New trail launched on Tawe Trails history app

The latest addition — an audio‑only Tawe navigation trail — has been created for passengers on the popular Copper Jack River Cruise, offering a guided journey up and down the River Tawe packed with stories from the city’s industrial past.

It joins six other trails already available, covering Hafod Morfa Copperworks, White Rock, Parc Llewelyn, Swansea Canal at Clydach, Morriston Park and the wider Lower Swansea Valley.

The app, developed by Swansea Council’s regeneration team and funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, features interactive maps, waypoint pins, high‑quality images, satellite and street views, selfie postcard frames, accessibility settings and offline functionality. Content is available in English and Welsh, including audio narration.

Council cabinet member Robert Francis‑Davies said it was encouraging to see more than 700 downloads so far, with that figure expected to rise over the school holidays.

“The Lower Swansea Valley was at the heart of the copper industry that helped spread Swansea’s name across the world,” he said. “Thanks to the app, people will learn that Swansea’s story is Britain’s story — and we’re sharing it in the most modern way.”

The newest trail also includes accessibility and safety advice, along with background on historic sites such as Lougher Castle, Oxwich Castle, Weobley Castle and Pennard Castle.

The Tawe Trails app is free to download from the iTunes Store and Google Play.

#app #CllrRobertFrancisDavies #Clydach #CopperJack #HafodMorfaCopperworks #history #MorristonPark #ParcLlewelyn #RiverTawe #SwanseaCanal #SwanseaCouncil #SwanseaValley #TaweTrails #WhiteRock

Swansea Bay parks and green spaces recognised among world’s best with Green Flag awards

Keep Wales Tidy has confirmed that Wales now flies more Green Flag Community Awards than any other country worldwide, with a record-breaking 315 sites recognised this year — including 223 community spaces.

Among the winners are six of Swansea’s main parks, including Clyne Gardens, Singleton Botanical Gardens, Brynmill Park, Parc Llewelyn, Cwmdonkin Park and Victoria Park. All are managed by Swansea Council and welcome thousands of visitors annually.

Robert Francis-Davies, Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration and Tourism, said: “Our city is blessed with some beautiful parks which we are proud of and work hard to maintain. They all provide a space where families and visitors can relax, have fun and enjoy the outdoors. I’m thrilled that these locations have been recognised on a national level.”

Additional Green Flag Awards have been given to Swansea University Singleton Campus, Penllergare Valley Woods, and Mount Pleasant Hospital, managed by Coastal Housing Group.

Thirteen community-based gardens and green spaces in Swansea also received Green Flag Community Awards, including Friends of Coed Gwilym Park, Pontlliw Park, Swansea Canal, Mayhill Washing Lake & Community Food Garden, Swansea Community Farm and Coedbach Park.

Cllr Francis-Davies added: “It’s great to see a large number of community gardens get recognition for what they offer residents. This is largely down to community groups and volunteers, who take it upon themselves to look after these green spaces and make sure that wherever you live in Swansea, there is certain to be somewhere nearby that families can visit.”

In Neath Port Talbot, a wide range of parks and gardens have also achieved Green Flag status, including Gnoll Estate Country Park, Margam Country Park, Talbot Memorial Park, Victoria Gardens, and Swansea University Bay Campus Grounds.

Community Awards were also given to Amman Valley Trotting Club, Cilybebyll Community Growers, Craig Gwladus Country Park, The Friends and Neighbours Centre, Gardd y Pobl, Sandfields Community Garden, Cwmafan Community Orchard, Glantawe Riverside Park, Vivian Park Nature Garden, and The Lane Community Garden.

A Neath Port Talbot Council spokesperson said: “These awards signify parks and community green spaces which have met very high standards and they represent a reward for outstanding environmental and gardening efforts and the maintenance of excellent visitor facilities. These are awards are due to a great team effort from our dedicated staff and from many hard working, much appreciated volunteers from our local communities.”

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Green flags fly high above Neath Port Talbot parks
Local parks and gardens recognised for excellence in environmental standards and visitor facilities.

Prestigious Green Flags flying in Swansea parks
Six of Swansea’s main parks awarded Green Flag status for their contribution to wellbeing and biodiversity.

Margam Country Park named one of the best in the UK
Public vote places Margam among the top ten parks and green spaces nationwide.

Cadle Heath Local Nature Reserve receives first Green Flag award
Volunteers praised for their commitment to preserving one of Swansea’s hidden rural gems.

