Casgliadau Arlein

Neath Abbey Estate sale catalogue and plans, 1946. Printed 94 page catalogue in light card covers with three folded maps (one attached to front cover, two in slip at back). Each plot is described and its previous and current industrial uses listed.

The Neath Abbey Estate encompassed numerous important industries and works sites, including Neath Abbey Iron Works, Mines Royal Copper Works, Cheadle Copper Works, Crown Copper Works, and part of Cape Copper Works, Neath Abbey Patent Fuel Works, Dynevor Engineering Works & Foundry, various collieries, portions of the Tennant Canal, various industrial railways and tramways, extensive coal wharves on the River Neath, and the site of Llandarcy Oil Refinery, all of which are described in the catalogue and depicted on the accompanying plans. This range of industries includes many works of Welsh and some of UK importance. The catalogue usefully sets out details and dates of their twentieth century (and sometimes older) occupants, which helps fill gaps in late-industrial period histories of these important sites. The catalogue is outstanding evidence of how major industrial sites, both active and derelict, were marketed in the early and mid-twentieth century. Many south Wales estates included industrial elements but few were as predominantly industrial as Neath Abbey, with well over 150 years of intensive industrial development present on it. This will be an important addition to the documentation of key Welsh industries.