page_title: Briton Ferry
section_title: De-industrialisation
hierarchical_section_title: Briton Ferry / De-industrialisation
caption_attribution_description: English: Briton Ferry Library
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: A consortium of steel and tinplate producers consolidated all tinplate mills to create the Steel Company of Wales in 1947. By 1953, only the Albion Steelworks remained in the town, all other tinplate production having ceased.
  The Albion Steelworks, which had used oil to fuel its largest open-hearth furnace, closed in November 1978 and was demolished within a year. This was followed by the closure of the ship-breaker and steel supplier Thos W Ward in 1983. The firm at Giant’s Grave, which operated from 1906 until 1979, broke up 197 merchant ships and 94 Admiralty.
  The steel and tinplate industry's demise in the second half of the twentieth century was followed in the first two decades by closures of other local firms that had employed many from Briton Ferry. BP Chemicals opened its plant at nearby Baglan Bay in 1963, quickly expanding into one of the biggest petrochemical sites in Europe; by 1974 it was employing 2500 staff. The advent of North Sea oil proved injurious since its location meant it was on the "wrong" side of Britain to receive oil supplies from the North Sea. This situation, along with a further decline in demand for its products, gradually reduced the size of the plant, and in 2004 it closed entirely. BP’s oil refinery at Llandarcy closed four years later. The Metal Box Company’s closure was announced in 2015, and its premises were bought by Neath-Port Talbot Council in 2017.
  The industrial revolution brought much expansion to Briton Ferry, including ironworks, steelworks, tinplate production and engineering. Production generally lasted until the 1970s. In 1951, as the industry began to dwindle, portions of the estate were sold to the Principality Property Co., Estateways Builders, John Oliver Watkins, the City & Provincial Housing Association, and Gwalia Land & Property Developments Ltd.
caption: Briton Ferry Community Resource Centre- former Briton Ferry Library
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