fed pools.

Fish was traditionally eaten on Fridays and this custom lasted into the 20th century. In her list of family meals eaten during a typical week and titled “Our Weekly Diet” Baker writes that fish was eaten on Fridays and was often baked in a pie and accompanied by potatoes.

Bread, cereals and cakes

During Medieval times Margam monastery cultivated extensive fields of corn. In Chapter VII of his Itinerarium Cambriae ("The Itinerary Through Wales"), Gerald of Wales, commented on "the remarkable things in those parts", in reference to Cistercian monastery of Margam.:

This monastery, under the direction of Conan, a learned and prudent abbot, was at this time more celebrated for its charitable deeds than any other of that order in Wales. On this account, it is an undoubted fact, that, as a reward for that abundant charity which the monastery had always, in times of need, exercised towards strangers and poor persons, in a season of approaching famine, their corn and provisions were perceptibly, by divine assistance, increased, like the widow's cruise of oil by the means of the prophet Elijah.

Gerald goes on to recount the story of a young man of the locality who had taken lands donated to the Monastery for his own use and burnt down the monk's best barn which was filled with corn. The young man subsequently became mad and died but before doing so he claimed that he was "inwardly burnt by the influence of the monks". Gerald then recounts a further incident:

In our time too, in a period of scarcity, while great multitudes of poor were daily crowding before the gates for relief, by the unanimous consent of the brethren, a ship was sent to Bristol to purchase corn for charitable purposes. The vessel, delayed by contrary winds, and not returning (but rather affording an opportunity for the miracle), on the very day when there would have been a total deficiency of corn, both for the poor and the convent, a field near the monastery was found suddenly to ripen, more than a month before the usual time of harvest: thus, divine providence supplied the brotherhood and the numerous poor with sufficient nourishment until the autumn. By these and other signs of virtues, the place accepted by God began to be generally esteemed and venerated.

Gerald's writing reflects the importance of the corn crop and a good harvest during the 12th century and the danger of famine if the crop was to fail.

Arable farming was important in medieval Neath, and the accounts of the Manor of Neath for 29 September 1314 show the purchase of wheat, beans and oats for use on the estate. Wheat was expensive to buy compared to oats, but it was more profitable. The accounts show that wheat cost 6s. 8d. per quarter to buy compared to 2s. 6d. per quarter for oats. The accounts also record that there were 3 water mills (at New Grange, Crynant and Cilybebyll) that brought in receipts of £9 for the year running from 29 September 1314 – 1315. However, for the period 20 April to 29 September 1316 the mills had no receipts and the accounts remark “Mills: Nothing - because they were burnt in the war”, referring to a turbulent period when the Normans were under attack by the Welsh.

A mortarium kitchen pot (left) and a large storage jar from the Roman settlement of Nidum (Neath). The mortarium was used for pounding or mixing foods and is an important indicator of the spread of Romanized food preparation methods. From the collection of Swansea Museum

Tibbott has a record for Loaf Cake (Teisen Dorth) from Margam. The recipe requires a large piece of freshly risen dough, lard or butter is worked into this and then brown sugar, currants, raisins and a little spice are added. Beaten egg is then added to this dry mix and the dough is kneaded and left to rise in a warm place. It is then baked in a greased tin, like bread. Tibbott comments that this is "a simple method of making loaf cake, commonly practised in farmhouses at harvest time".

Cream Cake (Teisen Hufen) was prepared by farmers' wives in north Glamorgan as a treat for special occasions. This cake is made from flour, sugar, eggs, and fresh cream. The egg is beaten into the flour and sugar with a fork. The fresh cream is folded into the mixture to make a light batter, and this is then dropped onto a greased, moderately hot bakestone with a large spoon. It is then baked on both sides until golden brown. Tibbott's recipe was recorded in Rhigos, a village located between the Vale of Neath and the Cynon Valley.

Siencyn is a simple dish made from bread which is placed in a basin and covered in boiling water. Butter or dripping is added to this, and it is seasoned with salt and pepper. It was a dish usually served for breakfast in areas of South Wales. In the Vale of Neath it is known as Sop. Siencyn Te (Bread and Tea) uses hot tea sweetened with sugar and milk instead of boiling water. Carwyn James comments that it is an example of the:

wide array of overlooked dishes and traditions remain alive and kicking in communities across the country.

Eileen Baker recalls the importance of the hearth for baking during the 20th century

The fireplace was the focal point of the living room. It was also my mother’s kitchen. She would polish even the back of it with black lead. To one side lay the singing kettle and on the other, the square iron door of the oven. All her cooking was done either on top of the fire or in the oven - and she spent much of her time preparing food. There was always bread rising in the large earthenware bowl set before the fire, or delicious-smelling cakes and tarts cooking in the oven.

