Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
White Rock Copper Works
St. Thomas, Swansea, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Copper Works
- Period
- Post Medieval/Modern
- Date of designation
- 24 October 1995
- Community
- St. Thomas
- Unitary authority
- Swansea
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 51.63523, -3.93288
- SAM number
- GM481
- Cadw record number
- 1485
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUniversity Library, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUniversity Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1608 "(13) Cambriae Typus." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Cadw's description
Summary description and reason for designation
The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The monument consists of a copper works established in 1736, which was one of the most important copper smelting works in the Lower Swansea Valley. This area formed the world centre of non-ferrous smelting for much of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was the third of Swansea's copper works to have been built. Remains include the river wall, the rear revetment wall of the 'Great Workhouse' , former kilns, furnace and flue. The whole site is traversed by Smith's Canal of 1783, one of the earliest in Wales, which passes under the works in a cut and cover tunnel, with underground wharves behind the 'Great Workhouse'.
The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance and illustrate our knowledge and understanding of the development of the copper industry. A copper works may be part of a larger industrial complex and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.
The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.
Nearby in the register
- Dock at former White Rock Copperworks and quay wall to NTransportunder 1 mi
- Former Vivian locomotive shedIndustrialunder 1 mi
- Former Hafod Copperworks river quayIndustrialunder 1 mi
- Hafod Copper Works Musgrave Engine and RollsCopper Worksunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.