Owen Derbyshire, Chief Executive of Keep Wales Tidy, said: “We’re thrilled that green spaces managed by Swansea Council and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council have once again achieved the prestigious Green Flag status — a true testament to the dedication and hard work of the many staff and volunteers who care for them.”

The Green Flag Award is delivered in Wales by Keep Wales Tidy and supported by Welsh Government. Sites are judged against eight strict criteria, including biodiversity, cleanliness, environmental management and community involvement.

Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies, who holds responsibility for Climate Change, said: “I am very proud that Wales continues to lead the world in community-awarded green flag sites. Our local green spaces play a vital role in connecting us to nature, supporting biodiversity and providing opportunities for healthy recreation.”

A full list of Green Flag and Green Flag Community Award winners for 2025/26 can be found on the Keep Wales Tidy website.

#AmmanValleyTrottingClub #BrynmillPark #CilybebyllCommunityGrowers #ClyneGardens #CoedGwilymPark #CoedbachPark #CraigGwladusCountryPark #CwmafanCommunityOrchard #CwmdonkinPark #GarddYPobl #GlantaweRiversidePark #GnollEstateCountryPark #GreenFlag #HuwIrrancaDaviesMS #KeepWalesTidy #MargamCountryPark #MayhillWashingLakeCommunityFoodGarden #Neath #NeathPortTalbot #NeathPortTalbotCouncil #ParcLlewelyn #Parks #PenllergareValleyWoods #PontlliwPark #PortTalbot #SandfieldsCommunityGarden #SingletonBotanicalGardens #Swansea #SwanseaCanal #SwanseaCommunityFarm #SwanseaCouncil #TalbotMemorialPark #TheFriendsAndNeighboursCentre #TheLaneCommunityGarden #VictoriaGardens #VictoriaPark #VivianParkNatureGarden

Two UK National Awards given to a book on old industries & canals of the Swansea Area

A recent book on the Swansea Canal, its internationally significant early railways and the role they played in developing the global industries of Swansea and the Swansea valley has been recognised by being given two prestigious UK national awards. 

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (UK) and the Swansea Canal Society have published Arteries of Sustainable Industry: The Swansea Canal and its Early Railways by Stephen Hughes, former Secretary-general of the international industrial archaeology group TICCIH. This is an archaeological and historical study of the Swansea region: one of the earliest intensive industrial landscapes in the modern world. At its centre was athe Swansea Canal and its public railway system authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1794. 

This integrated transport system enabled the development of the world centre of a series of international industries – copper, tinplate, iron, coal and early railway development. Some of the first public railways were planned for early locomotives, engineers involved built tunnels from the 1760s and iron railway bridges from the 1780s. As noted by the great canal historian Charles Hadfield it was at Gwauncaegurwen, on the western fringes of the Swansea Valley, that the first underground mining canal was tunnelled in 1757. In 1774 a mile long underground canal was driven into the hillside under what is now Morriston by the Lockwood, Morris & Co. Forest Copperworks at Swansea.

The canal engineer James Cockshutt reintroduced Roman techniques of waterproofing waterways. Cockshutt was the former managing director of what was developing into the largest ironworks in the world at Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil. 

Joshua Gilpin, an American industrial reporter or ‘spy’ reported on meeting the Swansea Canal engineers at Swansea in 1796 who explained how they were using hydraulic (Aberthaw) lime rather than cumbersome clay to waterproof the aqueducts, wharves and locks of the new waterway. This was 5 years before Thomas Telford  completed and claimed his use of hydraulic lime to waterproof the sides of the Chirk Aqueduct was the first use of this material for that purpose.

The international background of a multipurpose waterway unique in Britain is explored. It was unique in the extent that it provided a water-power resource attracting new industry that also used the water for transport and processing. The local gifted engineer, George Martin, originally from Whitehaven saw an opportunity. In 1810 he built a large cornmill on the canal banks (at Trebannws) to use the waste canal water flowing into the River Tawe above the intake of the two large coppermill complexes on the river. During the construction of the Swansea Canal the intended top two locks of the canal were never built but the large head feeder to the canal from the River Tawe was constructed at its earlier intended high level. In 1824 this available water resource prompted the construction of the first ironworks (Aber-craf) to attempt to smelt iron with hard anthracite coal rather than softer bituminous coal as previously used.

Continued experiments at nearby Ynyscedwyn Ironworks in 1837 were successful in applying hot blast to the anthracite iron process using blast water-wheel powered blast, partly using waste-water from the canal conveyed along a navigable canal branch. This breakthrough had profound implications for the growth of the anthracite-fuelled iron industry both in the UK and the USA. In the Swansea Valley it led to the construction of a single line of 11 blast-furnaces built into the side of the Swansea Canal at Ystalyfera, possibly the largest single line of such structures at the time. 

