timeline

c. 10,000 BC	Nomadic groups of hunter gatherers, following the animal herds, gathering shell-fish and berries along the shore. Evidence of their existence and activities comes from their rubbish heaps, or middens, particularly in dune areas like Merthyr Mawr.
c. 4,000 BC	Arrival of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) farmers, who grow crops and keep animals. They live in settled groups, make pottery, learn to weave cloth. They have the time and the resources to build - stone circles, communal stone tombs etc. Local evidence: stone axes on the beach, megaliths at Cwrt Sart, Giants Grave, circles etc on the Neath/Tawe watershed (Megalith = very large stone.)
c. 2,000 BC	Bronze Age first use of metals for weapons, tools, ornaments.
c. 600 BC	Iron Age arrival of the Celts. Once seen as a series of invasions, but probably the arrival of new ideas as much as people The Celts came from France and the Lowlands, whereas the pre-Celts probably came from Spain, Brittany, possibly North Africa.
43 AD	The Romans arrive in SE. Britain, conquer it and move on towards the West and North
43 - c. 60 AD	Resistance to the Romans is strong in South Wales, particularly from the Silures under Caradoc/Caratacus.
Post 60 AD	Very little information Roman towns are built (usually with forts alongside) at Caerwent (Venta Silurum), and Caerleon in Gwent; Nidum (Neath) and Bovium/Bomium (Cowbridge ?) in Glamorgan; Maridunum (Carmarthen) in Dyfed, also villas (farming estates) in the Vale etc.
	Many traces of Roman visitors - milestones, coins, pottery etc, but no known settlement apart from the fort at NeathiNidum The main road to the west and the Dolau Cothi goldmines, the Via Julia Maritima, runs through the borough, and would have seen many travellers, especially army detachments heading west for Neath and beyond, and merchants hoping to sell their goods in Carmarthen and buy local produce.
	The leading Britons were encouraged to adopt the Roman way of life, Learning Latin, wearing togas, visiting the baths. ViIIas (Roman country houses) were built in the richer lowland areas - there is one in the Vale ofGlamorgan, near Llantwit Major - but in our area there was probably little change. Neath seems to have been mainly a fort; civilians would have lived round it, to provide services, but there was not, as far as we know at present, a Roman town like those at Carmarthen or Caerwent.
c. 500-1050	Raids by Irish slavers, Danes, Vikings Age of the Saints - St. Baglan, a Breton prince who studied at St llItyd' s school at Llantwit Major, and was then sent to work as a Christian missionary in West Wales. Founded a church at Baglan. St Sawel, who founded the church at Briton Ferry, also comes from this time.
	Heroic Age: local chieftains set up mini-kingdoms and built fortified homes like the one destroyed when the most recent Briton Ferry bridge was built The chieftain who lived there imported luxuries from the Mediterranean - wine, olive oil etc
	Settlements - there were probably a few huts round St Baglan' s church, and also probably a small Celtic monastery at Margam The ridges/terraces on the hillsides were also inhabited (platform houses.)
	The first Aberafan probably dates from this period - it may have been nearer the sea, where the docks are now; when the docks were being excavated c 1.836, various things were found - Roman coins, shoes, cattle horns, fences, walls, cultivation ridges from fields A field in this area was known as 'Platch yr Hen Eglwys' - 'the field of the old church' - which might have been the long vanished church of St Thomas.
1066	Normans conquer England.
c. 1090	Normans arrive in South Wales. Rhys ap Tudur, king of South Wales, killed in battle Iestyn ap Gwrgan is defeated by a combined Welsh-Norman army, but his son Caradoc is allowed to keep the land between the Neath and the Ffrwdwyllt, and becomes the first Lord of Man, the only Welsh-ruled area in Norman South Wales (After 1137 his eastern boundary is the Man.) Caradoc builds a wooden motte and bailey castle next to what is now St. Mary's church.
1137	Robert, Earl of Gloucester, founds Margam Abbey, partly for the good of his soul, partly as a buffer between the Welsh in Man and the uplands of Glamorgan, and the Normans in Coity, Bridgend and the Vale.
1147	Foundation of Margam Abbey
1153	Caradoc's castle is burnt down by his brothers-in-law, Maredudd and Rhys ap Grutrydd; the castle is rebuilt in stone.
1153	Small settlements begin to grow up around the castle and the abbey.
1188	Gerald of Wales visits Margam, Aberafan and Baglan with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is recruiting soldiers for a crusade in the Holy Land .
	Gerald writes the first description of the area, including the quicksands in the Neath estuary (where he almost loses his horse) and the first recorded fairy story from Wales (set in the Vale of Neath).
