PORT TALBOT, Glamorganshire, Wales, a town and borough on the Avon, near its mouth in Swansea Bay, 11 m. E.S.E. of Swansea and 17o m. from London by G.W.R. Pop. (1930 40,672. A castle once stood at Port Talbot, but, despite its apparent strategic importance, the Normans allowed it to remain in the hands of Welsh chieftains who, from the 13th cen tury onwards, styled themselves De Avan or D'Avene. A small town grew up around the castle; one of its charters was granted in 1372 by Edward le Despenser.
During the early industrial period, Cornish pioneers were at tracted to the Avon valley by its possibilities as a coal-mining and manufacturing centre. The early tendency was to take the ores to the coal and thus Cwmavon, 1 m. N.E. of Aberavon, flourished in the middle of the 19th century, being noted for its copper-smelting works and other metallurgical activities. Copper was brought from Cornwall and discharged at Aberavon, the ships then going to Taibach to load a return cargo of coal from the Morfa collieries. With the great increase in coal production for
export, the need for better shipping facilities was soon felt. The river below Aberavon was deflected into an artificial channel, its former mouth was blocked, and its lower course thus converted into a dock, which was again greatly extended in 1898. Railway enterprises linked the town with the coal-mining valleys, especially with Cwm Rhondda, whilst the G.W.R. established good east to west connections, and in 1921 took charge of the docks. With the development of the port, the town took over many of the activities of Cwmavon, coal being brought down to the port to work up imported ores. Consequently, a modern industrial centre sprang up between the old centres of Aberavon and Taibach and became the chief element in the borough of Port Talbot. House-building has been undertaken since the World War, but town-planning is limited by the narrowness of the coastal plain.