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Llanvithyn Mill

Llanvithyn Mill lies within the historic landscape of the middle Llancarfan valley, an area whose history is closely connected with the medieval grange of Llanvithyn and the Cistercian Abbey of Margam. Milling here has a remarkably long history: documentary evidence records two mills at Llanvithyn in 1336, valued together at £2 a year. The mills formed part of the agricultural economy of the grange, processing grain produced on the surrounding lands. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, the former Margam estates were broken up, and the mills subsequently passed into private hands. In 1519, while the grange was still an ecclesiastical holding, the mills had been leased to Sir John Raglan of nearby Garnllwyd.

The surviving buildings preserve evidence of the mill's later development. The principal mill complex includes a 17th-century mill house, retaining original architectural features, together with an adjoining three-storey mill building largely dating from the 19th century, although parts may stand on earlier foundations. Nearby was Llanvithyn Woollen Mill, later known as the Old Bakehouse, which retained its mill race and sluice. By the time of the second-edition Ordnance Survey mapping, the woollen mill and fulling mill were recorded as disused, marking the decline of an industry that had once been an important part of the valley's rural economy. Today the buildings, watercourses and surrounding farm landscape form a tangible reminder of the centuries when the Nant Llancarfan was harnessed to power the mills and sustain the communities and farms of the valley.