Two of the earliest tinplate works (Pheasant Bush & Primrose), established in 1839 and 1844, by two brothers at what became the world centre of the industry also used the by-wash or bypass waters of two sets of twin locks.

The Swansea-based Cambrian newspaper was the first to publish the successful run of the Penydarren-built Trevithick locomotive in 1804. In the same newspaper the engineer/entrepreneur Edward Martin announced that because of the successful run of the locomotive the seven miles Oystermouth Canal scheme around Swansea Bay was to be changed to a railway construction. This was the first railway to be designed for steam locomotive operation. The Oystermouth Railway Act specially allowed for the use of locomotives rather than horses but Trevithick chose to concentrate on other schemes rather than his proposed lighter locomotive that could have run on the Oystermouth line’s brittle cast-iron plateway track.

On opening the Oystermouth Canal was a commercial failure. One of the redundant limestone wagons was adapted to run the world’s first timetabled public railway passenger service. Timber-framed river ferry buildings at Swansea formed the first railway station to be established internationally.

The third independent railway to be built in the lower Swansea Valley was the three mile long Scott’s Coal Pit Railway engineered by Roger Hopkins. It was the first new line to be run using a steam locomotive from its completion in 1818. Its railway line to the Swansea Canal over the Beaufort Bridge Viaduct was a public railway designed to use an early Stephenson locomotive, one of the first two to be operated outside the Newcastle Coalfield. George Stephenson and Nicholas Wood were both present at the opening.

The international development of canal & early railway use is explored in detail in two of the four chapters. The book can be purchased for online at www.ebay.com & www.swanseacanalsociety.com/swansea-canal-book-sales and the 82 reconstructions painted by the author for the book can be seen at www.Etsy.com/shop/BuildingsofWalesArt and www.canaljunction.com .

#books #Swansea #SwanseaCanal #SwanseaValley

More than 800 horseshoes have been used to create a life-size sculpture of a horse, which now stands proudly along a section of the Swansea Canal in the community of Clydach.

Horses were used to tow barges along canals throughout the UK for hundreds of years and as late as the 1960s.

The incredible piece of art is the work of sculpture Ollie Holman, who was commissioned by Swansea Council to create the piece.

The latest artwork to be unveiled in Swansea is part of the Welsh Government Active Travel Placemaking programme, which aims to add interesting, historic references to the past, along sections of previously completed active travel walking and cycling routes.

The Council previously completed a 1.5km-long section of walking and cycling route along the canal towpath in Clydach and families have been enjoying the upgraded path since its completion in 2022.

Andrew Stevens, the council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Infrastructure said: “Whilst Clydach has seen changes over the years, the canal has remained a constant feature, linking both industry and the community. We’ve recently completed work to upgrade the towpath along the canal, providing excellent walking and cycling facilities. The new sculpture will hopefully further enhance the experience for path users.

“New walking and cycling routes are continuing to be developed throughout Swansea, giving residents and visitors an opportunity to travel in a sustainable and healthy way. 

“Whilst it is important to continue developing new infrastructure for walking and cycling, it is also important to celebrate the past and create points of interest along these routes for the public to enjoy.”

Artist Ollie Holman said: “I’ve been working with metal from a young age, and over the years, I’ve created many pieces. But this one holds special meaning for me.  

“As a boy, I spent countless hours along the waterways, always finding peace and inspiration in their calm. To now have one of my works standing here, for others to enjoy, fills me with joy.”

The newly installed sculpture is located along the canal, adjacent to the Men’s Shed

Ollie added: “I wanted the sculpture to convey the history of the area in an inspiring way. I like to create intrigue with my work, in the hope that people will look closer to investigate and wonder about why it’s there and what it invokes.”

(Lead image: Swansea Council)

https://swanseabaynews.com/2024/10/04/life-size-horse-sculpture-installed-along-swansea-canal/

#Art #Clydach #featured #sculpture #Swansea #SwanseaCanal #SwanseaCouncil

📍: Lock 3 (Aka Lock 28)
ℹ️: wiered lock
🗺: https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=51.7080693019326&mlon=-3.86566358248292#map=17/51.7080693019326/-3.86566358248292
📸: Photo by Clint__Budd on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/58827557@N06/33779796420

#canal #river #narrowboat #barge #gongoozler #wales #uk #flickr #117picturesin2017 #locks #trebanos #swanseacanal