The Society is pleased to announce its programme of evening meetings for 2025-2026.
The first meeting is on Wednesday 17 September in our usual venue, Sketty Community Church at Tycoch.
The full programme may be browsed at our Programme of Meetings page. A warm welcome is extended to anyone and everyone who wishes to join us.
Join Paul Reynolds for a talk on his recent book on the Glyncorrwg Mineral Railway, Was it Parson’s Folly?, at Aberdulais National Trust.
Event details:
Date and time: Friday 22nd November 2024, 11am-12pm.
Location: Aberdulais National Trust site
Places can be booked for free via the National Trust website, subject to availability. Further information about the event can be found on the booking page.
Copies of the book will be available to buy and to be signed by the author at the event.
For those who are unable to attend the National Trust talk, copies of the book may also be purchased at SWWIAS meetings, or by post. Further information about purchasing a copy is at the end of this news post.
About the book:
The Glyncorrwg Mineral Railway was built between 1839 and 1841 to carry coal to the Neath Canal from newly developed mines in the hills of West Glamorgan. But by 1852 the mines had all been closed and the railway abandoned and the track lifted.
Despite its short life the course of the railway can still be traced in a series of heavily engineered inclines, cuttings and embankments which stretch over a length of six miles. Perhaps the most spectacular of all these features is a deep cutting through a rocky outcrop at the very summit of the line. This feature soon acquired the name of ‘Parsons’ Folly’ deriving from the name of Robert Parsons, one of the promoters of the colliery and the railway.
But was Parsons’ scheme really a folly? He and his partner, Charles Strange, sank a lot of money into the scheme and lost it all, but was that due to a defective business plan and their lack of experience, or were they the victims of external circumstances that were largely beyond their control?
This book describes the history of the railway and the colliery and suggests that their scheme was basically sound. It puts forward solutions to questions that have long puzzled observers including the source of the funds and the reasons that led Parsons and Strange to build such a heavily engineered switchback of a railway in preference to a much easier route that would appear to have been the obvious solution.
Purchase information:
Copies of the book may be purchased in person at SWWIAS meetings, priced at £5.99 each.
To purchase a copy of the book by post, please contact Paul Reynolds by email at paulreynolds44@gmail.com or by phone on 01792 205888. Copies purchased by post are priced at £5.99 plus £2.10 postage and packaging.
Mr Peter Russell, who was to have given a presentation entitled The John Player story on Wednesday 16th October, is unavailable on that date. At short notice, we have arranged a replacement:
The Unkindest Cuts of All? Looking back at the ‘Beeching’ cuts of 13th June 1964.
This will be presented by SWWIAS’s chairman, Nigel Wassell, and will examine the railway closures that took place in South Wales at the beginning of the summer timetable that year.
We apologise to those who were particularly looking forward to Peter Russell’s talk and we hope to reschedule this in next year’s programme. In the meantime, all are welcome at our revised October meeting at the Sketty Community Church hall in Tycoch, for what will be an interesting and somewhat nostalgic presentation.
The Society is pleased to present its programme of evening meetings for 2024-2025.
The first meeting is on Wednesday 18 September in our usual venue, Sketty Community Church at Tycoch.
This year, our series of meetings will cover subjects from the local area and from further afield, and will start somewhat topically with September’s talk by Prof Louise Miskell on Britain’s steel-making regions.
The full programme may be browsed at our Programme of Meetings page. A warm welcome is extended to anyone and everyone who wishes to join us.
The Society is pleased to present its programme of indoor, evening meetings for 2023-2024.
The first meeting is on Wednesday 20 September in what is now our usual venue, Sketty Community Church at Tycoch. You’ll also notice that there won’t be a meeting during the depths of the winter in December and January but that we’ve extended the season into May.
The new programme may be browsed at our Programme of Meetings page.
We hope that we have arranged an interesting and varied programme. Everyone, as usual, is more than welcome.
Firstly, apologies that the publication of this post is a little later than intended, largely due to the horrible flu that’s been doing the rounds this winter and which comprehensively got the SWWIAS web editor. Nevertheless, a few gallons of lemsip later, the Society is pleased to confirm that the current programme of meetings is to continue into 2023.
A programme covering January to April 2023 has been scheduled, following on from the meetings held in Autumn 2022. Full details of the expanded programme can be perused at our Programme of Meetings page. Please note that meetings continue to be held on the amended day of the third Wednesday of each month.
In other news from the past season, with matters returning to normal, the Swansea Local History Book Fair made a welcome return at Swansea Museum on 29th October 2022. It was most pleasant to meet with all the other groups and individuals who had tables at the event, which had last been held in 2019. The SWWIAS table is seen below, with chairman, Nigel Wassell, and treasurer, Paul Reynolds, ready to make a quick sale.
The South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society has great pleasure in announcing that its programme of monthly meetings will recommence in September 2022.
After the enforced Covid-19 break, the Society has arranged a short programme for the remainder of this year:
21 September 2022: Nigel Wassell will present a talk, The last days of steam in South West Wales
19 October 2022: Paul Reynolds will speak on Fire Engines: The first colliery pumping engines in Swansea
16 November 2022: Professor Louise Miskell will speak on Aspects of Swansea copper industry
The keen eyed will have noticed that the meetings day has changed from the third Tuesday in the month to the third Wednesday, due to hall availability. The venue has also changed due to the closure of Bethel Chapel.
Please note that the evening meetings will now be held at Sketty Community Church Hall, 36 Carnglas Road, Sketty, Swansea SA2 9BP (opposite Tycoch Post Office). They each commence at 7.30pm and are of approximately one-and-a-half hours duration. Carnglas Road is one-way from Tycoch Square to its junction with Gower Road. Sketty Community Church is near Tycoch Square.
The below map shows the location of Sketty Community Church Hall. Off-road parking is available in front of the church hall.
Please do try to attend these three events. Covid social distancing will still be observed (but masks not compulsory). We look forward to seeing you again!
What a year it has been. I hope this message finds all members and readers safe and well as we approach the end of this year and head into 2021. Things have certainly been quieter than usual this year in terms of SWWIAS activities, due to the effect of the ongoing pandemic and lockdowns on our programme of meetings since March this year, and sadly the suspension of our meetings will continue until what would have been the end of our current season in April 2021.
We hope to be able to resume our programme and welcome members back to our meetings for our next season commencing September 2021, should it be possible to do so, depending on how events unfold over the coming months. We will keep our website updated with news of our next programme as and when details become known. In the meantime, we will periodically be adding further papers from past Bulletins to the Articles page for the enjoyment of readers while other Society activities remain on hold. In the absence of any other Society news to report at the moment, it just remains to wish all members and readers a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, a happy holiday period to all, and a safe and happy New Year.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, this month’s meeting scheduled for 21st April 2020 has regrettably been cancelled. As this would have been the final meeting of the 2019-2020 programme, the society wishes all members and readers well until we are able to reconvene. In the interim, the website will continue to be updated with any news and announcements as they arise.
In light of the current guidance on Covid-19/coronavirus, the AGM scheduled for tomorrow, 17th March 2020, has been cancelled. Apologies to those who were planning to attend.
A decision regarding the meeting scheduled for 21st April will be made in due course according to the development of the situation, and we will provide updates to members and via this website when a decision has been made.
We hope that our members, readers and their families and loved ones are as safe and well as can be in these difficult times.
South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society