Pre-registration title deeds of a property on Neath Road, Briton Ferry. It began as a leasehold house and lands, with a row of cottages at the eastern end. Later Briton Ferry Public Hall was built on part of it and the original lease was divided. The remainder included a house called Oak Villa, but later housed Briton Ferry Socialist Society and Ward Labour Party, Neath and Briton Ferry Co-operative Society and the British Legion. On the site in 2022 are a café, a club, a bakery and a Tesco Express store. The documents include the following: lease and counterpart lease of a house and lands in Briton Ferry from George, earl of Jersey to John Williams dated 10 Sep. 1858; mortgage of leasehold premises for £500 from John Williams to Henry Symons Coke dated 18 Sep. 1858; assignment of lease for £560, Henry S. Coke to Evan Evans dated 29 Sep. 1863 (recording that John Williams had defaulted on his mortgage debt and that the property had consequently been sold by public auction); mortgage of leasehold premises for £500 from Evan Evans to Henry S. Coke dated 1 Oct. 1863; transfer of mortgage from George and Eliza Tuttle and William Harries Francis to David Bevan, dated 31 Jan. 1874; will of David Bevan, proved 27 June 1889; assignment of leasehold premises known as the Public Hall, Briton Ferry, from Evan Evans Bevan esq. to the Trustees of the Briton Ferry Public Hall dated 19 Aug. 1914 and assignment of lease of the residue of the property from Evan Evans Bevan to Mrs Ronwen Thomas for £300 dated 15 Apr. 1919; agreement from Mrs Ronwen Thomas to the Trustees of the Public Hall, Briton Ferry for use of a passageway, dated 18 Mar. 1922; assignment of lease for £1100 from Mrs Ronwen Thomas to W. J. Hamilton Morgan, dated 4 Jan. 1923; Mortgage (amount not specified) from W. J. Hamilton Morgan to the London Joint City & Midland Bank Ltd. of Oak Villa, Briton Ferry [the residue of the original lease] dated 20 Aug. 1923; assignment of lease of Oak Villa, Briton Ferry for £1150 from W. J. Hamilton Morgan to G. Stanley Phillips, dated 28 Mar. 1924; assignment of lease of Oak Villa, Briton Ferry with garden land, cottage and buildings, for £950, from Dr D. S. Phillips to George Gethin and Joseph Branch, trades union organiser, dated 29 Sep. 1924; conveyance of the freehold of the premises from the Briton Ferry Estate to George Gethin and Joseph Branch dated 30 Sep. 1924; Agreement for right to light to certain windows in the Public Hall, Briton Ferry, between George Gethin and Joseph Branch and George Gethin, dated 8 July 1929; conveyance of Oak Villa, Briton Ferry, from George Gethin and Joseph Branch to the trustees of the Briton Ferry Socialist Society dated 21 July 1942; conveyance of part of the same premises to the Briton Ferry and Neath Co-operative Society Ltd. for £1200 dated 16 Dec. 1946; declaration of trust dated 1961; conveyance of the remainder of the same premises to the trustees of the Briton Ferry Ward Labour Party, dated 5 Dec. 1962; trust deeds dated 5 Dec. 1962 and 30 Sep. 1983; transfer of the premises to the National Council of YMCA of Wales (Incorporated) for £20000, dated 21 June 1991 and associated correspondence and land search documents

This material is held atNeath Antiquarian Society Archives