Rollers

In the course of some unrelated research, I came to realise what an impact an American improvement to the humble roller-skate made. The Smithsonian records:
In 1863, James L. Plimpton changed the skating world forever when he patented the forerunner of the modern roller skate. Safer and easier to use than existing versions, which were little more than wheels attached to rigid boards, his "rocker skate" allowed skaters to steer simply by leaning left or right.

Roller-skating boomed. In the 1860s, Plimpton set up a skate factory and opened America's first roller-skating rinks in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, where he leased skates to customers. Skating soon became a popular family activity. The New York Roller-Skating Association—the first of its kind—and other clubs held speed and distance competitions in cities across the United States.

That surge soon spread across the Atlantic. Roller-skating rinks sprang up all over the British Isles, in some cases replacing traditional rinks using artificial ice. The peak was reached in 1909 with the Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and Club, the largest indoor rollerskating rink in Europe, complete with its own orchestra balcony - just before a collapse in interest, coinciding with the rise in moving pictures. (The loss by the roller-skaters of North London was the BBC's gain.)

The National Archives reveal a string of bankruptcies and windings-up of skating rink undertakings between 1909 and 1911. Among the people caught out was the enterprising John James of Ammanford, founder of the bus company still remembered with affection today. Vernon Morgan writes:
In 1910, John James ventured into a separate business that had no connection with the Mews. Forming a partnership with local haulier, David Evans, they had plans drawn up in March 1910 to build a roller skating rink at Margaret Street, Ammanford. Two years later they submitted another plan to the Ammanford council to alter the building into a cinema and roller-skating rink complex.

The partnership however, dissolved after a very short time and the building was sold as a going concern to Mr. J. R. Pooles of Edinburgh, from whence it was known as ‘Pooles’ Cinema.

There must have been other rinks in the area, perhaps even in Neath. A cursory web-search turns up nothing, but perhaps a reader may recall something.

A nerdy footnote: I can claim a rare distinction. I rode on that first Atlantean mentioned by Mr Morgan, not long after, in Wallasey, riding the first Atlantean to enter municipal service.