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ABSTRACT
In 2021, Swansea University commissioned Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd to undertake a community archaeological excavation as part of a National Lottery Heritage Funded activity plan. The excavation was undertaken on the site of the former Hafod Plate Rolling Mill in Swansea, South Wales, UK, within which copper plates intended for both national and international shipment were produced between 1910 and 1980. The rolling mill represented one of the largest structures within the Lower Swansea Valley — also known as ‘Copperopolis’. Moreover, the mill formed part of the Hafod (and later Hafod-Morfa) Copperworks — one of the largest copper production sites in the world at the time. Within this article, the results of the 2021 excavation will be detailed. During the excavation, features associated with steam power supply, annealing, pickling and finishing were recorded. By comparing the excavation results with available cartographic and documentary evidence of the copperworks, this article outlines a detailed picture of the operations once conducted within the rolling mill, therefore bringing the mill back to life.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, the authors would like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund for making the excavation and wider community project possible. A debt of gratitude goes to Alex Langlands of Swansea University, as well as Swansea Council, for commissioning Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd to undertake the excavation. A big thank you goes to the volunteers who aided in excavating the site, which included members of the Friends of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, students from Swansea and Cardiff Universities, as well as residents of the local area. Abbi Wootten-Brooks deserves recognition for managing the community project — her hard work and organisational skills are greatly appreciated. Lui Tam and Chris Whitman of Cardiff University likewise deserve recognition for advertising the community project to their students and for providing volunteers. Credit goes to Arthur Green, who kindly provided photographs of the Hafod Copperworks prior to demolition (which included, most notably, of the present article). Finally, the authors would like to thank the editors of Industrial Archaeology Review — Ian Miller and Ian West — for accepting the present article to their journal, as well as Alex Langlands and the anonymous peer reviewers for providing excellent feedback on the article’s content.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For the grey literature report, see: Rhys Morgan et al., Copperworks Discovery Project 2021, Heritage Lottery Funded Project: Archaeological Community Project at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks (Black Mountains Archaeology Report No. 241, 2022). The excavation of the former site of the Hafod Plate Rolling Mill was undertaken by Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd with the aid of volunteers consisting of students from the Swansea and Cardiff Universities and residents from the Swansea area. The excavation also comprised a volunteer project organised by Alex Langlands of Swansea University, the aim of which was to get local people involved in archaeological discoveries and to raise awareness of local heritage.
2 The ‘Hafod Plate Rolling Mill’ has been differentiated in this article from the Nos 1 and 2 Rolling Mills, which occupied the site of excavation from 1819 and 1842 respectively. Within this article, the older rolling mills are not discussed in any detail, as the excavation concentrated almost wholly on the later 1910 structure.
3 A local rhyme from Swansea. The origin of the rhyme is uncertain, although it is believed to have been sung on the streets of Swansea and particularly the Landore district towards the end of the 19th century and beyond.
4 Historically, Swansea comprised a town. By 1969, however, Swansea was granted city status.
5 Paul Reynolds, ‘Industrial Development’, in Swansea: An Illustrated History, ed. David Dykes (Swansea: Christopher Davies, 1990), 32.
6 Stephen Hughes, ‘The Characteristics of Extractive and Smelting Landscapes of the Industrial Revolution at Swansea and Blaenavon’, Landscape History 30, no. 1 (2008): 28–32.
7 Stephen Hughes, Copperopolis: Landscapes of the Early Industrial Period in Swansea (Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 2000), 18.
8 Stephen Hughes and Paul Reynolds, A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region (Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 1988), 11–14.
9 Most notably, the Swansea Canal was opened in 1798, which was connected to a sizeable network of horse-drawn tramroads.
10 Frédéric le Play, Description des Procédés Métallurgiques Employés dans le Pays de Galles pour la Fabrication du Cuivre (Paris: Carilian-Goeury et Von Dalmont, 1848); John Percy, Metallurgy: The Art of Extracting Metals from their Ores (London: John Murray, 1861), 314–80.
11 Within a reverberatory furnace, the fuel (coal) and charge (ore) are kept separate, meaning that impurities within the former fail to contaminate the latter.
12 Edmund Newell, ‘Copperopolis’, in International Competition and Industrial Change: Essays in the History of Mining and Metallurgy, 1800–1950, ed. Charles Harvey and Jon Press (London: Routledge, 1990), 77.
