South Wales has long been famous for its coalfields but there was more to its rapid industrialisation than coal. It became a powerhouse of manufacturing in the 19th century and its busy factories were not only a magnet for migrants from rural Wales but also for some from England. While coal flourished in the Rhondda Valley, steel works were set up at Cardiff, docks were built in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, and Wales became the world’s leading slate producer. Tiles, bricks, tin plating and pottery also became important. No wonder Wales was called the first industrial nation on earth.

The drift from rural to industrial work was hardly surprising. Conditions in the countryside sparked the so called ‘Rebecca riots’ in South Wales including Swansea 1839-1843. They began as protests against road tolls, and resentment against a tithe paid to the established church when the usual place of worship was the chapel. During the riots, men dressed as women attacked the tollgates, calling themselves ‘Rebecca and her daughters’ after the Biblical Rebecca.

Described by Dylan Thomas as an “an ugly, lovely town”, Swansea boomed in the 18th and 19th centuries, with lead, zinc, copper and pottery industries. Copper was so significant that Swansea earned the nickname ‘Copperopolis’. Using local coal to smelt the copper, most of Britain’s copper smelting took place near the city, which also became a centre for the brass industry with pots, pans and other vessels being made here. Copper-plating of ships, the use of copper fire-boxes in the railways and a demand for electrical wire led to more growth. The ore was originally British but later imported from Latin America and elsewhere. In the second half of the 19th century Swansea had an enormous steel works at Landore and spelter works (zinc) at Llansamlett. Its pottery, including Swansea China and Dillwyn’s Etruscan Ware, became famous.

The manufacturers were crucial to the community and built houses and churches for workers, including Welsh-language chapels. Charitable institutions also appeared: a dispensary for the working classes, a sailors’ home, a home for orphan girls, one institute for the deaf and dumb, and another for the blind.

Copper works
Workers, however, were poorly paid, and in 1843 Swansea’s copper workers went on strike after a wage cut. Living conditions for the lower classes were poor and drinking water often unclean. There were outbreaks of cholera and in 1865 of yellow fever spread by mosquitoes brought over with Cuban copper. The factory owners of course lived in comfortable estates and there were assembly rooms where they could dance and play cards, but both workers and owners enjoyed the horse races at Manselton in Swansea, then one of Britain’s top racecourses. In its day Swansea’s Hafod Works was the biggest copper works in the world, but copper smelting ended here the in the 1920s.

The railways come
In 1839 the railways arrived in Pontar-ddulais with a line to transport coal from the Amman Valley to Llanelli, and in 1866 another line connected with Swansea. Six tinplate works were established here from 1872 to 1910 and their tall chimneys dominated much of the landscape. Workers moved here from elsewhere in Wales, England and Italy, with products exported to the USA, Russia and Europe.

Jobs in the tin-plate industry were skilful and arduous, involving the coating of sheets of iron or steel with tin. The furnaceman placed the bars into a furnace and then cooled them in water. A rollerman fed the bars into rollers. A behinder stood behind the rollers and caught the bar and passed it over the top. After the bar had been reheated and rolled a doubler would press the metal into a moulded plate. The plate would be cut to order by a shearer. Other related occupations were the tinman or tinsmith, someone who worked with tin to produce items such as cutlery, and the pickler who ‘pickled’ the iron in acid before it was plated. When the plates were still rough they were cold rolled, another process with specialised workers. The factories also employed foremen (sometimes called greavers), sorters, and coachmen. The metal industries also gave work to metallurgical chemists and other technical specialists.

Some in the Swansea area became railway workers, many with a view to ultimately obtaining the much sought-after job as an engine driver. The lucky ones could spend over 20 years working their way up. The most common job was railway labourer followed by plate layer. Others were fireman or stoker, engine cleaner, clerk, guard and railway carter, as horse-drawn carts carried supplies to and from the railway.