Baker explains the enjoyment of eating toast by the hearth:

Crouched before the evening fire toasting my mother’s home-made bread was a treat in itself. We would smother the toast with beef dripping, sprinkle it with salt, then eat it slowly, savouring each mouthful as the dripping soaked into the thick toasted bread. It was a graft for a king!

Lewis recalled baking bread with her mother, as follows

My mother used to do the bread and put it up beside the fire till it rose up. Then I had to take it from the sides, knead it again, and then it rises up again. Then, when it got to the top the second time, then I had to make the bread, put it in tins, and put it in the oven. We’d have about eight loaves. Four used to go in at a time, and the others would be on the fender on the front.

There are long-established bakeries in the area, such as Baglan Bakery in Baglan.

Milk and milk products

Dairy farming in this area has been practised since Medieval times. The accounts of the Manor of Neath have evidence of dairy farming with profits from milk (lactagium) of 26s. 8d. from 8 cows recorded in the receipts of 29 September 1314.

Baker writes about the use of butter. In rural areas butter would be produced on farms or made at home but during the 20th century, especially in industrial areas, butter would have been purchased from retailers rather than made at home

Butter was also fairly cheap, although we used it sparingly. We looked down on margarine

Puddings and cereals

On the tradition of eating Rice Pudding (Pwdin Reis) Tibbott writes as follows.

This was the pudding most commonly eaten for Sunday dinner throughout Wales. A large bowlful would also be prepared periodically on a weekday. After baking bread in the large brick oven, the housewife would make use of the heat still retained by the bricks, by putting a large bowlful of rice pudding to bake slowly in the oven overnight. Alternatively, rice pudding was boiled in a cast iron saucepan or boiled over an open fire.

Tibbott explains that to make Rice Pudding the rice is placed in a large dish and covered with cold water. It is then placed in a moderately hot oven until the water has evaporated. The milk is then poured over it and some sugar, salt and nutmeg added. In a recipe recorded from Margam, currants, raisins and egg are added to the mixture. The eggs give a richer consistency, and the pudding is baked slowly until it reaches the consistency of a cake. It is then cut into squares and served cold. This compares with the usual recipe where it is baked until thick and creamy. Tibbott notes that this rice pudding recipe was baked in large tin pans and carried out to the farm workers in the fields during the hay and corn harvests in Glamorgan.

Porridge or cereal was often eaten for breakfast. Baker writes about her experience during the 20th century:

Except in summer, we always ate porridge for breakfast. We were not allowed fresh milk with it, but were given the choice of a teaspoonful of either Nestlé Milk or Demerara sugar - either way it tasted wonderful - administered by my mother. I was fascinated by the patterns created as they melted over the porridge. In the summer months, our breakfast regime changed as a cereal called ‘Force’ replaced porridge

Tibbott writes that cereal and milk dishes in the agricultural areas of Wales relied on a home grown crop of oats. However, from the 20th century onwards most cereal products were purchased from retailers.

Vegetables and Fruit

Vegetables would be grown on allotments for home consumption. Doris Lewis recalls the Great Depression:

There were no jobs [in Ystalyfera] for anybody. So they all opened up allotments and grew their own vegetables. The allotment was really a big patch behind our gardens, in the valley - it wasn’t used for anything. My dad …. grew mostly potatoes, and broad beans and kidney beans - we had plenty of vegetables.

Lewis recalled that cawl was always available at home made with vegetables from the allotment.

During the 18th and 19th centuries exotic fruit was a rarity and only the very rich could afford to buy or cultivate it. The pineapple was symbolic of this desire and it can be seen decorating country house architecture of the period. In Margam an orangery was built between 1786 and 1790 by Thomas Mansel Talbot to house his collection of approximately 200 citrus trees which he had inherited and which were kept in Margam House (since demolished). Tudor Edwards comments that it is “one of the finest pieces of post-Reformation architecture in Wales”.

Margam Orangery, an early calotype photograph taken by the Reverend Calvert Richard Jones in c1845 and showing Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot standing on the 19th century terrace, from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The orangery at 327 feet long is one of the longest in Britain. It followed a trend to have orangeries at country houses because importing exotic fruit was difficult.

Citrus trees were some of the earliest exotic plants to be introduced into Britain and included oranges, lemons, and limes. The trees at Margam would be put outside on the terrace in front of the orangery from May to October and then taken indoors again during the winter.

