How to record the past: the Port Talbot Historical Society and Arthur Rees’ photographic record
During the year, West Glamorgan Archive Service received a collection of slides. There is nothing unusual in that: plenty of photographic collections are received as a matter of course. Some are records made during a particular piece of business, such as a construction project. Some have been collected over a matter of years as a hobby, while others may have adorned the walls of a school or chapel showing former pupils or members. This collection was different: it was the result of a concerted effort to record an area at a time of great change. Many historical societies in the West Glamorgan area have taken steps to record the past as well as studying it. In several cases, this has resulted in a tape recording programme to record reminiscences about the past – we could mention the work of J. Mansel Thomas in the 1970s, the Swansea Canal Society and Oystermouth Historical Association in the 1980s and the Gower Society either side of the Millennium. Several new projects are underway as I write. This sort of study is most relevant where the way of life (and in some cases the accent, dialect or language) is changing. In the case of post-war Port Talbot, it was all about the built environment: the very look of the town was changing out of all recognition. Between 1979 and 1993, Port Talbot Historical Society published four volumes of Old Port Talbot and District in photographs. A quick glance at these shows a place that is radically different from the Port Talbot we know today: for example, there were plenty of thatched cottages, even in the centre of the town. Reading the captions, we are struck by the frequent use of the word ‘demolished’. For much of its history, Aberavon was not a place of great wealth or population. Founded as a borough by Leisan ap Morgan in around 1304, it did not have enough of the good agricultural land needed to support a large population and fuel a thriving economy. The hinterland, with its steep hillsides and deep valleys, was even less productive. The major location of note was Margam Abbey, which owned great swathes of land to the south of the river and became the country seat of the Mansel family after the dissolution. The few descriptions we have of Aberavon are not
Twll-yn-y-wal Cottage, Taibach