# Hafod Copper Works, Swansea Oct 08



## baal (Oct 6, 2008)

Built in 1810 the copper works in hafod was designed and laid out by John Vivian. When it was open it was the largest industrial works in europe and the largest exporter of copeer in the UK. Over the course of the next 100 years the Vivians also built a village for the workers called Trevivian or vivianstown which is now called the hafod. By the middleof the 19th century it also produced naval brass, ferro bronze, lead ingots, spelter, silver, gold, sulphuric acid, zinc chloride and superphosphate fertilisers.
The Morfa Copperworks was started in 1834 immediately next door to the Hafod Works with only a high stone wall between the two works to divide them. Legend has it that workers at Morfa were instructed not to talk to the Hafod workers for fear of giving away trade secrets. 
There is only a few buildings left, some of which are in the stadium carpark with cameras everywhere, so couldn't get in them ones.


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## Lightbuoy (Oct 6, 2008)

What a stunning little explore -the plaque above the door sums-up the place for me. Practical building, yet some good-ol' fashioned Victorian elegance  Great to see some of the original equipment still in place too.

Lb:jimlad:


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## baal (Oct 6, 2008)

The last picture is of a tunnel we found in the undergrowth. Didn't have torches so we will be going back there soon to see how far it goes in. Also found what looks like another tunnel but pics are on other film


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## freebird (Oct 6, 2008)

Some nice pics there. Love pic 1 and the graffitti on the dirty cracked and flaking walls! Looks great.


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## TK421 (Oct 6, 2008)

thats a great site you have found there, it appears you have found the nose cone to the space shuttle in the second but last picture, they will be looking for that you know


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## baal (Oct 6, 2008)

TK421 said:


> thats a great site you have found there, it appears you have found the nose cone to the space shuttle in the second but last picture, they will be looking for that you know



Yeah thats exactly what I thought when I saw it. Its the top of a buoy. I think there is someone living in it!


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## Foxylady (Oct 7, 2008)

Fantastic site and superb photos...pics 2, 3 and 4, especially. Nice find.


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## dangerous dave (Oct 7, 2008)

baal said:


> Yeah thats exactly what I thought when I saw it. Its the top of a buoy. I think there is someone living in it!



its part of a blast furnace there are a few bits left kicking around on the site


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## TrefforestGump (Oct 8, 2008)

TK421 said:


> thats a great site you have found there, it appears you have found the nose cone to the space shuttle in the second but last picture, they will be looking for that you know



It looked like the Apollo modules to me!

Nice pics, nice find.


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## swanseadabber (Aug 4, 2009)

*The Listed Buildings At Site.*

LISTED BUILDING INFO

Museum Stores, formerly Morfa Copperworks rolling mill

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16878
47/44/46

29/02/96

Located at the north side of the Hafod and Morfa copperworks site, off the cross-valley road between Foxhole Road and Neath Road.

A former rolling mill building for Morfa Copperworks, converted to use as a museum store and workshops in the 1980s. Morfa Copperworks was established in 1828 by Williams, Foster and Company of Cornwall, when Swansea was the world centre of the copper trade. The works was initially a rolling plant for making bars and plates from copper ingots brought from the nearby Rose Works, but smelting is believed to have been started at Morfa in 1835. Rolling was carried out initially in smaller steam-powered mills at both ends of the present range. These appear to have been linked to create the much larger mill building in the 1830s. The works amalgamated with the adjacent Hafod Copperworks in 1924 and was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980.

Listed for its extreme rarity as a surviving copper rolling mill building and for group value with the scheduled Morfa Quay and listed buildings of the Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

The interior is open to the roof for its full length, with concrete floors and industrial shelving for storage of museum objects.

A long, single-storey building with a gabled roof and corrugated roof covering, topped by tall ventilators. It is constructed primarily of rubble sandstone with some brick infilling. The main elevation, to the east, has stone walls at either end, the remains of the mill buildings of 1828. The southern part contains a series of infilled semi-circular arches typical of such buildings in the period. The majority of the east elevation was formerly open, and massive timber purlins are supported on impressive tapering cast iron columns. The spaces between the columns were later infilled with brick. The north elevation has a wide arch and circular ventilation openings above, now blocked. The south elevation is rubble stone, pierced by a row of five round-headed windows (two blocked), and a further row of three smaller blocked windows above.




CANTEEN BUILDING AT THE FORMER YORKSHIRE IMPERIAL METAL WORKS,NEATH ROAD

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11691
84/A/144(3)

03/01/80

Set away from main road and reached under railway, entrance to works was formerly across Swansea Canal.

