Somerset Inn.
Coins dated 1774 were found some ten years ago behind a window-frame in the Somerset Arms Inn, formerly the Somersetshire Hotel, which suggests that the inn was built in 1774. In any case, it was in existence in 1795, when it was flanked on the north by thatched cottages on the site of the row known as the Malt Houses. A malt house attached to the inn gave rise to this unusual name. Today, the inn is referred to as " The Sker," by reason of the fact that it was kept in the latter half of the last century by a John Thomas, formerly of Sker House. The old row of houses on the south side of the inn came down in 1958. One of them was used for many years as the local Post Office. Between it and the inn were stables formerly used by travellers calling for refreshments. Outside this was the mounting block used by them and which gave its name to the surgery and the nearby bus-stop. It was removed shortly before the last war.

A note by Les Evans
1798.paid for the clearing of snow from the Star to the Somersetshire House,Havod y Porth. £1-14s-6d.
and Ale for the men 5s.

The upper room in the Somerset Inn was sometimes used for dancing to the sound of the harp and fiddle.

When the Corner House Inn at old Margam Village was demolished.The Margam Benefit Society [Yr Hen Glwb ] which had been formed in 1768. moved its meetings to the Somerset Inn,and later to Groes School.

Jenkin Savours, also of 'The Somerset', took the Castle Hotel in Neath at the end of 1842. Several mentions of him in the columns of 'The Cambrian' around that time suggest that his relocation didn't pass without incident! Moreover, it would seem that he had dealings during his early years at The Castle with William Elias, a draper whose business was located at Anchor House[2] on the corner of Wind Street and Orchard Street. (Or was it Market Street?) The two businessmen were obviously members and/or investors in a Building Club (perhaps the Queen Street Building Club) and, in January of 1854, Savours took out an action against Elias in the Neath County Court for the recovery of money from 'the building club'. It's possible that Savours's investment had financed the creation of 'Savours Court' in The Green; one of a network of stone-built rows, most without benefit of any garden, and some back-to-back, sharing rudimentary privies between groups of households. The enclave hedged in between railway and canal on poorly drained, low-lying ground beside the river, it featured prominently in the Cholera outbreaks in 1849 and '54. Its location suggests that it would have been created round about the same time as the coming of the railway, an event that happened during Savours' tenure of The Castle Hotel. Savours relinquished the licence of The Castle in 1858 and moved to Tyn-yr-heol to involve himself in agriculture.

===============================

Cambrian H94 BUILDINGS, BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, VIADUCTS  10 September 1842 ABERAVON NEW BRIDGE MR JENKIN SAVOURS OF THE GLOBE INN RIDES OVER ON HORSEBACK.  

It turned out to be that he rode his white stallion over the new Aberavon bridge the night before its offical opening.

His son also Jenkin Savours born in 1807 Aberavon was a landlord of The Somerset House Taibach,he was said to have been of Taibach when in 1835 he married Miss Jennet Davies of Tydraw Pyle.

In 1841 we see them with a  new born son at-

SOMERSETSHIRE HOUSE .Taibach.
  SAVOURS JENKIN             30   (c1811) 
                                    INNKEEPER                      
                                SAVOURS JENNET             25   (c1816) 
                                    -                              
                              SAVOURS RICHARD             10 weeks

Cambrian B10 MARRIAGES, MARRIAGE  21 November 1835 MR JENKIN SAVOURS OF TAIBACH,MARGAM,TO MISS JENNETT DAVIES OF TYDRAW.AT PYLE  

Glamorgan Family History Society 1841 Census CD

District Name: Neath               Enumeration District:  5 Hafod Hamlet, Taibach  

Piece: 1422/18      Folio: 021     Schedule: 151

Address: SOMERSETSHIRE HOUSE    

N 05 021 151  SOMERSETSHIRE HOUSE    SAVOURS JENKIN             30   (c1811) 
                                    INNKEEPER                       YES 
N 05                                 SAVOURS JENNET             25   (c1816) 
                                    -                               YES 
N 05                                 SAVOURS RICHARD             10W (c1831)