Llandarcy

Llandarcy is a village near Neath in Neath Port Talbot county borough, southwest Wales, and formerly the site of the UK's first oil refinery. The village, which lies near Junction 43 of the M4 motorway, was originally designed as a garden village to house the workers for the refinery, built by BP Oil between 1918–22.

Llandarcy was chosen as a site for a refinery because Neath Rural district Council was the only council in the country at that time which could guarantee the requisite daily volume of water required by the refinery. This was supplied from the recently constructed reservoir at Ystradfellte, which was proposed and promoted by Councillor Howells of Skewen. Llandarcy's proximity to Swansea docks, where crude oil could be transported by sea from the Middle East was incidental. Llandarcy was the source of the fuel pipeline PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) which supplied fuel to the D-Day landings.The site was damaged by Luftwaffe bombing in 1940. At its peak the refinery was a major employer in South West Wales, with over 2,600 workers. However, it was also responsible for industrial pollution at nearby Crymlyn Bog, an area designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Operations at the refinery were gradually scaled back in the late 20th century, and the site closed in 1998.

The village was named after William Knox D'Arcy, a founding director of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (the forerunner of BP). Consisting of exactly 100 houses and flats, each property was designed to be different, and they are all of stone construction, with a community centre and local shop. The village is a conservation area as its construction followed the lines of the Cadbury village.

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