Derelict at time of inspection (Spring 1986)

Group value.

Late C19. Former power house building to Morfa Copper Works. Rubble walls with quoins and freestone dressings. Wide slate roof with gambrel treatment to E end, continues down over side aisles, long glazed roof-lights. Remains of clock tower with trapezoidal base (formerly louvered with clock faces, weathervane etc.). Two stone chimney stacks with cornice to right, vents along ridge. E gable end has tall rounded-head window with glazing-bars over segmentally-headed doorway (blocked); this centre bay flanged by segmental windows with glazing bars above wide modern windows (blocked). Front walls of side aisles canted back, each with (blocked)segmental openings on ground floor.

Fine aisled interior of 4 bays with composite timber and iron trusses (basically queen post construction), circular cast-iron spandrels between collar and ironwork. Gothic braces supported by slender, reeded cast-iron columns with capitals. Tension braces and ties of wrought-iron and compression members of cast-iron.



LABORATORY

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11690
84/A/143(3)

30/03/87

Set away from main road and reached under railway, entrance to works was formerly across Swansea Canal.

Derelict at time of inspection (Spring 1986)

Group value

Mid to late C19, earlier origins. Tall 2 storey block along boundary wall with lower 1 storey and basement stepped ranges attached to inner side. Snecked rubble freestone dressings and rusticated quoins, hipped slate roof (mostly stripped). Moulded cornice and frieze band. Segmental arched heads to lugged window architraves, cill band with moulded brackets (openings blocked), plainer basement. S side of random rubble construction with brick patching. Fine stone doorcase in return facing entrance, ball finial to pediment containing cartouche, swagged capitals to panelled pilasters, arched keyblock doorcase.
Copper slag abutment to former waste tip tramroad

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11692
48/46/54

18/10/79

Located on the west side of the former Swansea Canal near the centre of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks site.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Coppperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The abutment supported a works tramroad for carrying slag high above the Swansea Canal and served as a massive revetment wall above the canal holding back the slag tip to the west. It was built in the mid nineteenth century using copper slag blocks produced at the Hafod works, and is an exceptionally fine demonstration of the use of a material once common in the Swansea and Bristol areas.

Listed as probably the most impressive surviving example of copper slag block construction in Wales and for group value with the listed buildings of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

A very tall copper slag wall with a steeply battered profile and a ramped projecting bridge abutment, creating a complex geometry. The slag blocks are closely bedded and are 22cm deep, in two lengths, of 43cm and 20cm. Putlog holes for support of the bridge deck can be seen on the abutment.




Pier to former waste tip tramroad and adjoining boundary wall

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11693
48/46/53

18/10/79

Located on the east side of the former Swansea Canal at the centre of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks site.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Coppperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The pier supported a works tramroad high above the Swansea Canal. The tramroad carried slag away from the copperworks to a tip to the west. It was built into the boundary wall of the canal at this point in the mid nineteenth century. The canal was built 1794-8 and was a principal transport artery for the works. A series of docks were built into the works from the canal for unloading boats. The wall was probably built soon after the works was established, and had an archway for boats at this point.

Listed for group value with the listed buildings of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

The pier is tall and slightly tapering, constructed of coursed rubble sandstone with copper slag block quoins. There are putlog holes for the bridge deck supports on front and rear. The boundary wall extends in both directions, for some 60m in all, and is constructed of rubble stone and copper slag. To the north it extends as far as the boundary of the Hafod and Morfa sites, at the corner of the Morfa laboratory building. Between this point and the pier is a wide arch of yellow brick, forming the entrance to one of the former canal docks.


Boundary wall of former Hafod Copperworks canal docks

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16881
47/44/49

29/02/96

Located on the east bank of the former Swansea Canal, east of the car park of Landore Social Club.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Copperworks. It was operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The Swansea Canal, built 1794-8, was a principal transport artery for the works, through which coal was brought for the furnaces. A series of docks were built into the works from the canal for the unloading of boats. The boundary wall was probably built along the canal towpath soon after the works was established, with large openings for the passage of boats. Low timber bridges formerly carried the towpath across the dock entrances.

Listed as a good example of slag wall, for its relation to former canal docks, and for group value with the listed buildings of the Hafod and Morfa works.

