Want to walk in Richard Burton's footsteps?
On Nov. 9, a new Richard Burton trail opened in the Taibach area of Port Talbot, the small Welsh town where Burton (born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925) spent his childhood and teenage years.
Points of interest on the trail include his home, where he worked as a boy, where he spent his free time and where he went to school. It was at the school that his acting potential was recognized by teacher Phillip Burton, who became his mentor and guardian (and whose last name the actor took in 1943).
The trail is the second commemorating Burton. The first is a 4.8-kilometre interpretive trail in the tiny village of Pontrhydyfen near Port Talbot, where he was born. Among the highlights of that hiking and biking trail are his birthplace, the breathtaking Pontrhydyfen Aqueduct over the Afan River, and the chapel where his memorial service was held after his death in 1984.
