Down to the last drop: Oil & Llandarcy
[image: Llandarcy at night]
[image: Filter House Workmen, 1940s]
[image: Lube oil complex workers,1990s]
Down to the last drop: Oil & Llandarcy is a special exhibition to mark the UK’s first large scale oil refinery.
The exhibition explores the history of the Skewen based site, how oil was produced and transported as well as its village and social life.
First known as Skewen Refinery, the site opened on 29 June 1922 and went through various stages of growth and decline before finally closing in 1997.
The original development cost £3 million and was over 650 acres in size including a new village of around 250 houses for workers.
In the 1950s the refinery was a major employer in South West Wales, with over 2,600 men and women working there.
At the National Waterfront Museum visitors will have the opportunity to read personal memories of workers and villagers.
Listen to Susan James talk about the site’s community spirit and activities, and Georgie Jones who started work in the stocks lab in August 1942 and was trained to test 80, 72 and 100 octane gasoline, gas oil, kerosene, white spirit, bitumen, benzol and the flame-throwing gel.
Visitors will also get the chance to find out about plans to redevelop the site into the £1.2 billion Coed Darcy urban village by the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, St Modwen.
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