About a mile to the north-west of Swansea, in Cwmbwrlais, a small Works for the reduction of Copper dross and old metal, was erected in 1852, by Mr. James Stephens, and eventually some furnaces for the smelting of ores were added, and the whole called

THE 'BLACK-VALE' COPPer Works,

I imagine from its neighbourhood being covered with heaps of old colliery debris.

THE BRITON-FERRY' COPPER WORKS,

were constructed in 1853, by a junior member of the firm of Bankart & Co., of 'Red Jacket' Copper Works, in conjunction with the firm of Sweetland, Tuttle & Co., and they naturally enjoy the like facilities for trade, being very conveniently placed for coal, which can there be had in abundance at a moderate price. When Mr. Bankart retired from this firm he was replaced by Mr. Barclay, who, ultimately becoming sole proprietor, sold the works to the Cape Copper Mining Company' for the reduction of their own ores from the Cape of Good Hope, a curious revival of the condition of things existing in the early years of the present century, as previously related.

THE 'DANYGRAIG' COPPER WORKS

were also erected on Earl Jersey's estate by Mr. Jennings, who came from the Clyne-Wood Works, in 1860. Coppersmelting is here, nevertheless, but a secondary consideration, the ores purchased being selected on account of their containing Arsenic and Sulphur, the which having been extracted, the remainder is run down for such Copper as can be got out.

Messrs. Williams, Foster and Co. bought up Mr. Jennings' interest in the firm, but Mr. J. M. Williams complaining of a

L

clause in the lease requiring an extra £10 per annum for every Copper furnace erected, the agreement for sale was cancelled, and so Mr. Hadland became and remains the sole proprietor and manager.

In 1862, a return was once more made to the old CopperWorks District, on the banks of the Tawe, by the conversion of a pottery premises not long previously built by Mr. Calland, a little to the north of the South Wales Railway Viaduct. This conversion was effected by "The Landore Arsenic and Copper Company," and their place of business is known as

THE LITTLE LANDORE' COPPER WORKS,

to distinguish them from their near neighbour the old 'Landore' Works of Messrs. Williams, Foster, and Co. These works stand on what no doubt was the eastern portion of the premises leased to the first Llangavelach Copper Works, of 1744, previously described, for it appears that, whenever the surface is broken through, old copper slags immediately show themselves in abundance.

THE LLANSAMLET' WORKS,

with like objects to those at Danygraig, were in 1866-7 in course of construction by the same Mr. Jennings, between Smith's Canal and the Swansea Vale Railway above the old Copper Works on the eastern side of the River Tawe, also on lands of Lord Jersey, in the parish from which they take their name.

In addition to what may be considered the regular manufactories, there have been from time to time works so small as to consist of only a furnace or two; these small beginnings have always been looked upon with great jealousy and suspicion, and they have generally had to succumb to a pressure which was too great for them to resist. Thus, I recollect near the Pipe-house, at the head of the Canal wharfs, a single furnace crected by Mr. Edw. Merry;

another below the South Wales Railway on the Strand, belonging, I believe, to Mr. R. G. Thompson, and there may possibly be others in The District." A like concern may have existed at Bank-y-Gockus, as mentioned in previous pages; and I have a strong suspicion that some such furnace once existed within the precincts of Swansea Castle, for on opening the ground in Worcester-place some years since for town drainage, north of the Post-office, we came upon quantities of regularly tipped ill-smelted copper slag, very green in parts from the copper it carelessly contained. It is not impossible that this may have been from a trial furnace permitted to be put up by Gabriel Powell, when the Duke's Agent at Swansea, early in the last century. I have myself seen quantities of roughly smelted lead ore from the floor of the then chandler's premises in the N.E. corner of the Castle at Swansea, proving that it was at the time looked upon as pretty nearly waste ground there.

Brought at length near the end of my labours, I cannot help noting that while in the earlier age of Copper Smelting, Lead was nearly always a concomitant manufacture*-now, that chemistry has become the handmaid of art, the nobler metals, Gold and Silver, in connection with Copper, as well as other metals, have, for several years been largely extracted at Swansea; and so long as this was done secretly by the few, it gave them a handsome return for the science they employed beyond the less informed buyers of argentiferous or auriferous ores, as the case might be; and thus also by the extension of scientific knowledge, the Arsenic and the Sulphur are now specially

As a curious illustration of this, I notice that the old Docket of Town and Quay dues ordered to be issued for Swansea Borough in 1808, contains no other ores than those of "Copper or Lead,” which were charged 2d, a ton. In the tariff of Swansea, in the time of the Ist Mary, there is no notice of ores at all, and one could hardly expect there would be.

G. G. F.

sought for and utilized, instead of being dissipated into noxious gases. Long may these progressive steps continue, and the ores brought hither from each division of the globe yield fruit after their kind for the use of man; and let us say with old Mr. Gabriel Powell

"Wee are determined to goe on, and think it very hard if" "wee should be debarred of seeking those advantages which " "the situation [of Swansea] entitles us to."

My readers who have had the patience to follow up the information which I have gathered and utilized for their knowledge, have, perhaps, scarcely brought their minds to bear on the gigantic results which have flowed from the localization of the Copper trade by Customer Smyth and Ulricke Frosse, at Neath, (A.D. 1586) Elizabeth's reign, when one "John Bwaple, of Wales, had delyvered into his Bark at St. Ives, a frayght of Copp'r Owre of 15 tonnes and 8 hundreds waight in seven daies." In the place of these scanty supplies from Cornwall, we have now a magnificent fleet of first-class ships constantly trading to the port of Swansea from all parts of the world, whose tonnage amounts to an aggregate for the year of upwards of 200,000 tons of Copper, Silver, Gold Lead, Zinc, Nickel, Cobalt and Bismuth Ores.* When, again, we reflect on the number of persons engaged, not simply in navigating the ships for this tonnage, but the thousands of hands employed at the various Copper and other adjacent Works, and the numerous Collieries from which their daily supply of fuel is extracted (to say nothing of the trades which indirectly supply their numerous wants) we must, indeed, be struck with the mighty success which has followed the original planting of "Copper Smelting in the Swansea District."

Though recently large Works have been erected at Llansamlet, under leases from Lord Jersey for the treatment of complex Ores.

May this Trade exist and long continue to flourish, and while it immediately benefits those who carry it on, may it, by the wise aids of science and skilled labour, be deprived of all noxiousness, so that "One and All" may alike rejoice, and with earnest voice, cry

"God Speed the Copper Trade." It would indeed be somewhat remarkable if it should turn out that, while I was expressing so ardent a wish, this gigantic manufacture was then on the eve of a great change! In fact, shortly afterwards it was gravely stated at Swansea, "the days of the Copper Trade are numbered, and Swansea has seen its grand climacteric!" I, for one, boldly doubted the latter assertion, for I argued—even supposing that the Copper Trade' had unfortunately reached its climax, and was about to change its policy and localities,—there was still for Swansea a great Trade to be done in Silver and Gold, Iron and Steel, Zinc and Tin-plates, Nickel and Cobalt, Alkalis and Chemicals, which might and ought to nestle on the banks of Tawe, between and around the hills of my native place, finding there the material element of Coals of every description suitable to their several necessities.

GEO. GRANT-FRANCIS, F.S.A., Col,