Tonna, Neath

Tonna
St Anne's Church in Tonna.
Tonna Location within Neath Port Talbot
Population	2,499 (2011 census)
OS grid reference	SS774990
Principal area	Neath Port Talbot
Preserved county	West Glamorgan
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	Neath
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament	Neath
Councillors	Leanne Jones (Labour)

Tonna (Welsh: Tonnau) is the name of a village and community in Neath Port Talbot, Wales, located to the north-east of Neath.

Ivy Tower

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.

Toponymy

Once mainly agricultural fields, the name derives from the archaic Welsh tonnau, meaning lea or grassland and not, as is sometimes assumed, the modern Welsh for "waves". Some areas of pasture remain.

Government and politics

The electoral ward of Tonna falls within the parliamentary constituency of Neath. The ward consists of a small built-up area of Tonna village to the northwest with rest of the ward consisting of woodland and pasture. Tonna is bounded by the wards of Aberdulais to the north; Resolven to the northeast; Pelenna to the southeast; Cimla and Neath North to the southwest; and Cadoxton to the west.

In the 2017 local council elections, the electorate turnout was 43.7%. The results were:

Candidate	Party	Votes	Status
Leanne Jones	Labour	327	Labour hold
Lee Bromham-Nichols	Plaid Cymru	305
Kathryn Minshull	Conservative	107
Nick Williams	Independent	83

External links

• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Tonna and surrounding area