13 Otis Young Jr, ‘Origins of the American Copper Industry’, Journal of the Early Republic 3 no. 2 (1983): 118.
14 Walter Minchiton, ‘Introduction: Industrial South Wales, 1750–1914’, in Industrial South Wales 1750–1914: Essays in Welsh Economic History, ed. Walter Minchinton (London: Routledge, 1969), 15; Robin Craig, British Tramp Shipping, 1750–1914 (St John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association, 2003), 69.
15 Hughes and Reynolds, A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region, 8.
16 Yet by the late 19th century, the iron industry in Swansea had developed a distinct significance, mainly due to the invention by William Siemens of the open-hearth process at the Landore Steelworks in 1869.
17 George Grant-Francis, The Smelting of Copper in the Swansea District of South Wales: From the Time of Elizabeth to the Present Day (London: Pritchett and Taylor, 1881), 149.
18 Edmund Newell, ‘The Irremediable Evil’, in From Family Firms to Corporate Capitalism: Essays in Business and Industrial History, ed. Kristine Bruland and Patrick O’Brien (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 195.
19 Hughes, Copperopolis, 31.
20 Ibid., fig. 4.
21 The steam engine derived from the Neath Abbey Ironworks to the north-west of Swansea and was a horizontal engine based on James Watt’s design.
22 It is important to mention here that new archaeological excavations conducted in 2024 (by Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd) may suggest degrees of continuity that were previously unknown. Although excavations are still ongoing (and interpretations remain tentative), it may be the case that the 1910 Hafod Plate Rolling Mill represented a renovation (rather than replacement) of the older mill buildings.
23 Chris Evans and Louise Miskell, Swansea Copper: A Global History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), 91.
24 Libby Langlands, Richard Lewis, Abbigail Wootten-Brooks and Rhys Morgan, Redevelopment of the Powerhouse, Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, Swansea: Archaeological Strip Map Record; Post-excavation Report (Black Mountains Archaeology Report no. 181, 2022).
25 Ronald Rees, King Copper: South Wales and the Copper Trade, 1584–1895 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), 21.
26 Evans and Miskell, Swansea Copper, 164.
27 Throughout the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a general increase in the size of steam locomotives, which was mirrored by an increased demand in the market for thicker locomotive plates.
28 The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.
29 Stephen Hughes, Arteries of Internation Sustainable Industry: The Swansea Canal and its Early Railways (Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 2023), 302.
30 Much of the Morfa site, for example, has been redeveloped as a whisky distillery and visitor centre, owned by Penderyn.
31 More specifically, the site of the Hafod Plate Rolling Mill is centred on National Grid Reference SS 66165 94920.
32 Robert Toomey, Vivian and Sons, 1809–1924: A Study of the Firm in the Copper and Related Industries (New York: Garland, 1985), 361–3.
33 Hughes, Copperopolis, 49.
34 The No. 1 Rolling Mill was, however, significantly smaller in scale.
35 Trevor Boyns, ‘The Electricity Industry in South Wales to 1949’, Welsh History Review 15, no. 1 (1990): 82; Hughes, Copperopolis, 308.
36 All six trenches were excavated to the first archaeological horizon and were cleaned by hand before being recorded photogrammetrically.
37 ‘The Uniflow Steam Engine of Messrs. Yorkshire Imperial Metals, Swansea’. The document comprises a engineering description of the Musgrave uniflow steam engine, written sometime during the 1970s in the few years prior to the closure of the Hafod-Mofa Copperworks in 1980.
38 F.B. Perry, ‘The Uniflow Steam-Engine’, Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers 99, no. 1 (1920): 731.
39 François Arago, Life of James Watt (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1839), 85.
40 ‘The Uniflow Steam Engine of Messrs. Yorkshire Imperial Metals, Swansea’.
41 Ibid.
42 W.K.V. Gale, The British Iron and Steel Industry: A Technical History (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1967), 87.
43 H.W. Dickinson and Henry Rogers, ‘Origin of Gauges for Wire, Sheets and Strip’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 21 (1943): 88.
44 ‘Report on the Activities of the Factory during the Year 1933’, by ICI Metals Ltd, who served as proprietors of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks at the time. The report provides a basic rundown of the operations and productivity of the copperworks.
45 Ibid., 17. The report also indicates that the Hafod Plate Rolling Mill was, in the 1930s, struggling to compete with other firms in the sale of conductive copper plates. In particular, the deoxidised plates rolled here would, in contrast with ETP plates rolled elsewhere, suffer occasionally from blistering and lamination.