A high wall of copper slag, sandstone and brick, some 80m in length. The adjacent canal has been filled in. The lower parts of the wall are almost entirely of copper slag, either in carefully bedded rough nodules or in moulded blocks. A row of square slag copings seem to have been placed on top of this, but the wall was subsequently raised in stone and slag and topped with crenellations of oblong slag blocks interspersed with spade-shaped slag copings laid sideways. The wall was again raised in brick and stone, probably in the late nineteenth century. Two wide blocked archways can be seen supporting the wall where the canal dock entrances passed through.




HAFOD LIMEKILN, NEATH ROAD

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11694
84/A/147(3)

18/10/79

Set away from the main road and reached under the railway line. Formerly on W side of Swansea Canal (now filled in) begun 1794, fully opened 1798.
In derelict condition at time of inspection (Spring 1986).

Group value.

Late C18 to early C19. Tapering stone rubble wall 5.8 metres square. Discharge opening with segmental brick arch to E side, facing canal; further possible opening in S wall and vertical, full-height chase in N wall (to bond in with lateral retaining wall). Copper slag charging bank formerly against W and part of N elevations. One of only 3 lime-kilns remaining along the Swansea Canal in 1978.



Vivian engine house

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11695
48/46/51

30/03/87

Located near the west bank of the River Tawe in the southern part of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks site.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Coppperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The Vivian engine house was built 1860-2 and housed a steam engine to power adjacent copper rolling mills, though it is possible that part of the building is early nineteenth-century. It was later enlarged substantially, probably c.1900.

Listed for its rarity as a copper works engine house and for group value with the listed buildings of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

There is a main floor, open to the metal roof trusses, and a service basement below. The upper floor has a cill for a travelling crane.

A two-storey gabled structure, formerly with a slate roof. It is constructed partially in dressed sandstone, partially in snecked rubble, and partially in grey bricks (made at the copperworks). The oldest part of the building appears to be in the south corner, where there is much dressed stone. The building has been widened to the north and raised in height using grey brick; the raised band being given red brick oculi and eaves cornice. The west gable has a large doorway, over which is an ornate carved stone tablet with scrolls and flowers, reading 'Commenced August 1860; completed February 1862; V & S'. The north side has a chamfered corner and four segmentally arched windows to the main floor, with wooden frames. The east end has a tall opening for the former rope drive from the engine, and an oculus high in the gable. The south side has openings irregularly placed on three levels.


Chimney west of Vivian engine house

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11696
48/46/52

30/03/87

Located on the slope to the west of the Vivian engine house and east of the former Swansea Canal.
Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Coppperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The chimney dates from the late nineteenth century and probably served the steam boilers for the Vivian engine house, built 1860-2.

Listed as an impressive Victorian industrial chimney and for group value with the listed buildings of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

A tall, tapering chimney stack, constructed of red brick. There is an octagonal plinth with a corbelled head and a circular shaft. The shaft has numerous iron bands, and a corbelled ring at its neck.



Musgrave engine house and chimney

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11697
48/46/50

03/01/80

Located close to the River Tawe in the southern part of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks site.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Coppperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The Musgrave engine house was built in 1910 for a uniflow steam engine which powered adjacent copper rolling mills.

Listed at II* for its importance as a rare engine house with in situ steam engine and for group value with the listed buildings of the former Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The building is lined with red brick on the interior, and has a main floor containing the engine, with a service basement below. The engine is one of the first uniflow type steam engines made in Britain, manufactured by John Musgrave and Sons of Bolton in

A two storey building with a hipped roof, a brick passage for the rope drive and a tall brick chimney at its south-west corner. It is constructed of grey brick (made at the copperworks) with red brick bands to the cills, lintols and eaves cornice. The timber roof was slated. There are four tall windows to the main storey on each long elevation, square headed with timber window frames. The west wall has a large doorway with remains of an external staircase. The east end features the open passage to the rope drive and a high-level doorway. The rope drive passes out of the building to a set of gears and intact rolling mills. The chimney is of square section, slightly tapering, in brown brick with iron banding towards the top.









Former Hafod Copperworks river quay

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16879
47/44/47

29/02/96

Located at the north side of the Hafod and Morfa copperworks site, off the cross-valley road between Foxhole Road and Neath Road.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Copperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The river quay appears to have been built in 1810 for the unloading of large quantities of copper ore brought up the Tawe by coasting vessels and for the export of copper products.

Listed as an early industrial river quay and for group value with the listed buildings of the Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

A tall quay of dressed sandstone with flat stone copings. The quay is straight for most of its length, from its junction with a recent concrete river wall at the north to a right-angled return near its southern end. The return was designed to allow vessels to draw back from the river current. There is a smaller return before a raised stop at the southern end of the quay.



