Margam Park

With Whitsun half term approaching, we at the Commissioner's office are preparing for Eisteddfod yr Urdd once again and are hoping that the sun will be shining over Margam Park. It's always nice to get away from the office for a day to work on the stall at the Eisteddfod, to chat with parents who are picking up an orange badge to put on their work clothes and to hear the stories of the children who flock to get stickers between all the competing.

It's also nice to have an excuse to visit another small corner of Wales as the Eisteddfod travels from place to place. As my day-to-day work in the Commissioner's office includes work on place-names, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to look at some of the place-names of this year's Eisteddfod area, to bring the names on the map to life, and learn a little bit about the history of the area through the lens of the interesting names that pepper this small part of Wales. As the name of the Eisteddfod, Dur a Môr, suggests, the area is heavily industrialised with Port Talbot's large factories looking out to sea.

We start our journey on the seafront in Porthcawl before heading west along the coastline over to Port Talbot, named after Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, a landowner who renovated the harbour (or 'port') in Aberafan in the 19th century. On then to the pretty village of Merthyr Mawr where the thatched houses are postcard picture-perfect and Castell Ogwr (or Ogmore Castle) is a stone's throw away from the village. And speaking of stones, if you go over to Castell Ogwr you will have to cross the beautiful stepping stones over the river Ewenni to get there.

Neath Port Talbot prides itself on the fact that a few world-famous actors grew up there, perhaps the most famous being Richard Burton who was born in Pont-rhyd-y-fen. The name Pont-rhyd-y-fen tells us something about the place immediately and records two ways of crossing the river Afan which flows through the village – through a ford and later over a bridge. Wandering on to the north of the county and touching the brim of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, we come to the Waterfall Country as it’s known where there are several waterfalls, sgwd or rhaeadr in Welsh. This time we come to Sgwd Gwladus, with Gwladus probably referring to the name of one of the daughters of Brychan Brycheiniog.

We finish our tour in Margam Park, where it will be full of enthusiastic competitors and stalls during the week of Eisteddfod yr Urdd. Some believe that Margam is the name of a saint, and Margam was a village in itself before it was swallowed up by the town of Port Talbot.

If you'd like to know more about the meanings of these names, watch these videos. And who knows, you may be inspired to visit some of the places yourself and notice the colourful names that give this area its unique character.