Friends of Hafod Morfa Copperworks

There is no need to book, just turn up by 11 am.

To find out about Swansea’s once vast & thriving copper industry🏭 join us for a free, 2 hour guided tour of the old Hafod Morfa Copperworks on Saturday 28 March at 11am. 🚶‍♂️🚶🚶‍♀️ Meet us opposite Landore Park & Ride SA1 2LQ. Please wear sturdy footwear.

13th March 1900 Daily Post. Alterations to Messrs Vivian‘s works have meant the removal of a 30ft chimney stack. The stack had to move 6ft and a cradle on to a trolley was inserted between the foundation and the base of the shaft. “The stack is now connected with the furnaces.”

To find out about Swansea's once vast and thriving copper industry, there is a free guided walk of the Hafod Morfa Copperworks, on Saturday 28th March at 11am. Meet opposite the Landore Park & Ride building, next to the chimney sculpture. No booking, please wear sturdy footwear.

4th March 1905. ‘Cardiff Times’ “Mr [Richard] Glynn Vivian is providing a mission hall and reading room for the working classes at the Hafod”, on Pentremawr Road. On his death Glynn Vivian left an endowment of £30,000 to build mission halls in both the UK and across the world.

Friends of Hafod Morfa were at the networking meeting organised by ‘The Valleys that Changed the World’ at Insole Court today. Great to hear inspiring presentations on involving young people and schools in heritage projects. Many thanks to TVTCTW and all the presenters.

25th February 1910. ‘The Cambrian’ “£6,000 WORTH OF COPPER” “A large barge laden with 130 tons of copper bars, … was swamped in the Prince of Wales Dock on Sunday, and sunk near the entrance. It belongs to Messrs Williams, Foster’s Morfa Copper Works” and valued at about £6,000.

The weather was ideal for today’s guided tour of the old site of the Hafod Morfa Copperworks for a group of students aiming to familiarise themselves with Swansea’s attractions as they train to become Wales Official Tourist Guides.

10th February 1855. ‘Swansea & Glamorgan Herald.’ The death of John Henry Vivian FRS, M.P. at Singleton Abbey, aged 69. “One of the most influential and popular men in South Wales and from his commanding position in the copper trade was well known in the commercial world.”

11th January 1928. The Western Mail announced “negotiations proceeding which may result in British Copper Manufacturers, with copper works at Swansea, being absorbed by Imperial Chemicals Ltd, of which Sir Alfred Mond is the head”.

7th January 1884. Daily News. “The town of Swansea will shortly possess a work of art such as does not adorn any other town in the principality. The Vivian statue by Signor Raggi, is in a forward state and an unveiling is confidently expected in the autumn of this year.”

23rd December 1915. The Daily Leader announced “hundreds of men of Vivian & Sons are not forgotten “Every one of the workers with the colours will receive” a parcel of: Christmas pudding, sweets, 1/2Ib. Tobacco, 250 cigarettes, pepsin, matches and laces, chocolate, cafe au lait.

20th December 1890. The Daily News reported on the competition between vessels arriving from Port Nollloth with cargoes of copper ore, for Swansea. The “Carmelita” beat the record for the fleet by coming home in 45 days, “which is one of the fastest passages ever recorded”.

5th December 1894, Daily News - Ernest Ambrose Vivian, “The New Lord Swansea”. “Known by sight to very few inhabitants of the town - and the curiosity to see him [at Lord Swansea’s funeral] made his absence all the more disappointing.” He spent his time in London or travelling.

28th November 1894. The death of Henry Hussey Vivian at Singleton Abbey. With a black border around its full-page obituary, the Cambrian recounted the “shockingly sudden manner” of Lord Swansea’s death, in his 74th year, from heart failure.

25th November 1892, The Cambrian announced “the old established, and highly reputed copper and spelter works, so long and so well conducted by the Grenfell family on the East-side of the Swansea river” had been bought for £40K by Williams Foster - Morfa Works.

16th November 1905. The Evening Express announced that Miss Amy Dillwyn had retired as a Director of Dillwyn’s Spelter Works at Llansamlet and her controlling interest in the company had been bought by the metal international merchants H R Merton.

Many thanks to Friends of Hafod Morfa Copperworks, City & County of Swansea and Black Mountain Archaeology for the invite to look at the excavations on the Hafod copperworks site. Thanks especially to Libby for explaining how the maze of flues, furnaces, and other remains worked.

1st November 1888 the South Wales Echo announced that Williams Foster’s Morfa Copperworks had passed into the hands of HR Merton & Co. HR Merton was the Anglo-German sister company of Metallgesellschaft which acquired Dillwyn & Co’s Llansamlet zinc works in 1905.

59 years since the #Aberfan disaster. On the 21st October 1966 at 9:13am the clock stopped. 116 children and 28 adults died.