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Kit Peters @[email protected] · 2026-07-02 · 16:00 UTC

BRITON FERRY: The whitewash begins — town’s Brunel mural disappears under the roller

The whitewashing of Briton Ferry‘s much-loved Brunel mural has begun — with a decorator pictured today rolling white paint across the town’s gateway wall.

The banner carrying the town’s names in Welsh and English is already part-erased, while Brunel’s famous stovepipe hat and the viaduct beneath it still show through — for now.

The mural’s fate was sealed last month, when it emerged the artwork would have to be painted over within weeks following a dispute over permission.

The piece, celebrating engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the town’s heritage, filled the side of a building at the entrance to the town. It was the idea of local councillor Gareth Rice, who spent around two years planning, saving for and funding the project himself, with the wall painted by street artist Jenks.

Cllr Rice has said he believed he held the correct permission, having spoken to the people he understood to be the building’s owners — but after the mural was finished, a joint owner he says he had not known about came forward objecting.

The owner later broke her silence, saying she had never been asked — learning of the mural in a photograph sent to her while she was working abroad — and that online abuse directed at her had only stiffened her resolve.

Cllr Rice responded by appealing for calm. “They have made their wishes known, and although I’m saddened by the outcome, I respect their right to make decisions about their own property,” he said.

The dispute prompted an extraordinary wave of support for the artwork, with hundreds of messages left online — among them broadcaster Sian Lloyd, who lived in Llansawel as a girl and described herself as “both heartbroken and indignant”.

In a painful twist of timing, Cllr Rice learned the mural must go just a day after the Lord-Lieutenant — the King’s representative in the county — had remarked how lovely it was to drive into Briton Ferry and see it.

The building’s tenants, a local kitchens and bedrooms business, have nothing to do with the dispute and were supportive of the artwork throughout.

Cllr Rice had invited people to photograph the mural before it was covered — and today, the wall began turning white. The person carrying out the work has not been identified.

The councillor has insisted the story doesn’t end at a blank wall, saying he hopes to create similar artwork elsewhere — in the right place, and with full permission.

“This isn’t the end,” he said. “If anything, it’s the beginning of something bigger — something we can create together, in the right place, with the right permissions.”

His brush hasn’t been idle, either — days ago Jenks completed his latest commission, a sweeping mural beside the rugby club in the Gwendraeth Valley village of Pontyates, packed with miners, dragons and Welsh legends.

Tucked among them is EastEnders icon Dot Cotton — there because June Brown, who played her for more than three decades, was evacuated to the village as a girl during the Second World War. One Jenks wall may be turning white this week, but another, a few valleys west, has just burst into colour.

By the time the paint dries, the wall that greeted visitors to the town will be blank again — two years of planning, and a few weeks of admiration, gone under the roller.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Town’s much-loved Brunel mural to be whitewashed within weeks after ownership dispute
Where the saga began — Cllr Rice ordered to paint over the artwork he funded himself.

Building owner breaks silence as councillor urges calm
The owner’s account of how she learned about the mural — and the abuse that followed.

Dot Cotton, dragons and miners — the Pontyates mural years in the making
Jenks’ latest wall, and the wartime story behind its most surprising face.

#BritonFerry #CllrGarethRice #IsambardKingdomBrunel #Jenks #mural #Pontyates

#britonferry #cllrgarethrice #isambardkingdombrunel #jenks #mural #pontyates

Kit Peters @[email protected] · 2026-06-26 · 16:46 UTC

PONTYATES: Dot Cotton, dragons and miners — the village mural years in the making

A sweeping new mural celebrating the history and characters of Pontyates has been completed — and tucked among the miners, dragons and Welsh legends is a face every soap fan will recognise.

The artwork stretches the length of the wall beside the rugby club in the Gwendraeth Valley village, and was painted by artist Steve Jenkins, who works as Jenks.

The new mural runs the length of the wall beside the rugby club and park in Pontyates.

Years in the making

The project was a long time coming. Jenks was first approached by a local community group around four years ago to look at painting the wall.

“This would be a huge price to do all of this,” he recalled telling them at the time, given the sheer size of the wall. “And I gave them a quote, and that was the end of it.”

