Tonna, Neath
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tonna
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|---|---|
 St Anne's Church in Tonna. | |
  Tonna Location within Neath Port Talbot | |
| Population | 2,499 (2011 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SS774990 |
| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEATH |
| Postcode district | SA11 |
| Dialling code | 01639 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
| Councillors |
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Tonna (Welsh: Tonnau) is the name of a village and community in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, located to the north-east of Neath.
Immediately between Tonna and the adjoining parish of Llanilltud ("Llantwit-juxta-Neath") is a cottage once occupied by the Welsh-born engineer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had arrived at his theory of evolution independently of Charles Darwin, with whom he later corresponded. Eventually Wallace and Darwin jointly presented the first paper on Natural Selection to the Linnean Society.
The village's rugby union team is Tonna RFC.
Blaen Cwm Bach Roman Camp
On the hillside to the southeast of Tonna is the earthwork evidence of a large rectangular Roman camp. Known at Blaen Cwm Bach Camp, this was a temporary stopping-place built by a Roman army unit on the move, and at 880 metres (960 yd) from east to west, and 300 metres (330 yd) wide, it is the largest such camp in Wales.[2] A bank and ditch was cut into the rocky ground, on the top of a broad ridge on the hill above Tonna. It is no longer a continuous bank but it is uncertain if the gaps were never built or have been eroded away.[3] In the northwest corner of the camp is the earthwork evidence of an Iron Age enclosure, which predates the Roman Camp and would have been within its boundary banks. The whole camp area is a scheduled monument.[4]