To protect the trees during the winter the orangery was heated by underfloor flues, and this also made the orangery a pleasant place for the owners to take a walk in winter.t. It was said that the trees arrived at Margam after being shipwrecked or were captured as booty while being delivered as a royal gift, with versions of the story claiming that the recipient was intended to be Elizabeth I, Charles I, Queen Mary or Catherine of Braganza.

The orangery is an example of the efforts the landed gentry would go to cultivate exotic fruit during the heyday of the country house. However, the original collection was lost during World War II when the orangery was requisitioned for occupation by American troops.The orange trees were left outside during the winter and didn't survive. After the War, a new collection of citrus trees was established by West Glamorgan County Council.

Soft fruit is grown in gardens and allotments, and this provided an additional source of income during the General Strike. Doris Lewis, who was raised in a Welsh-speaking miner's household of eight children in Ystalyfera was interviewed in Johannesburg on 28 July 1986, and recalled collecting soft fruit from the mountains to provide an additional source of income during this period:

we used to go up the mountains and get whimberries. We used to come home and measure them, so much a pint, and go round the houses selling that. Blackberries the same. In our back garden we had a lot of raspberries and gooseberries, and we used to sell those - outside. We’d go up to Ystradgynlais and all around - a lot of them didn’t have the allotments and gardens that we had. They could afford to buy them - it wasn’t much, about a shilling a pint - well, a shilling was a lot in those days, for us.

Lewis recalls making fruit tarts:

on Saturday, I used to make a whimberry tart, a gooseberry tart, raspberry tart, apple tart - there were six plates I used to make every Saturday. And that had to last the week. But by the time Wednesday came, it was all gone.

Drinks

A brewery was established at Cadoxton-juxta-Neath in 1836 by Messrs Stancombe, Buckland, and Rusher of the Maesteg Iron Company. It was producing ale and porter by 1838 and claimed to be the largest brewery business in South Wales with sales of 400 barrels a week. By 1839 the brewery became a joint stock company known as the Vale of Neath and South Wales Brewery Company aiming to produce 1,000 barrels a week. However, the brewery was not successful, and the company was dissolved in 1847. Evan Evans, who owned the Grant Arms in Neath High Street, bought the plant and premises, and re-established it as the Neath Brewery. He then took over the Vale of Neath Brewery which had been established in 1840. Slater's Directory of 1858 reported that the brewery covered four acres with a weekly sale of 1000 barrels, making it the largest brewery in Wales. By 1935, the brewery owned 207 pubs in Neath and the surrounding valleys and in 1967 it was sold by David Evans-Bevan, a descendant of the founder, to Whitbread. They ceased brewing in Neath in 1972 and moved production to Cardiff.

At the village of Pont-nedd-fechan is the Angel Inn. Tudor Edwards described the pub as follows:

the Angel Inn of cream roughcast walls and red-quoined windows and yellow frames….There is a story of a haughty Lord Mayor of London who called at the Angel at the beginning of the last century, but was refused refreshment by the equally proud and dogmatic landlady.

Often people would drink at home. Lewis recalled:

Dad never went out to pubs - he drank his beer at home. Dad liked having his drink in front of the fire. One of the boys had to go up to the pub to get beer for him - would bring it back in a jug, or something like it.

Neath Port Talbot has numerous tea and coffee shops. Afternoon tea is usually served in Wales between 3:00 and 4:30pm, and has its own distinctive traditions.

The India and China Tea Company shop on Station Road, Port Talbot. This shop was active during the 20th century. Tea became cheaper when world trade increased, making it an affordable drink for the general population. South Wales had busy ports during this period importing many kinds of food and produce.

Tradition

The tradition of the Mari Lwyd remained celebrated in the Margam area longer than elsewhere. Tudor Edwards writes that beyond Margam Mountain is the village of Llangynwyd where he notes that:

the Welsh Christmas festival of Mari Lwyd, or Holy Mary, now quite rare, is still observed with gusto

The Mari Lwyd has seen a revival in the 21st century and is now celebrated in many parts of Wales.

Thomas Gray is said to have written his famous elegy in Baglan, Tudor Edwards comments

Beyond [Port Talbot] is the hamlet of Baglan with its house which Gray the poet knew, its sycamore trees and its single churchyard containing two churches, the modern one having glass by Burne-Jones.

According to Malkin, Gray had visited the owner of Baglan Hall and made a visit to the graveyard at Briton Ferry. He believed that Gray had chosen not to mention the location of his poem to please an English audience, although it is now believed that the poem was written at Stoke Poges.

Places to visit

Margam Country Park offers a deer safari by experts which allows people to get close to the deer.