Former Vivian locomotive shed

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16880
47/44/48

29/02/96

Located on the west bank of the river Tawe, opposite the White Rock Industrial Archaeology Park.

Hafod Copperworks was established in 1810 by John Vivian and continued to be owned by the Vivian family until 1924 when it amalgamated with the adjacent Morfa Copperworks. It was subsequently operated by Yorkshire Imperial Metals until it closed in 1980. The Vivian locomotive shed was built c1910 for the first standard gauge Garrett locomotive in Britain. The locomotive was used to transfer materials around the whole Hafod works site. The shed was built to a high specification to store and maintain the locomotive, with a saw-tooth roof, despite its narrow form, to maximise north light and ventilation of steam, and was proudly titled in glazed brickwork.

Listed as a rare locomotive shed and for group value with the listed buildings of the Hafod and Morfa copperworks.

The interior is open for its full length and wide enough for one railway track. There are remains of timber dividers placed laterally in the roof gables to carry steam from the locomotives to the central parts of the roof for ventilating. A service pit ru

A narrow, single-storey building, one bay deep and nine bays long. The shed is constructed of red and grey brick, with a metal truss roof. There are nine saw tooth gables providing north-facing rooflights with ventilators at their centres. Each gable has a circular ventilation window with red brick dressings. The bays are divided into panels of grey bricks (made at the copperworks), with a plinth, piers, corbelled string course and gable cornices of red brick. White glazed bricks in seven panels pick out letters more than a metre high to refer to the function of the building as Vivian and Son engine shed: 'V & S Ltd No1 SHED'. There are wide square openings at either end, formerly with wooden doors, for access by locomotives.


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## swanseadabber (Aug 4, 2009)

Copper smelting in Swansea had begun in 1717 when Dr John Lane, of Bristol, established a copperworks at Llangyfelach. Thirteen further 18th century works followed (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 11), and Swansea superseded the Vale of Neath, where copperworks had been established from the late 16th century onwards, as the centre of copper production in Britain (Swansea Museum Service, Factsheet 7, 2). 

Hafod was established rather later, in 1808-9, and had supplemented smelting with a rolling mill by 1818 (WGRO D/D NAI M/101/1-15), for rolling copper plates (or ‘cakes’) produced by the nearby Rose smelting works. The mill was steam-powered from the first. The Morfa Works was established as a steam-powered rolling mill in 1828, but smelting had probably started by 1835 (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 12). Hafod and Morfa both remained in hands of their founding families until the two works were merged in 1924 (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 112 et al.) but family interests in both sites declined in the 1880s-90s (Swansea Museums Service Factsheet 6, 28, 30). 

By the late 18th century the basic processes of copper smelting in Britain had become established - and were always known as ‘the Welsh process’. It was described by D. C. Webb (Webb 1812) and Michael Faraday in 1819 (Tomos n.d.). Ore was first heated in ‘calcining furnaces’ to fuse the ore and drive off impurities, and then tapped off into water to granulate. The grains were then slowly roasted in a succession of ‘reverberatory furnaces’, for 36-48 hours, during which slag was tapped off. Finally, the copper was either run into pigs, or into water to again granulate. 

The copper ore came from Cornwall, carried up the River Tawe, while anthracite came in by canal from the Upper Swansea Valley. The Swansea Canal, running alongside the site, had been opened in 1798. The return trade of copper and coal ensured the success of the Swansea ventures. However, from the 1830s onwards, Cornish ore was gradually supplanted by supplies from Cuba, America and Australia. However Chile became the most important long-term source (Swansea Museum Service, Factsheet 7, 11). 

Like most copper smelting works, Hafod and Morfa diversified through the 19th and early 20th centruries with the introduction of subsidiary processes such as rolling, shearing, manufacturing, and the processing of other metals such as silver, lead and zinc (Swansea Museum Service, Factsheet 7, 20). 

A useful by-product of the smelting process itself were moulded blocks of copper slag, the use of which was recognised early on - Michael Faraday recorded that at Hafod, in 1819, the smelting furnaces themselves were partly constructed from copper slag blocks (Tomos, n.d.). As a building material, copper-slag was especially popular in Bristol (Hughes 2000, 52-4), but was used extensively on the works site and elsewhere is Swansea. Both unmoulded and moulded slag blocks can be seen in many of the surviving structures, while the curved coping blocks are used both for coping and for decorative facing. The Vivians also patented a copper brick (‘Vivian’s Patent Brick’) which is also used extensively on the site - the Grade II* listed SAM, Building 9.0 (Musgrave Engine House) is constructed almost entirely from this material, which however spalls badly. 

