Tonna, Neath

Tonna Welsh: Tonnau
St Anne's Church in Tonna.
Tonna Location within Neath Port Talbot
Population	2,499 (2011 census) [1]
OS grid reference	SS774990
Principal area	Neath Port Talbot
Preserved county	West Glamorgan
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEATH
Postcode district	SA11
Dialling code	01639
Police	South Wales
Fire	Mid and West Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Neath
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament	Neath
Councillors	Leanne Jones(Labour)
List of places UK Wales Neath Port Talbot 51°40′34″N3°46′19″W / 51.676°N 3.772°W / 51.676; -3.772 Map of the community

Tonna (Welsh : Tonnau) is the name of a village and community in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, located to the north-east of Neath.

Ivy Tower

Immediately between Tonna and the adjoining parish of Llanilltud ("Llantwit-juxta-Neath") is a cottage once occupied by the Welsh-born engineer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had arrived at his theory of evolution independently of Charles Darwin, with whom he later corresponded. Eventually Wallace and Darwin jointly presented the first paper on Natural Selection to the Linnean Society.

The village's rugby union team is Tonna RFC.

Toponymy

Once mainly agricultural fields, the name derives from the archaic Welsh tonnau, meaning lea or grassland and not, as is sometimes assumed, the modern Welsh for "waves". Some areas of pasture remain.

700m
763yds

Aberdulais Falls
and Tin Works

Ivy Tower

Parsons' Folly
(Glyncorrwg
Mineral Railway)

Iron Age
Enclosure

Blaen Cwm Bach
Roman Camp

   

Blaen Cwm Bach Roman Camp

On the hillside to the southeast of Tonna is the earthwork evidence of a large rectangular Roman camp. Known at Blaen Cwm Bach Camp, this was a temporary stopping-place built by a Roman army unit on the move, and at 880 metres (960 yd) from east to west, and 300 metres (330 yd) wide, it is the largest such camp in Wales. ^[2] . A bank and ditch was cut into the rocky ground, on the top of a broad ridge on the hill above Tonna. It is no longer a continuous bank but it is uncertain if the gaps were never built or have been eroded away. ^[3] In the northwest corner of the camp is the earthwork evidence of an Iron Age enclosure, which predates the Roman Camp and would have been within it's boundary banks. The whole camp area is a scheduled monument. ^[4]

Government and politics

The electoral ward of Tonna falls within the parliamentary constituency of Neath. The ward consists of a small built-up area of Tonna village to the northwest with rest of the ward consisting of woodland and pasture. Tonna is bounded by the wards of Aberdulais to the north; Resolven to the northeast; Pelenna to the southeast; Cimla and Neath North to the southwest; and Cadoxton to the west.

In the 2022 local council elections, two councillors were elected to Neath Port Talbot Council from the combined Resolven and Tonna Ward. The electorate turnout was 44%. ^[5] The results were:

Resolven and Tonna 2022

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Leanne Jones*	914	45.9
	Independent	Dean Lewis	842	42.3
	Independent	Matty Young	737	37.0
	Labour	Neil Francis	702	35.2
	Plaid Cymru	Andrew Clarke	287	14.4
	Plaid Cymru	Paul Sambrook	238	11.9
Turnout			2,001	44
	Labour hold		Swing
	Independent gain from Labour		Swing

References

1. "Ward population 2011" . Retrieved 12 April 2015.
2. Camp, Blaen Cwm Bach (ID PRN00616w) in the ' SMR ' for Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust (GGAT)
3. Roman marching camp at Blaen Cwm Bach. (ID NPRN301344) . at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
4. Cadw Scheduled Monument Report No GM258 : Blaen-Cwmbach Camp.
5. "Election results for Resolven and Tonna". Neath Port Talbot Council. 2022.

External links

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