Town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales
Neath
Neath's rugby team wears black and is known as the Welsh All Blacks. The town's story runs from a Roman fort to a Norman castle and an abbey turned Tudor mansion.
Key information
- County
- Neath Port Talbot
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- Neath RFC, Neath Abbey, the Gnoll estate, gateway to Waterfall Country
- Famous people
- Katherine Jenkins, Sir Humphrey Mackworth
About Neath
The Welsh All Blacks
Neath's rugby club pulls on black shirts, and that earned it the nickname the Welsh All Blacks. The club dates from 1871, which makes it one of the oldest in Wales. For generations rugby has been the town's main shared passion. Saturday afternoons at the Gnoll ground were a fixture of local life for decades, and the club's name carries real weight in Welsh rugby, where Neath-bred players have long been a feature of the national game. The black strip is part of the town's identity. You will see it on scarves, in pub windows and on the backs of small boys at mini-rugby sessions.
A Roman fort, a Norman castle and an abbey
Neath has been a crossing point on its river for nearly two thousand years. The Romans built a fort here around AD 74 and called it Nidum, a name that probably comes from the river itself. The Normans came next. A castle was raised beside the river in the early twelfth century, and its battered gatehouse still stands in the town centre. Neath became a borough under the lords of the castle. In 1130 Richard de Granville founded Neath Abbey just west of the town. The monks first followed the Savigniac order, then joined the Cistercians in 1147. The abbey was dissolved in 1539, and parts of its buildings were then converted into a Tudor mansion.
From monks to furnaces
Neath's abbey had a second life that few medieval ruins can match. After the Dissolution its grounds were taken over by industry, and in the eighteenth century its ruins were used for copper smelting. A short distance away, the Neath Abbey Ironworks was established in 1792 on the River Clydach. It made iron, and later engines and machinery, for use in the coalfields and beyond. The wider area was just as busy. Coal, copper and iron all passed through Neath, and the Neath Canal, built in the 1790s, carried them down to the sea.
The Gnoll and the man who mined everything
The Gnoll estate, on a hillside above the town, was long the seat of the Mackworth family. Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who arrived in the late seventeenth century, was a restless industrialist who smelted copper and mined coal and lead. He also ran the Company of Mine Adventurers of England, which got him into serious political trouble. The house is gone, but the landscaped grounds survive as Gnoll Country Park. Its cascades, ponds and woodland walks are among the loveliest spots in town and a favourite for family days out. The Gnoll's name has also become tied up with the rugby club, whose ground long carried it.
Gateway to the waterfalls, and a town of song
North of Neath, the Vale of Neath climbs towards the Brecon Beacons and the cluster of waterfalls around Pontneddfechan that gives the area its popular name, Waterfall Country. For many walkers, Neath is the last town before the cascades. The town is a musical place too. The Gwyn Hall, which opened in 1887 and was named for local landowner Howel Gwyn, has hosted concerts and civic events for well over a century. Neath has also welcomed the National Eisteddfod several times, including in 1994. The town's best-known musical export is the mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, who was born here. Neath Market remains a busy mix of stalls, and it is a good place to find the south Wales staples: Welsh cakes fresh off the griddle and laverbread from the nearby coast.