The overwhelming of Kenfig by the sands in the late 15th century was just a memory by 1538 when Leland, the Kings Antiquary visited the area. He wrote of the castle and village being in ruins and 'almost shokid and devourid with sand that the Severne Se castith up'. He referred to the Kenfig River as Colebrooke and mentioned good corn and grass at Sker.

At this time, King Henry VIII dissolved the monastries. Margam was the first to go in Glamorgan and when the monks left, all their property, which included some burgages at the site of the old town of Kenfig, fell to the Crown. The lands were sold to various buyers and Margam, Pyle, Stormy, Kenfig Higher (the area north of the Kenfig river) and coal pits in Cefn Cribbwr were acquired in 1546 by Sir Rice Mansel of Oxwich and Penrice in the Gower.

He settled at Margam a little later. The Lordship of Kenfig Borough itself was Henry VIII's since he was Lord of Glamorgan, but by 1550 it was sold to Sir William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

During the Tudor period, houses in some areas were constructed of a timber framework (usually of oak) with wattle and plaster in between and topped with a thatched roof. Many great oaks grew at Margam and it is known that some were transported as far as Plymouth for ship building.

It is probable that most of the houses in the area now known as Ton Kenfig and in the village of Maudlam were built of local stone. The Guildhall, the present 'Prince of Wales Inn' dates from the 16th century as does Sker House.

Glass was expensive so was only seen in the houses of the wealthy. Homes of farmers and merchants contained furniture such as settles, wooden armchairs, carved beds with feather mattresses lain across ropes and wollen blankets.

Peasant's huts were more sparsely furnished with just a few stools, pots and a wooden chest. The hut floor was of earth and the fire was built on a hearthstone with a basket hood to take the smoke out through the smoke hole.

Poor people wore rough cotton or wollen clothes while a well-off farmer dressed in leather doublet and hose. Wealthy women had tight-bodied dresses with padded sleeves and cloaks were worn in cold weather.

The climate deteriorated over western Europe during the latter half of the century and there was a succession of bad harvests and a famine in 1556.

Although iron and coal working was gradually on the increase in Glamorgan, most of the people worked on the land including those of the Kenfig area. Many died from malnutrition and there was also an influenza epidemic.

In Elizabeth I's region, laws were made to help the poor since the closing of the monasteries meant there were no monks to provide charity and the practice of keeping sheep had resulted in fewer people required to work the soil. More corn was grown and the numbers of cattle increased.

At this time there were water mills for grinding corn at Llanfihangel Farm and at Pont Felin Newydd.

A survey of the Kenfig Borough in 1570 mentioned several free tenants holding land within the borough.

The annual burgage rent was twenty shillings. Thirty-three shillings and four pence was payable by each burgess when the heir of a deceased lord took possession.

Free tenants and burgesses owed 'suit of court' (an obligation to attend the hundred court and another two yearly courts). The hundred court was granted by the Crown to a lordship and all free men 'assembled in their hundred'. These tenants were excused obligations such as suit of mill (having to grind their own corn at the manorial mill) and heriots (payments made to the lord on the death of a tenant).

An ordinance of the Borough added in 1572 descibed the enclosing and ditching of part of the free common at Cefn Cribbwr - this common apparently extended from Cattpitt (Pwll-y-Gath, Kenfig Hill) to the ridge of Coity. The enclosed land was given to the Borough by the Lords of Glamorgan to replace ground at Kenfig covered by sand. Twenty-nine burgesses shared the area.

Elizabeth I was determined to thwart the Catholic Counter Reformation which had begun in the reign of Mary Tudor. Those who refused to attend Church of England services were fined twenty pounds a month and then two thirds of their estates were fortified if the fine was not paid. In 1585 it was high treason for Popish priests to remain in the country.

Despite these measures the people of Kenfig and surrounding areas remained faithful Catholics - maybe due to the lasting influence of the dissolved abbey at Margam and the activities of the priests harboured by the Turbervilles of Sker.

Mary Tudor had also been respected by the people of South Wales since she was seen to be Henry VIII's true heir while Elizabeth was the daughter of the unpopular Anne Boleyn.

Thomas ab Ieuan ap Rees (c.1510-60) was a bard from Tythegston who sang before the dissolution of the monastries - he was a devout Catholic and composed a verse on the accession of Mary Tudor. One of his other poems tells of his imprisonment in the town of Kenfig.

There is a story which tells of King Philip of Spain, a suitor for Elizabeth's hand, sending her a gift of orange and lemon trees. The ship was wrecked on Kenfig Sands but the trees were saved and planted at Margam. They were not formally presented to the Mansels of Margam until Queen Anne's time and it was not until 1785 that the Orangery was erected for their protection.

It is debatable whether the cultivation of orange trees would have continued in Margam for such a length of time before the orangery was built.