Port Talbot Town Heritage Trail

Vantage Point 2:

Bethany Square

Named after the chapel on one corner of the square, this has always been an important centre in the town. It used to be a central bus hub.

Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Station Road, Port Talbot

Forge Road, the road running left out of the square, is named after the Lower Forge at the Margam Tinplate Works, set up in 1820 by Robert Smith and John Reynolds. Reynolds was the builder of the famous aqueduct at Pontrhydyfen. This was the beginning of the iron and steel industry locally, taking over from copper.

When the area was being pedestrianised some years ago, the workmen broke into a major tunnel under the road, which had carried the waste water from the Lower Forge Works into the Afan river. Tesco also had a problem with this when they were building their store.  As late as the nineteen sixties one side of Forge Road was still mostly houses with gardens, though a few of the ground floors of these had become shops.

On the opposite side were the Odeon (Majestic) cinema, the Masonic Temple (Grade II Listed), Tabernacle Newydd Chapel (both still standing), the Co-operative drapers, furniture and grocery departments (the present Family Value store occupies what was the furniture section) and several speciality shops.

Tabernacle Newydd Chapel

Bethany Chapel (Grade II Listed)

Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Station Road, Port Talbot 1880

Bethany chapel itself was a daughter chapel of Carmel CM chapel, whose members had realised the need for a place of workshop for the English workers and others who had come to the area as its industries developed. C. R. M. Talbot allowed them to rent a very good site on the main high road for £1.00 a year and the new chapel opened in 1880. Sadly, declining congregations meant that eventually the members moved over to Carmel chapel for their services, and Bethany chapel has remained empty ever since, although there are ambitions to repurpose it.

The memorial plaques, to the dead of the two World Wars and past ministers, have removed to Carmel Chapel, Riverside, where they can be viewed on request: srjones@alunbooks.co.uk 

Bethany Chapel with the Victoria Institute beside it

Walk past Bethany and down Station Road, keeping to the left-hand side.

Victoria Institute

This was next door to Bethany Chapel, where the Job Centre is currently. The 19th century saw a major flowering of workers` education, and the Victoria Institute, founded in 1887, was a good example of this.  It was an elegant building, brick with stone facings, and had a library and reading room on the ground floor, with science and art rooms above.

Victoria Institute. Courtesy of Port Talbot Historical Society

Classes were held here, and among those who began their professional education there was Robert George Clark, c. 1890. From Aberafan he moved to London to complete his training and became a distinguished engineer, specialising in dock and harbour drainage.

The Institute was very much a part of local life, being also used for meetings; for instance in 1893 it housed an enquiry into Council membership, and in 1900 the Aberafan and Port Talbot Nursing Association met there. The building was demolished in the 1960s: before it became the Job Centre, it was the Fine Fare supermarket.

Walk down from Bethany staying on the left, until you come to Glanafan School: QR code sign 3 will be on railings outside.