Environment – Nigel Robins

Swansea History and Our Geoheritage

Geoheritage is now becoming a broader term for our geographical and geological features that have significant scientific, educational, cultural, or aesthetic value. Swansea has an important place in the history of geological exploration and the development of the Welsh coal industry.

People who have participated in my many guided walks on Kilvey will already be aware of the value of the Kilvey Geoheritage sites and the contribution they make to the Biodiversity and Geodiversity of Swansea.

Globally, October is a month of celebrating and recognising the importance of the rocks and landscape underneath our feet. Swansea has more than most towns to be mindful of, as it is built on over a thousand years of coal mining history.

Geoheritage is now becoming a broader term for our geographical and geological features that have significant scientific, educational, cultural, or aesthetic value. Swansea has an important place in the history of geological exploration and the development of the Welsh coal industry.

Above: Foxhole Coal Staithes in the 1840s.

Following on from my recent book on Foxhole and the history of Swansea Coal, I’ll be giving a few guided walks and talks on broader aspects of Swansea’s incredible Geoheritage and Geodiversity.

On 4 October, I’ll be talking about the history of Swansea coal and the special place Foxhole on Kilvey has in the history of Welsh coal mining. My talk will be at Swansea Museum as part of the RISW and the Historical Association’s History Day 2025. I’ll also have copies of the Foxhole history book at a discounted price.

On 6 October, as part of UNESCO’s # InternationalGeodiversityDay, I’ll be leading a walk around the geological features of Kilvey Hill and explaining the unique place in Swansea’s history that Kilvey holds. The geological features of Kilvey have long been regarded as obscured or destroyed, but many have survived against all odds. Come with me and walk the land that was explored by Geology’s most famous local coal pioneers, William Logan and Henry De la Beche. Tickets will be available shortly. I’ll advertise them via Facebook and Eventbrite.

On 8 October, I’ll be at the Friends of Penllergare monthly meeting at Llewellyn Hall in Penllergaer. I’ll be talking about ‘Penllergare, Henry De la Beche, and early Geology in Swansea’. Lewis Weston Dillwyn was often at the centre of scientific and cultural events in Swansea. He was particularly prominent in the recognition of Swansea as a centre of research in the emerging science of Geology and the first understanding of the South Wales coalfields.

Above: Henry De la Beche. Pioneer geologist.

I’ll be doing a few more walks and talks throughout the month, and I’ll post here to let people know. If you want to know more contact mew for details.

I’ll also have my bookshop of all my current books in print at the History and Heritage Fair at the National Waterfront Museum on 27 September 2025.

A new orchard survey for Swansea and Gower

I’m just about to begin a data refresh of our local traditional orchard database. My original work was in 2012 as a contribution to the England and Wales survey that collected a massive amount of data about surviving orchards. For ~Swansea and Gower, that original data is now outdated and in need of revision. This is particularly significant for the Gower National Landscape (formerly the AONB).

Above: A culinary apple crop from a tree that is over a century old in Swansea, August 2025.

Back in 2012, it was a hot summer, and I remember walking North Gower roads and lanes, ground-truthing previously identified potential survivals from satellite photos. It will be interesting to see what has changed. Originally, the oldest trees I saw in my surveys were culinary or cooking varieties, as in previous centuries, most apples were cooked in various forms in cakes, puddings, pies, pasties, and even soups. I saw dessert varieties start to appear as transport links to bigger markets became easier. The orchards of Northern Gower seem to have their origins in the arrival of the railway, allowing trouble-free transport to Llanelli and Swansea.

Although some academics have suggested that it is very rare to see apple trees older than a hundred years, I felt this may need correction, as I have seen some trees that, because of their location and size, are older than assumed. Much of Glamorgan’s apple industry was irreversibly damaged by massive imports of cheap Canadian apples via Cardiff and Swansea in the 1920s. The industry never recovered. In more recent decades, I see younger trees of dessert apples as people want to plant something easily consumed, and the recipes and practices of handling cooking apples have fallen out of fashion.

Equally, a new generation of consumers equate apples to cider, and I’d expect to see some ambitious investment in recently planted trees for juicing and cider. However, the data I collect will confirm the picture.

