I began urban sketching in pen and ink last summer. Since then I've rarely gone out without a pen and a sketchbook close at hand, and I've sketched places all over South Wales, in Devon, Belgium and the Czech Republic. However, the majority of my sketches depict Port Talbot, my home for the last 30+ years. Partly, this is because of convenience. I've made more than half a dozen sketches of different buildings in the same street in which live, for example - which makes it very cost-effective in terms of time and shoe leather. However it's not just that. Most people's idea of Port Talbot is probably of a grim, industrial South Wales town dominated by its steelworks. Well, the importance of the steelworks to the town cannot be overstated, however it's very easy to overlook the fact that Port Talbot does have its share of interesting buildings, which are crying out to be sketched. Over the last few months, then, I've sketched over 2 dozen of my favourite Port Talbot buildings. Then, earlier this week, I was showing them to some friends and colleagues in work, and it suddenly struck me. Of all the buildings I've sketched, only 1 of them was built this century. In fact, only one of them was built after the end of the second world war. This very much betrays my architectural preferences, but also it made me think. If I'm serious about sketching Port Talbot, then I'm not telling the whole story. SO I set out this morning, with pen and sketchbook, to find a vantage point where at least one of my sketches would feature the steel works. Happily, I found it almost straightaway. I set off to walk to the beach along the river. Horror of horrors, the old bridge I would have used to cross it has been closed off, being unsafe now even for cyclists and pedestrians. Still, once I worked my way round by another route to the other side, to have a closer look, I thought that a run down derelict bridge might actually be the sort of subject I was looking for. A run down derelict bridge with the steelworks in the background would be even better. So this is how I came up with this sketch. For an encore I sketched an ore ship which had been unloaded by the steelworks dock.