Site Record

After the Second World War, a group of south Wales steelmaking companies formed the Steel Company of Wales to construct a modern integrated steelmaking site using imported ore and Welsh coal on the Port Talbot site. The planning for the works started in 1947 and they were first opened in 1951, they were known as the Abbey Works. They then came under the ownership of the ‘Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain’ and later British Steel and Corus. The works still operate today and are owned by Tata Steel. There have been a number of Gasholders on the site, used for the storage of gas from coke ovens, blast furnaces and steel making. Three gasholders survive on the site today. The one located at 276823, 187625 is a Wiggins dry gasholder used for the storage of gases from the Basic Oxygen Steel making process, built c2010. The gasholder located at 277239, 187428, is an MAN Dry gasholder used for the storage of Blast Furnace gases. The gasholder located at 277547, 185538, is a Wiggins Dry gasholder used for the storage of coke oven gas. This replaced an earlier gasholder built at 277451,185711, which has been removed. A coke oven gas gasholder was demolished in 2018. 1,000,000 cubic/foot gasholder at the Abbey Works (1959).