The walk is a reminder of Port Talbot’s most famous son, Oscar winner Richard Burton CBE. Richard Burton was born in the village of Pontrhydyfen on 10th November 1925, he was a Welsh miner’s son who never forgot his roots. Born Richard Walter Jenkins, he lived in Pontrhydyfen until just under the age of 2, when, following the death of his mother, he moved to Taibach in Port Talbot.

On the walk, you will see the STEEL statuettes (weathered now) of Richard along with the welsh comic and actor Rob Brydon that have been placed on the route in their home town of Port Talbot as part of an art project by sustainable transport charity Sustrans.

The new art installations have been placed in the Afan Forest Park above the steel town and also feature the park’s head ranger, Dick Wagstaff.

The three figures were chosen by the local community to be immortalised in a Portrait Bench – one of 80 benches to be installed across the UK.

Each comprises a wooden bench with three life-size steel effigies of local icons alongside and is unique to the local area in which it is placed.

Each bench is being placed along a newly created route for pedestrians and cyclists – in this case along a new route connecting Port Talbot to the Afan Valley community of Cwmavon and the Afan Forest Park.

Members of the families of Richard Burton and Rob Brydon, along with Dick Wagstaff, were in the forest park on May 1 2013 to see the bench officially opened to the public.

Along the pathway from the sculptures, there is another moving tribute to a lesser-known local heroine.

I have to say I didn't know anything about this until I returned home and did some research. This tribute is known as Carolyns Rock and is a memorial of a local woman, Carolyn Gammon known as Curly Car.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer during her pregnancy.

She raised lots of money for breast cancer charities.

It seems that Rachel Wigley arranged this beautiful memorial to Carolyn (following her EXACT instructions ).

Thank you for visiting my project.