Preserved county West Glamorgan Major settlements Neath, Pontardawe Number of members One | Electorate 57,823 (December 2010) Created 1918 | |
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Member of parliament Christina Rees (Labour Co-operative) | ||
Neath (Welsh: Castell-nedd) is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election and one Assembly Member by the first past the post system of election.
Contents
History
The constituency is located in the preserved county of West Glamorgan, Wales. It consists of the electoral wards of: Aberdulais, Allt-wen, Blaengwrach, Bryn-côch North, Bryn-côch South, Cadoxton, Cimla, Crynant, Cwmllynfell, Dyffryn, Glynneath, Godre'r Graig, Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Lower Brynamman, Neath East, Neath North, Neath South, Onllwyn, Pelenna, Pontardawe, Resolven, Rhos, Seven Sisters, Tonna, Trebanos, Ystalyfera.
The Neath constituency is a mixture of both industrial and rural communities, running in a north-south strip along the dips, ridges and folded landscape of South Wales. It includes most of the Neath and Dulais valleys, and some of the Upper Swansea Valley as well. The town of Neath is at its southern end and is a medium-sized town which started life as a Roman Nidum.
The constituency boasts historical places of both industrial and natural forms. Neath and the surrounding areas were industrialised very early in Britain's history. Copper smelting was already happening here in the late sixteenth century.
When Neath Abbey (now a magnificent ruin) was founded in 1129, it was the richest of all Welsh monasteries, and in writings of the sixteenth century was described as the 'fairest Abbey of all Wales'. At its height it owned extensive lands and property, from Glamorgan to Somerset; had almost 5,000 sheep, as well as horses and cattle; it owned a ship and a landing-place, and worked mills, fisheries and coal-mines. But it suffered greatly during the many skirmishes between the Welsh and English (or Normans), and by the 1530s had only eight monks left. The ruins date mostly from the late thirteenth century. It has been in turn, a prosperous Abbey, a Jacobean Mansion (painted by Turner), an iron foundry (which explains the Abbey's position in the middle of an industrial area) and now an historical monument.
The constituency was heavily mined and the small communities that grew up around these mines were devastated by the collapse of the mining industry in the 1980s. On the edges of many of these communities there are now "Industrial Villages" springing up, helping to replace the jobs lost by the demise of the mining industry, and so helping to keep young people in these communities.
A legacy to Neath's political history is the memorial stone in Victoria Gardens to the 5 Neath citizens killed during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-38.
The constituency remains a Welsh-speaking area, with approximately 26% of the population reported as Welsh speakers.
Members of Parliament
Its current Member of Parliament is Christina Rees.