	Both Aberafan and Margarn continue to grow, and Aberafan becomes a small market town. The Lords of Man slowly become more and more Normanised, marry Norman wives, take Norman-style names.
	Archbishop Baldwin at the Abbey with Giraldus Cambrensis.

1210	King John visited the Abbey.
1232	Morgan Gam, Lord of Afan, attacked Kenfig.
1249	Coal worked in the Bryn District.
1304	Sir Leisan de Avene grants Aberafan its first charter
1326	Edward II stops at Margarm Abbey.
1347	Outbreak of the Black Death. So many of the abbey's farmworkers die that the monks can no longer farm the land themselves and have to rent it out to local farmers...
1350	Aberafan Borough Charter re-issued by Thomas d' Avene By now the family of the Lords of Man has become more Norman than Welsh, and in the next twenty years they disappear, possibly to England Man becomes part of the lands of Edward Ie Despenser, English Lord of Glamorgan, who issues a third Charter to the town of Aberafan in 1373.
1373	Edward le Despenser grants new charter to Aberafan.
1384	The Abbot of Margam appropriates St. Mary's Church.
1394	Richard II at the Abbey. He was there again five years later.
c. 1400	Now the Lords of Man have disappeared, no-one lives in the castle, but the town/village still exists The town is mainly run by the burgesses, with no local lord of the manor.
	Ieuan Gethin, descendant of a younger branch of the Man lords, lives at Plas Baglan He is a poet, and writes an elegy in memory of his children, who have died of the plague.
	Inland, Llanfihangel Ynys Man/Michaelstone Super Avon (now Cwmavon) is mostly mall farms, with a church and inn as its centre; the road down to Aberafan is very bad, so people tend to head for the markets and fairs at Neath. No record of travellers along the high road at this point - West Wales is now a backwater and Ireland is out of the picture for the moment because the various kings and nobles in England are too busy fighting each other. Owain Glyndwr carne to Bridgend, where he besieged Coity Castle, but there seems to be no record of him visiting Aberafan or Margam.
1427	Serious flooding in the Swansea Bay area.
1491 - 2	Serious flooding at Aberafan. About this time the nearby castle and town at Kenfig begin to be covered by sand - too heavily for the inhabitants to clear it Aberafan and Margarn are not seriously affected, but their farmlands near the sea may have been.
1535	Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII; Margarn Abbey is valued at an armual income of £181/7/4 (just a little higher than Neath !)
1537 - 40	The monks are thrown out; the lead from the roofs and other abbey property is sold off; proceeds to the Exchequer Margam Abbey surrendered to Crown Officers, following the Act of Dissolution of 1536.
1540 - 47	Sir Rice Mansel of Oxwich in Gower buys the abbey and its lands; it costs him £2494/13/5 The nave of the abbey church is turned into a parish church for the local villagers, the rest of the building eventually falls down Sir Rice converts the monks' living quarters into a house for his family
c. 1540	John Leland, Henry VIII's 'King's Antiquary', visits the area as part of a survey of the whole of England and Wales
	Margam is 'the best village' in the area, Margam Abbey was 'a very large and fair church'
	Aberafan 'There is a poor village on the west bank of the Man about two miles from the river mouth This village is called Aberavon. The land about it is barren and sour. This village lies in the great highway through Glamorgan; there is a haven for ships at the mouth of this Afan There is good woodland round here.
1543	The records of a tax being collected this year give us information about the inhabitants of the town of Aberafan There were 29 households in the borough - c 120 inhabitants The tax collector was David ap Hopkin, and he collected 29 shillings and 4 pence (c £150 in our money - but worth very much more than that nowadays.)
1543	All the householders' names are Welsh (though a little later than this there was a family in the town with the surname Seys - 'Sais' or English) There is one woman - Kattryn Gryffyth, who paid 2 pence (the smallest amount due - 6 others also paid 2 pence); the largest amount came from Hywel ap lean Mawr, who paid six shillings and eightpence
1552	Sir Rice Mansel, purchaser of the Abbey Estates, builds new house at Margam.
1607	Sea walls destroyed; coastal areas widley inundated.
1648	Oliver Cromwell at Aberavon; town charter hidden in chopping block.
1652	Collieries working in Margam.
1717	Afan Forge built; hence Forge Road.
1729	Newcomen Engine installed at Bryndu.
1750	Bussey, Lord Mansel, died.
1750	Rev. Thos. Talbot inherits Margam.
1757	Cartwright and Newton lease land in and around Taibach and open Craigafan Colliery.
1758	Other collieries opened up at Llety Harry and Mynydd Bychan.
1768	Widespread flood. Wm. Edwards built single span bridge over River Avon.
c. 1770	Local Methodists meet in the Old Barn (site of Field Terrace).
