 Local Member of the UK Parliament, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam Castle, recognised that improved transportation could stimulate industrial growth.As local MP he introduced a Bill in 1834 which approved the set-up of the "Aberavon Harbour Company" to develop the port facilities.A further Act in 1836 authorised the diversion of the river into a new channel to enable a new dock to be constructed by the renamed "Port Talbot Dock Company" in Rice Mansel Talbot's honour.