Above: Gower orchards from the 2012 data. This is mixed with historical house data. There may possibly be a loose correlation between the two, although much altered by subsequent property development. Something to investigate!

Geodiversity, Biodiversity and human health and wellbeing

In researching the geology of Kilvey Hill, several issues quickly come to light.

The first is how little geology is actually being taught or even followed as a hobby any more. This is quite remarkable given the massive part Swansea’s geology has played in the history of the town. Swansea’s underlying coal resources were a massive factor in the development and growth of the eighteenth-century town. Without coal, there would have been no copper smelting, and Swansea would probably have remained the ‘Brighton of Wales’ (Boorman 1986). All the more remarkable when you consider that geology was an immensely popular subject for study in Swansea from the 1830s, and a century later, a large part of the University College of Swansea (Owen 1973; 1974). The geology of Kilvey became a training ground for William Logan when he taught himself about Swansea coal and rocks in the 1830s. Some of this will be a central theme in my guided walks for UNESCO Geodiversity Day in October.

The rocks of Kilvey contain a mass of plant and animal traces from the past. Understanding these past ecosystems and biodiversity allowed us to understand and exploit the coal reserves of under Swansea and the wider South Wales Coalfield. These rocks overlie the Tormynydd Coal Vein on the seaward side of the hill above Port Tennant.

Although people are now fully aware of the importance of biodiversity to our lives, less is appreciated about the non-living side of the equation — the Geodiversity of the underlying rocks and soils. Geodiversity is the foundation of the ecological life on the hill. The underlying soils, waste tips, streams, and geological features all influence the recovery of life after the cataclysmic pollution that killed everything on the hill in the nineteenth century.

The links between Geodiversity, Biodiversity, and Climate. Human activity has fundamentally altered the relationship between all three elements. (from an original in Tukiainen et al. 2023).

Biodiversity, Geodiversity and Climate are all interlinked to give us the environment we live within, or are responsible for (Tukiainen, Toivanen, and Maliniemi 2023). Kilvey’s ecosystem was destroyed by industry, coal mines destroyed the water table, and the recovery process has been long and uncertain, but in some places spectacular. It remains a tragedy that some of the recovered green areas of the hill will shortly be destroyed again by the local Council.

Boorman, David. 1986. The Brighton of Wales: Swansea as a Fashionable Seaside Resort, c.1780-1830 (Swansea Little Theatre Company)

Owen, T.R. 1973. Geology Explained in South Wales (David & Charles)

—— (ed.). 1974. The Upper Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales (University of Wales Press)

Tukiainen, Helena, Maija Toivanen, and Tuija Maliniemi. 2023. ‘Geodiversity and Biodiversity’, in Visages of Geodiversity and Geoheritage, Special Publications, 530 (Geological Society of London), pp. 31–47

The Reptile Mitigation begins

Tuesday, 29 July 2025, saw the arrival of contractors on the Hill to begin implementation of the Reptile Mitigation Strategy. The firm brought some mowing equipment, heras fencing and robotic sentries to the summit. The Reptile Mitigation Strategy is comprehensive, although I don’t accept the supporting survey information on the presence/absence of reptiles in the area. I think the original reptile survey was hastily completed (if it actually happened at all).

The job is big and probably lucrative for someone. The protocol as described in the Mitigation Strategy is adequate for the site, and captured reptiles are to be released on the hill in safer areas.

Above: My survey of the cleared areas on Saturday, 2 August 2025. They are pretty big areas. The red circles are the first three refugia to be built on the verges of the construction site.

Geodiversity and Cilfái

The theme for this year’s International Geodiversity Day, to be held on Monday 6th October 2025, will be ‘One Earth, Many Stories’. International Geodiversity Day was proclaimed by UNESCO in 2021, following a grassroots campaign by geoscience organisations around the world. Geodiversity is all around us, and includes the parts of nature that aren’t alive, like minerals, fossils, soils, and landscapes.