46 Busbars are conductors in electrical power distribution systems. They are generally bar shaped and are used to connect separate high- or low-voltage equipment together. Anodes allow an electrical current to pass from one device to another device or object. Copper anodes were used in, for example, radiators or motor vehicles.
47 Albert Daniel McMahon, Copper: A Materials Survey (Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Mines, 1965), 142.
48 is by no means exhaustive and, for reasons of concision, provides a rundown of only the most basic types of rolls.
49 Ibid., 147; William Wise, Barnett Dodge and Harding Bliss, ‘Brass and Copper Industry’, Industrial Engineering Chemistry 39, no. 5 (1947): 632.
50 McMahon, Copper, 147.
51 The accumulation of copper oxide on the surface of the piece is essentially a contaminant, effecting the physical properties of the copper in an undesirable way. Its removal is, therefore, an essential step in rolling high-quality copper plates or sheets.
52 Joseph Günter, Copper: Its Trade, Manufacture, Use, and Environmental Status (Materials Park: ASM International, 1999), 217.
53 It must be remembered, however, that the dividing line between the breakdown and rundown was often blurred and that no definitive spatial boundary existed between the two phases.
54 Joseph Davis, Copper and Copper Alloys (Materials Park: ASM International, 2001), 76.
55 John Wilton Cuninghame, Haldane, Steamships and Their Machinery from First to Last (London: E and F.N. Spon, 1893), 124. A plate flattening machine also went by the name ‘plate straightening machine’.
56 Hot cutting would likely not have been performed at this late stage, as heating the piece would have made it too malleable or soft for precision cutting/trimming.
57 Guillotine shears cut metal pieces with a single, vertically aligned blade (much like a guillotine). Crocodile shears (also known as alligator shears) cut pieces with a pair of horizontally aligned blades attached to a hinged jaw (much like a pair of scissors). These can be contrasted with, for example, crop shears, which usually cut metal pieces when hot. Also, crop shears were generally fed by some form of conveyor, which was not present at the Hafod Plate Rolling Mill.
58 A ‘bosh’, in this instance, is defined as a simple water tank used for cooling purposes. This is not to be confused with the bosh (or lower part) of blast furnace.
59 Gerry Thacker, Klara Spandl and Dan Watkeys, Upper Bank, Brunel Way, Swansea: Post-Excavation Assessment and Project Design (Oxford Archaeology Report No. 5050, 2015).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rhys Morgan
Rhys Morgan works as project officer for Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd. Rhys began working at Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd after completing his PhD in archaeology at the University of Southampton, under the supervision of Andrew Meirion Jones. Over the past few years, Rhys has been involved in the archaeological investigation of several significant industrial sites and has gained a keen interest in the topics of post-medieval transport, metallurgy, mineral extraction and pottery production. Email: [email protected]
Libby Langlands
Libby Langlands works as senior project officer for Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd. She received her field archaeology training at MOLA and has worked on commercial and research excavations and post-excavation projects all over southern England and Wales. Libby has much experience in industrial archaeology, particularly in the Swansea area, and is currently managing ongoing archaeological excavations at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks. Email: [email protected]
Tom Henderson
Tom Henderson is as a mechanical engineer, based in Swansea, and a specialist in historical engineering. His company, Henderson Engineering, has been commissioned to work on several heritage projects including, most notably, the restoration of the Musgrave crane at the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, which won a UKRI award for excellence in heritage. Tom is also a member of the Friends of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks group and has significant experience in researching the industrial history of Swansea. Email: [email protected]
Richard Lewis
Richard Lewis is the managing director of Black Mountains Archaeology Ltd. Richard has extensive experience of leading multidisciplinary development teams for large-scale, multi-million-pound projects, including Swansea Council’s redevelopment of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks. Richard has won several awards in the process of delivering his archaeological projects. These include the Peter Neaverson Award for Digital Initiative and Innovation 2013 for the Ynysfach Ironworks 3D animated reconstruction, and the British Archaeological Awards 2012 — Highly Commended for the investigation of an early extractive industrial landscape at Ffos-y-fran. Richard was part of the team that won the UK Housing Awards 2014, Small Development of the Year category, for the excavation of a water-powered post-medieval brewery at Vulcan House, Merthyr Tydfil. Email: [email protected]