But the group — Pontyates Community Improvement, or Gwella Cymuned Pontiets — did not give up. Over the following years they held a string of fundraising activities, including an annual party on the pitch, until they had raised enough to pay for the whole thing.

Jenks only realised it was really happening when he drove past one day on his way to Carmarthen and saw the wall had been painted white, ready for him.

Designed by the village’s children

Rather than decide the content himself, Jenks went into two of the village’s schools to ask the pupils what they wanted to see.

“There’s no bad ideas,” he told them during the brainstorming sessions. The result is a wall packed with detail, much of it drawn straight from the children’s imaginations.

A strong theme of community ran through the children’s ideas — fitting for a spot with a hard-won recent story of its own.

This part of Pontyates was historically known as Sarn, a name carried today by the village’s GP surgery, Meddygfa’r Sarn, which sits just across from the park where the mural is painted. The practice was saved from closure earlier this year after a determined community campaign — and the “Y Sarn” name even appears on a painted signpost within the mural itself.

There are nods to the village’s mining past, with a miner in his helmet, a colliery winding tower and figures walking home from the pit.

The mural brings together the village’s mining heritage, Welsh legend, rugby and more. (Image: Swansea Bay News)

The canal that once ran through Pontyates is there too, shown alongside the railway that replaced it — a steam train hauling coal where narrowboats once carried it.

A narrowboat and a steam train mark the canal that once ran through Pontyates, and the railway that replaced it.
(Image: Swansea Bay News)

Welsh legend gets a look in with Twrch Trwyth, the wild boar of the Mabinogion, while a willow tree, Welsh poppies and daffodils fill out the scene.

There is rugby, naturally, with a player in the black of Pontyates RFC and the club’s crest, and a Welsh dragon curls across one end of the wall.

A nod to Pontyates RFC, complete with the club crest.
(Image: Swansea Bay News)

An inside joke and a soap legend

Some details reward a closer look. One signpost appears, at first glance, to have been vandalised — pointing to “Pentre Hyn” and “Pentre Draw” — but it is in fact a gentle local in-joke.

The names mean roughly “this side” and “that side” of the village, and villagers traditionally use them depending on where they happen to be standing — so wherever you are, the other part of the village is always “the other side.”

A miner, the colliery and the “vandalised” signpost — a gentle local in-joke.
(Image: Swansea Bay News)

Then there is Dot Cotton. The beloved EastEnders character, played by the late June Brown, was suggested by pupils at Ysgol Pontyates — and she has a genuine link to the village.

June Brown was evacuated to Pontyates during the Second World War, a connection that made the much-loved launderette legend a fitting, if unexpected, addition to the wall.

The Welsh dragon and Dot Cotton share the end panel of the mural.
(Image: Swansea Bay News)

From furloughed to full-time

For Jenks, the mural is part of a journey that began during the pandemic. A keen follower of hip-hop and graffiti art, he had long wanted to paint for a living but never thought it possible.

Furloughed from his factory job during lockdown, with paint and time on his hands, he went out and painted a couple of NHS tribute murals — and the response took off from there.

He kept his factory job for another year, but the requests kept coming, and eventually he decided to take the plunge and paint full-time. That was four years ago.

Since then his community murals have appeared across the area, including a five-panel artwork on the seafront in Llanelli and a tribute in Port Talbot to the late father of actor Michael Sheen.

He described the Pontyates mural as his “gift to the community” — and said the response had already created a buzz, with people heading up to the wall to take photographs beside it.

“The more you go up to it, the more you’ll spot things,” he said. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Jenks transforms Llanelli seaside wall with five-panel community mural
The artist’s themed tribute to his hometown’s past, present and spirit.

‘Our community has been heard’ — Meddygfa’r Sarn saved from closure
How the village fought off the loss of its GP surgery.

Port Talbot mural pays tribute to Meyrick Sheen
Jenks honours the late father of actor Michael Sheen.

#featured #Jenks #mural #Pontiets #Pontyates #YsgolPontiets

#featured #jenks #mural #pontiets #pontyates #ysgolpontiets