1774	Taibach Copper Works began production.
1777 - 80	Collieries opened up at Cwm Brombil and Cwm Geifr.
1800	Taibach Copper Mill built.
1803	Goytre Colliery opened up.
1811	S. F. Lettsom leases land from Earl of Jersey at Cwmavon.
1819	Lettsom builds Cwmavon's first blast furnace.
1822	Robt. Smith builds Margam Tinworks at Afan Forge site.
1825	John Vigurs and Co. build Tinworks at Cwmavon.
1825 - 27	John Reynolds builds Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct.
1830 - 5	Magam Castle built by C. R. M. Talbot.
1829 - 31	Eastern School (now Youth Club) built.
1831	National School, Aberavon, built.
1832	First cholera epidemic. Others occured in 1849, 1855 and 1866.
1835 - 8	Cwmavon Copper Works built.
1836	River Avon diverted and the first docks begun. The name Port Talbot comes into official use.
1838	The Round Capel (Beulah) at Groes built. Vivian and Sons take over the Taibach Copper Works from the English Copper Co.
1841	English Copper Co. acquire Cwmavon Works and produce coal at Bryn.
1841	Coke Ovens erected at Bryndu, Margam.
1847	Cwmavon Engineering Depot built; work on the sinking of Morfa Pit began, coal being produced there in 1849.
1850	Opening of South Wales Railway (later called the Graet Western Railway).
1851	Monster Rail (62ft. 5in.) made at Cwmavon for Crystal Palace Exhibition.
1855	All Saints Church built at Ynys Afan, Cwmavon.
1856	13 men killed at explosion in Pwll Ynys Dafydd, Cwmavon.
1858	12 killed at another explosion in Bryndu Pit.
1859	Rebuilding of St. Mary's completed.
1860	Vernon (Ferry) Tinworks began production.
1861	New town charter granted to Aberavon.
1863	Fourth explosion at Morfa Pit; 39 killed.
1863	Four men were also killed when an explosion took place at the Park Pit, Baglan.
1870	Cornish explosion at Morfa Pit; 30 killed.
1873	Mansel Works built by Messrs. Byass.
1875 - 82	Building of new Baglan Church.
1877	James Shaw and Co. purchase Cwmavon Works.
1884	Rio Tinto Co. purchase Cwmavon Copper Works.
1885	The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway ran first passenger serice from Aberavon to Pontrhydyfen.
1890	Last explosion at Morfa Pit. 87 men and one rescuer killed.
1893	Work on Glanafan School begun.
1894 - 8	New Docks built and Prt Talbot Railway Co. formed.
1894 - 8	Station Road developed.
1895	Site of Aberavon Castle cleared.
1897	Consecration of St. Theodore's Church, Taibach.
1898	Copper Smelting Works at Taibach ceased production.
1901 - 5	Port Talbot Steelworks built by Messrs. Gilbertson.
1901 - 5	Celluloid Works at Goytre built (1901)
1903	Express Steelworks, Cwmavon, closed.
1906	Rio Tinto Copper Co. leave Cwmavon for new site at the Docks.
1909	Extensive floods throughout district.
1913	Closure of Morfa Pit.
1914 - 15	Central Library, Taibach, built.
1915	Municipal Buildings, Aberavon, completed.
1916	Preliminary work began on Margam Steelworks.
1921	Creation of the Borough of Port Talbot.
1921	Cwmavon Coke Ovens ceased production.
1925	Vivian and Sons close Taibach Copper Mill, converted in the following year into a tinplate works by Briton Ferry Steel Co.
1931	St. Joseph's Church completed.
1941	Margam Estate sold by Captain Andrew Fletcher.
1951	Abbey Works began production.
1951	British Oxygen Work built.
1953	Closure of Taibach, Burrows and Ffrwdwyllt Tinworks.
1954	Old Baglan Church gutted by fire.
1958	Baglan Hall demolished.
1958	Sandfields Comprehensive School opened.
1959	Glenhafod, Aberbaidan and Pentre Collieries closed by N.C.B.
1963	Closure of Bryn pit.
	Port Talbot Steelworks demolished following closure of melting shop in 1961.
	Margam melting shop and Goytre Railwat Yards closed.
	Traffic ceased on the Rhondda and Swansea bay Railway.
	New By - pass begun (Completed 1966)
1965	The Afan Lido opened by the Queen.
1970	New Tidal Harbour and BOS Plant opened by the Queen.
1971 - 76	Most of old Aberavon in the Upper Water Street and High Street areas demolished.
1974	Afan Borough formed.
1975	Groes Chapel and Village demolished to make way for the M4
1975	Chapel rebuilt on new site and reopened in 1976.
1976	New Aberavon Centre opened by Princess Anne.
1977	Margam Park and restored Orangery opened by the Queen.