Skewen ( cy, Sgiwen) is a village within the

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot ( cy, Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county borough in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county bor ...

, in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The village is served by

Skewen railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Skewen railway station, Neath (geograph 4123125).jpg , borough = Skewen, Neath Port Talbot , country = Wales , coordinates = , ...

and has its own

rugby club Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

History

Skewen was once an industrial village. There were a number of

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

around the village (see link below). The Crown and Mines Royal Copper Works and the Cheadle and Neath Abbey Ironworks were once important industrial sites which stood close by. Old top-loading

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

s can also be seen at

Neath Abbey Neath Abbey ( cy, Abaty Nedd) was a Cistercian monastery, located near the present-day town of Neath in South Wales, UK. It was once the largest abbey in Wales. Substantial ruins can still be seen, and are in the care of Cadw. Tudor historian ...

. To the south of Skewen lies the village of

Llandarcy Llandarcy is a village near Neath in the Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales, and was the site of the Llandarcy Oil Refinery, first oil refinery in the United Kingdom. It was originally designed as a Planned community, garden village to house ...

, the site of the country's first

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

. The site of this former oil refinery is now being developed as an urban village called

Coed Darcy Coed Darcy is a new village currently being developed adjacent to Llandarcy in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Historical background The village is being built on brownfield land vacated by a former oil refinery, the Llandarcy Oil Refi ...

, a development which was promoted at its start by the Prince of Wales's Foundation for the Built Environment.

Monuments of interest

The ruins of

, a former

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

, are now in the care of

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...

. On

Mynydd Drumau Mynydd Drumau (meaning "Mountain of the Ridges" in English) is a mountain in south Wales lying on the border between Swansea and the county of Neath Port Talbot. It is 272m / 892ft high, and is a Marilyn. The mountain is situated in a suburb ...

to the north of the village is an ancient standing stone known as the Carreg Bica (or 'Maen Bradwen').

Notable people

*The village is the birthplace of Sir

Samuel Thomas Evans Sir Samuel Thomas Evans (4 May 1859 – 13 September 1918) was a Welsh barrister, judge and Liberal politician. Background and education Evans was born at Skewen, near Neath, Glamorganshire, the only son of John Evans, a grocer, and hi ...

(1859–1918), British judge and politician who was appointed Solicitor-General in 1908 and became the

President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division The President of the Family Division is the head of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales and Head of Family Justice. The Family Division was created in 1971 when Admiralty and contentious probate cases were remove ...

in 1910. *Skewen is also the birthplace of internationally successful singer

Bonnie Tyler Gaynor Sullivan (née Hopkins; born 8 June 1951), known professionally as Bonnie Tyler, is a Welsh singer who is known for her distinctive husky voice. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album '' The World Starts Tonight'' a ...

and Welsh composer

David John de Lloyd David John de Lloyd (30 April 1883 – 20 August 1948) was a Welsh musician and composer. Born in Skewen near Neath, de Lloyd was the son of an insurance agent and the family moved with the latter's employment until they settled in Penparcau a ...

(1883-1948). *Comedian

Eddie Izzard Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Izzard's stand- ...

lived in the village for a short during childhood. * The grandparents of the legendary American entrepreneur

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

are believed to have lived in Skewen in the 1930s. * The notorious murderer, Elizabeth "Betty" Maude Jones, née Baker (1926-?), was born in Skewen. In October 1944, she and an American paratrooper named Karl Hulten (1922-1944), sometimes branded "the Blackout Bonnie and Clyde", carried out a series of brutal crimes that culminated in the murder of a London taxi driver. Both she and Hulten were sentenced to death, but Jones was reprieved by the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison.

Nearest places

* Birchgrove

References

External links

Skewen Collierywww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Skewen and surrounding area
{{authority control Villages in Neath Port Talbot