Dyffryn in the World

Supported by a £164,964 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project will preserve the school’s history by gathering stories, memories, and materials from the old buildings, ensuring its cultural significance is remembered for generations to come.

​Many people will know that one of Port Talbot’s most famous son’s, Richard Burton, attended the former Dyffryn Lower School when it was known as Port Talbot Secondary. The celebrated actor passed a scholarship exam to attend the school in 1937, and quickly showed aptitude at singing and speaking, winning an Eisteddfod prize. It was at the school that the young Richard Jenkins, as he was then known, met his teacher and mentor Phillip Burton, whose name he later took.

But Burton was not the only notable person who attended the school. Actors Dennis Burgess and Brinley Jenkins were also pupils at Dyffryn, contributing to the school’s reputation as a breeding ground for acting talent. Dyffryn also has a literary legacy. It was attended by the poet Ruth Bidgood (1922-2022), who wrote thirteen volumes of poetry and has been described as one of Wales’ finest poets in English, and one of the best British female poets of her generation. The poet John Davies also attended the school when it was known as Dyffryn Grammar School, with some of his early poems published in the school magazine, The Wayfarer.

Another distinguished past pupil was Dr Sydney Walter Fisher. As a medical practitioner in the community of Glyncorrwg Dr Fisher became interested in the health of the miners he saw every day, and became an expert in pneumoconiosis and other industrial diseases, achieving the post of HM Principle Medical Inspector of Mines, a post he held until 1950. In that year he was also appointed honorary physician to King George VI, and on the King’s death became honorary physician to Queen Elizabeth II. From Port Talbot to the Palace, quite a journey!

We are really keen to learn more about the fascinating lives and stories of Dyffryn’s past pupils, so if you have a story to share, please get in touch so it can be recorded for the future! Contact us on WOS@linc-cymru.co.uk

Find out more about the new homes planned for the site here.

Find out more about the What Once Stood Project.