Skewen

Skewen (Welsh: Sgiwen) is a village within the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, in Wales.

The village is served by Skewen railway station.

History

Skewen was once an industrial village. There were a number of collieries 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 furnaces can also be seen at Neath Abbey. To the south of Skewen lies the village of Llandarcy, the site of the country's first oil refinery. The site of this former oil refinery is now being developed as an urban village called Coed Darcy, a development supported by the Prince of Wales's Foundation for the Built Environment. 'Skewen Main 1925' is a folk song about the closure of the Skewen Main colliery at a time when the oil refinery was being built at Llandarcy, a mile from the village.The song was written by Huw Pudner and Chris Hastings.

Monuments of interest

The ruins of Neath Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery, are now in the care of CADW. On Mynydd Drumau to the north of the village is an ancient standing stone known as the Carreg Bica (or 'Maen Bradwen' which translates into English as 'the white rock of betrayal').

Notable people

The village is the birthplace of Sir Samuel Thomas Evans (1859–1918), British judge and politician who was appointed Solicitor-General in 1908 and became the President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division in 1910. Skewen is also the birthplace of internationally successful singer Bonnie Tyler and Welsh composer David John de Lloyd. Comedian Eddie Izzard lived in the village for a short while in his boyhood. The grandparents of the legendary American entrepreneur Howard Hughes are believed to have lived in Skewen in the 1830s.

External links

• Skewen Colliery
• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Skewen and surrounding area