The success of the copper industry led to an increase in Swansea’s population from 6099 in 1801 to 94537 in 1901 (Morgan 1988, 155). New mines opened up to meet the demand for coal - several of them owned by the Vivian family themselves. And by 1851 the only British copper works outside the region were one on Anglesey and one in Staffordshire (Swansea Museum Service, Factsheet 7, 4). 


However, by 1870 the industry was in decline in Swansea, unable to compete because of trade tariffs and smelting at the point of ore production (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 11). Smelting ceased at Swansea in 1921 and although copper processing continued until 1980, it was only a minor component of the economy. Most of the copperworks sites have now been cleared.


2.2.2	The site in its setting

Hafod and Morfa works lay within a complex of industrial enterprises, which formerly dominated the surrounding landscape either side of the narrow valley of the Tawe, much of which was entirely transformed by the immense slag- and spoil-tips generated by the industries. These are shown on the historic maps in Section 3.3. 

Immediately east of Hafod, across the Tawe, were three copperworks, which were to be supplied by Smith’s Canal, built in 1783-5 to transport coal from Llansamlet to the Tawe (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 32). The White Rock Works was the third Swansea copperworks to be established, in 1736 (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 12). In 1870-71 lead and silver smelting were commenced at the works, which closed in 1924. Immediately to the north lay the Middle Bank Works, another early copperworks established in 1855. Also a lead smelting works, it too closed in 1924. Immediately north again was the Upper Bank Works, commenced in 1757 (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 12), successively a copper works, Yellow Metal works and spelter works. It closed in 1928. 

Sharing the west bank with Hafod and Morfa were a number of other industries. Landore Siemens Steelworks lay some 300m north of the study area. It opened in 1869 and soon expanded to the opposite bank of the river (Hughes and Reynolds 1988, 16). It was acquired as the Mannesmann Tube Works in 1888 (OS 1:2500, 1899 and 1919). Landore Alkali Works, between the steeelworks and the Morfa Works, was established by the Vivians as ‘Vivian’s Chemical Works’ by 1854 (WGRO P/60/CW/204). It continued production until the mid 20th century. Immediately north-west of Morfa Works was the short-lived Mile End Pottery, shown on a map of 1879 (OS 1:2500). South of Hafod, other Vivian industrial concerns ran downstream from the site for nearly a kilometre and included Hafod Phosphate Works, Hafod Foundry, Foundry and Hafod Nickel and Cobalt Works (Hughes 2000, 35; OS 1:2500, 1879).

Most of the works were demolished during the 20th century and little can be seen today, although the remains of White Rock were consolidated and landscaped in the early 1980s, under the then Swansea City Council, and designated as the White Rock Industrial Park. The scant remains of other industrial enterprises survive here and there within the Swansea Valley - the Beaufort Works tin-house, a few colliery engine-houses, and various bits of walling - but they represent a very small fraction of the resource. 

However the sites of these works, and more importantly the railway and canal infrastructure, still define the landscape, and certainly influence the settlement and communications pattern. In addition, planned streets of company housing such as ‘Vivian’s Town’, southwest of the site, are still inhabited more-or-less unchanged. Nevertheless, the area is not a Registered Historic Landscape, nor is there a LANDMAP study of the area.

A less welcome by-product of the copper industry was the severe detrimental effect on the environment, caused by the dense clouds of sulphur and arsenic given off by the smelting process and blighted the entire Lower Swansea Valley. As early as 1819 Michael Faraday had commented on the works producing a dense ‘plume of (sulphur and arsenic) smoke up the vale’ (Tomos, n.d.). 

The natural vegetation has however been successful in regenerating itself, although may of the former works sites may still be contaminated. Similarly, many of the former spoil-tips have been landscaped or removed in recent years, meaning that it is now difficult to visualise the industrial landscape. Its correct interpretation must be a primary target of any development/ enhancement project.


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## swanseamale47 (Aug 4, 2009)

Nicely done, I had a look at the place a while back but there was too much activity going on around it to go in, the tunnel look interesting.


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## Nigelwyn (Aug 4, 2009)

Very interesting. I'll have a look where it is next time I go down to the Ospreys.


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