Tag: coal-mining

Investigating Cilfái Landscape: The Geological Memoir

When investigating the history of a landscape, one of the first things worth looking at is the underlying rocks that make up the land. In Wales, this is often the question, ‘Is there coal here?’ In Swansea, the answer is usually ‘yes!’

We can usually get a map showing us the geology of the land. In Swansea, we have the famous Sheet 247 to guide us. As a young student of Geology, my old Dynevor Geology teacher John Rees always told me to ‘get the Memoir’. It was sage advice, and referring to the Memoir is one of the most essential tools in a researcher’s toolkit. Even today, when I read my copy of the Memoir, it comes out in John Rees’ voice and tone in my head—the legacy of an excellent teacher.

The Memoir is the written guide that accompanies every British Geology map. Most were published in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Whereas the map represents what is under the ground, the Memoir describes in detail all the features and rock types. Swansea’s Memoir was published in 1907 and is a priceless record of years of fieldwork and investigation by a team of accomplished geologists working throughout the 1890s (Strahan 1907). The original work of the Memoir began in the 1830s on Cilfái when pioneer Geologist William Logan taught himself geology by exploring the mines of Cilfái Hill.

The Memoir is a historical record in itself now, as almost all the landscape described has disappeared under housing and tarmac. The Memoir is vital to understanding the geology of Cilfái, and I refer to it many times in Chapter Two of Cilfái: Historical Geography.

Strahan, Aubrey. 1907. The Geology of the South Wales Coal-Field. Part VIII, The Country around Swansea: Being an Account of the Region Comprised in Sheet 247 of the Map, Memoirs of the Geological Survey. England and Wales, 247 (London: Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office by Wyman and Sons)

Below: The title page of the Swansea Memoir and below that Swansea as shown on the modern edition of Sheet 247. It still credits the original work by William Logan from the 1830s.

The Cilfái coal seams

There is a lot of coal on Cilfái. This is why it was so important for Swansea’s early industrial economy. Almost all of the original coal workings have been buried or submerged under new trees and vegetation that has grown up since 1970. The Cilfái coal seams dip northwards so that what was originally at the surface above White Rock Copper Works dips underground so that they are underground at Morriston. This is why Copper Pit was so deep, it had to dig down through the glacial debris in the valley and a lot of Pennant Sandstone Rock. The pioneer geologist William Logan taught himself Geology by closely examining the coal seams on Cilfái. Almost two hundered years later, I was able to reconstruct his view of Cilfái coal by reading his notebooks. Here’s my original sketch plan based on his notes

The full story is in Cilfái:Historical Geography