Geodiversity Day is a worldwide celebration to bring people together in promoting the many aspects of geodiversity, and its importance to society. This year’s theme is a chance for people to connect with geodiversity. Every landscape, every stone, and every fossil has a story to tell. Our planet is a record of history that dates back more than 4 billion years; one that can teach us about the origins of our natural environment and where we, as animals, came from.

As people, communities, and governments implement the Sustainable Development Goals, geodiversity provides a record of earth history that can help us prepare and respond to threats such as climate change. ‘One Earth, Many Stories’ encourages all of us to discover examples of geodiversity; in our landscape, in museums, in historic buildings; and delve deeper into the multitude of stories contained within planet Earth. It is hoped that geoscience groups around the world will organise events to make the stories of their local geodiversity more widely known.

As part of International Geodiversity Day, I’ll be leading a walk around the geological and historical treasures of Kilvey in Swansea. Kilvey played a central role in the pioneering work to understand the South Wales coalfield. The hill was the training ground of one of Geology’s most notable pioneers, William Logan, who was the first to map the Swansea coal veins and understand the arrangements of the coal beds and how they related to the surrounding Pennant Sandstone.

The hill has an incredible set of survivals from the early coal mining historry of Wales. The original coal face that Logan analysed and explored still survives, along with several medieval coal adits. There are also several fascinating sandstone rock exposures rich in plant remains, which gave the early coal prospectors of two thousand years ago the first clues that coal was present in these rocks.

Coal mining on Kilvey is a 1500-year-old industry and central to the history of Swansea.

Above: An early geology map of Swansea with ‘Kilvay’ in the middle covered in coal mines.

Above: A drawing of coal showing the intricate plant structures that can survive in our local bituminous coal. This drawing is from the original Memoir of Henry De la Beche (1841).

If you are interested in the history of Swansea coal, take a look at my recent bnook on the coal history of Foxhole on Kilvey

Biodiversity and Bomb Craters

The Kilvey bombed landscape is unique in Wales, although bombs were dropped across the Welsh ports between 1940 and 1943, ther survival of any traces is rare. Several shrapnel-scarred buildings remain in Swansea, and a similar situation exists in other European towns and cities. What is unique in Wales is the survival of a landscape with craters that has been allowed to recover or develop naturally.

A look at the biodiversity contribution of the World War Two bomb craters on Cilfái.

I’ll be leading a couple of walks up the top of the hill soon. This year, I’m intent on looking at biodiversity and heritage. The bomb-damaged landscape of Kilvey Hill is now 84 years old, and a lot of it has survived or avoided being bulldozed, as often happens. Ironically, the heritage landscape of the Hill may soon be destroyed by Swansea Council as part of their Skyline tourism obsession.

The Kilvey bombed landscape is unique in Wales, although bombs were dropped across the Welsh ports between 1940 and 1943, the survival of any traces is rare. Several shrapnel-scarred buildings remain in Swansea, and a similar situation exists in other European towns and cities. What is unique in Wales is the survival of a landscape with craters that has been allowed to recover or develop naturally.

Many of you will know of my interest in bombsite botany via my lectures and articles, and one of the chapters in my book on the Three-Nights’ Blitz. Although formed in horrible acts of violence, the Kilvey bomb craters have been transformed by nature into essential wildlife refugia. Some hold small ponds, others are havens of warmer temperatures and protection from the wind, or even fire. The combustion of chemical explosives would have made the craters poisonous after their creation, and of course, the land is peppered with bomb fragments, which have become part of the archaeology of the hill. Nearly a century later, the craters have taken on a new role as centres of plant and wildlife.

I’ll explore this incredible mix of heritage and ecology on a couple of walks. I’ll advertise via Eventbrite, and I’ll let you know here as well.

Above: One of the Kilvey bomb craters with a small mire. June 2025.

A photo-generated 3D model of one of the Kilvey bomb craters, March 2025.

The Foxhole Coal Staithes, Swansea

The Foxhole River Staithes are a set of enigmatic structures on the banks of the River Tawe near the remains of the White Rick Copper Works. Although now hidden by trees and slowly deteriorating, they were once the centre of the incredible coal industry that dominated Kilvey and Foxhole in Swansea. This book describes the history of coal in early Swansea and explains the significance of the last remaining structures of the coal industry of early Swansea before the arrival of copper smelting in the 1730s

I completed my cheap photography project last month, and added it to my early Swansea coal history book.

