Llandarcy is a village near Neath in the Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales, and was the site of the first oil refinery in the United Kingdom. It was originally designed as a garden village to house the workers for the BP refinery built between 1918 and 1922. The village is near junction 43 of the M4 motorway. [1]
Llandarcy was chosen as a site for a refinery because Neath Rural District Council was the only council in the country at that time which could guarantee the requisite daily volume of water required by the refinery. This was supplied from the recently constructed reservoir at Ystradfellte, which was proposed and promoted by Councillor Howells of Skewen. Llandarcy's proximity to Swansea docks, where crude oil could be transported by sea from the Middle East was incidental. Llandarcy was the source of the fuel pipeline PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) which supplied fuel to the D-Day landings. The site was damaged by Luftwaffe bombing in 1940. [2] At its peak the refinery was a major employer in South West Wales, with over 2,600 workers. [3] However, it was also responsible for industrial pollution at nearby Crymlyn Bog, an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. [4] Operations at the refinery were gradually scaled back in the late 20th century, and the site closed in 1998. [5]
The village was named after William Knox D'Arcy, a founding director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (the forerunner of BP). Consisting of exactly 100 houses and flats, each property was designed to be different, and they are all of stone construction, with a community centre and local shop. The village is a conservation area as its construction followed the lines of the Cadbury village.
The village was the site of the murders of schoolgirls Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd in 1973. Their killer's identity remained a mystery until 29 years later, in 2002, when DNA evidence was taken by South Wales Police from the grave of Joseph Kappen, confirming him as the killer. Kappen, who lived in Sandfields, Port Talbot and worked as a doorman, lorry and bus driver, died of lung cancer on 17 June 1990, at the age of 49, and took his secret with him to the grave. [6]
The BP refinery also operated a sports and leisure club. When the refinery closed in 1998, the leisure facilities were acquired by Llandarcy Park Ltd. They redeveloped the site to a new health and fitness club, a restaurant and hotel. [7] Llandarcy hosts the Virgin Active Health & Racquets Club, formerly the Glamorgan Health & Racquets Club, which has a range of indoor and outdoor sports facilities, [8] and the Llandarcy Academy of Sport, which has one of only two indoor grass training fields in Wales. [9]
The disused land from the scaling down of the oil refinery has found a number of new uses. [10] Part of the site is now occupied by offices of Natural Resources Wales. The land near the old refinery entrance close to the M4 junction 43 is now a business park. All of the remaining brownfield land occupied by the refinery is being re-developed into a new village called Coed Darcy. The Prince's Trust is an interested party in this development, which seeks to develop the site as an "urban village" in the same vein as the Poundbury village project in Dorset. [11]
Port Talbot is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately eight miles from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south east of the town and is one of the biggest steelworks in the world but has been under threat of closure since the 1980s. The population was 37,276 in 2011.
Neath is a market town and community situated in the Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,258 in 2011. Historically in Glamorgan, the town is located on the River Neath, seven miles east-northeast of Swansea.
Neath Port Talbot is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf to the east, Powys and Carmarthenshire to the north; and Swansea to the west.
West Glamorgan is a preserved county and former administrative county of Wales, one of the divisions of the ancient county of Glamorgan.
Briton Ferry is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The Welsh name may indicate that the church, llan, is protected from the wind, awel. Alternatively, Sawel may be a derivative of Saul, St Paul's earlier name. He once landed at Briton Ferry. An alternative Welsh name unused today is Rhyd y Brython, a direct translation of Briton Ferry. The Normans referred to the River crossing as La Brittonne and Leland in 1540 as Britanne Fery.
Aberdulais is a village and electoral ward in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, lying on the River Neath, in the community of Blaenhonddan. The village grew around the Aberdulais Falls, the site of successive industries and now a hydro-electric station. The National Trust owns and administers the site.
Skewen is a village within the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, in Wales. The village is served by Skewen railway station and has its own rugby club.
Coedffranc is a village in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales.
Coedffranc West is an electoral ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.
Sandfields is a mainly residential district of Port Talbot, Wales. The area is located in South Wales on a narrow coastal plain between Mynydd Dinas and the sea. The M4 motorway, A48 trunk road and South Wales Main Line run nearby. The area includes a council estate, industrial areas and a seaside resort at Aberavon Beach.
Baglan Bay(Welsh: Bae Baglan) is a part of the Swansea Bay coastline and a district of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Baglan Bay is also the name of a local government community. Baglan Bay is served by the M4 Motorway and the A48 road which traverse the northeastern edge of the area.
Jersey Marine is a village in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales, UK located about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Swansea. It falls within the Coedffranc West ward.
The Llandarcy Oil Refinery, also known as the National Oil Refinery, BP Llandarcy and Skewen refinery, was the United Kingdom's first oil refinery, initially opened by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company on 29 June 1922, although operations had begun on 1 July 1921. Before this, the only oil refined in the UK came from Scottish shale.
Crymlyn Burrows is an area of land in Wales, UK to the east of Swansea city centre, and south of Crymlyn Bog. It is bounded by Jersey Marine Beach to the south and the River Neath to the east. The land west of Baldwin's Crescent falls within the City and County of Swansea and from Baldwin's Crescent eastwards falls within Neath Port Talbot.
The Baglan electoral ward includes the communities of Baglan and Baglan Bay, in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Baglan falls within the parliamentary constituency of Aberavon.
Coed Darcy is a new village currently being developed adjacent to Llandarcy in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales.
BP Oil Refinery Ltd Ground is a cricket ground in Llandarcy, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1950, when the Glamorgan Second XI played the Gloucestershire Second XI in the 1950 Minor Counties Championship. The ground has held a further 19 Second XI fixtures for the Glamorgan Second XI in both the Second XI Championship and Second XI Trophy.
Neath Football Club were a Welsh football team based in village of Llandarcy near Neath. Neath Port Talbot, in Wales. The team played in the Welsh Football League. In 2005 the team merged with Skewen Athletic to form Neath Athletic.
Joseph William Kappen or Joe Kappen, also known as the Saturday Night Strangler, was a Welsh serial killer who is known to have committed at least three murders, in Llandarcy and Tonmawr near his home town of Port Talbot, in 1973. He is notable for being the first person globally to have been posthumously identified as a serial killer through familial DNA tracing. Kappen had died in 1990 of lung cancer, but in 2001 police were able to establish that identical DNA samples on the bodies of three young female murder victims closely matched the DNA of his living son. His own DNA was then found to match exactly with the murderer's profile when his own body was subsequently exhumed in 2002, finally solving the murders of the women 29 years after they occurred.
Media related to Llandarcy at Wikimedia CommonsCoordinates: 51°38′25.00″N3°50′53.00″W / 51.6402778°N 3.8480556°W
| Divisions |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Subsidiaries | ||
| Brands | ||
| Facilities | ||
| Sponsorships | ||
| People | ||
| Controversies | ||
| Historical units |
| |
| Other | ||