The history of Swansea coal is being lost amongst all the noise and gravy train funding for the Hafod/Morfa Copperopolis story. My work on Swansea coal is meant to redress some of that imbalance and cast new light on a part of the Lower Swansea Valley that isn’t considered important.

The photogrammetry was a great success, completed for a few hundred pounds rather than the thousands claimed by local firms. The constraints were to use second-hand cameras and computers, and to provide imagery of a quality and level of detail that would prove useful. No drones were used as we found that they were adding a layer of costs and complexity that was distorting the value of what should be an extremely cheap and quick process.

After discussing the protocols with a couple of BIM colleagues, I looked at the protocols described in this 2011 paper (listed below). Despite being a little older than the average BIM work these days, the workflows were good, easily replicated, and I could learn how to use simpler, older cameras for the imagery.

There was a series of trials of various landscape and heritage features, ranging from riverside bollards, dock walls, and larger landscape features such as bomb craters and threatened landscapes. The larger subjects needed drone input, and so they were discarded, although some beneficial results were obtained for researching biodiversity and small-scale features which I’ll follow up in a later project.

The study subjects were the Foxhole River Staithes, which were of good size (typically about 8m wide, 3m high) and interesting construction. The photographic survey took just over three days, with about four thousand images collected. Office processing of the imagery took about three days.

Above: An ‘aerial’ view of one of the Staithe Structures reconstituted from ground photogrammetry, no drones, merely ground camera work.

Above: Another view of Foxhole Structure B. A series of stone retaining walls that originally had timber decking, allowing the loading of coal into various-sized river vessels. Built in the early eighteenth century, probably before extensive copper smelting had begun.

Above: Some of the mines and coal veins of early Swansea, discussed in the book.

The photogrammetry was included in a book giving a brief history of coal in Swansea and the significance of the Foxhole area in pre-industrial Swansea.

Fai, Stephen & Graham, Katie & Duckworth, Todd & Wood, Nevil & Attar, Ramtin. (2011). Building Information Modeling and Heritage Documentation.

“The Foxhole River Staithes are a set of enigmatic structures on the banks of the River Tawe near the remains of the White Rick Copper Works. Although now hidden by trees and slowly deteriorating, they were once the centre of the incredible coal industry that dominated Kilvey and Foxhole in Swansea. This book describes the history of coal in early Swansea and explains the significance of the last remaining structures of the coal industry of early Swansea before the arrival of copper smelting in the 1730s. The story of the coal mines of Swansea, the coal export trade and the ships that visited eighteenth-century Swansea are all described. The book also includes the results of photogrammetric surveys of the surviving structures to give the story of the true significance of the Foxhole Staithes and their place in Welsh history.”

Foxhole River Staithes and Swansea Coal 1300-1840https://www.lulu.com/shop/nigel-a-robins/foxhole-river-staithes-and-swansea-coal-1300-1840/paperback/product-656z44z.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Details

Publication Date Apr 19, 2025

Language English

ISBN9781739353353

Category History

By (author): Nigel A Robins

Specifications

Pages 104, Binding Type Paperback, Perfect Bound, Interior Color Color

Dimensions US Trade (6 x 9 in / 152 x 229 mm)

More photogrammetric research on small landscape features

The concept of quick and cheap photogrammetry is now proven, and simple work like this can be comparable to expensive archaeological surveys, which cost far more, often a hundred times more than current archaeological firms charge.

As I said earlier, the purpose of this project was a proof of concept on using photogrammetry as cheaply as possible to allow quick and accurate reconnaissance and survey of small features that generally would not be investigated or be too expensive to survey using current high-cost photogrammetry, drone and lidar techniques.

This example is a bomb crater on Kilvey Hill. The crater was most likely created in the January 1941 attack on the town. The crater is from a large calibre bomb (possibly 250kg) that has penetrated some way into the soft, marshy ground and then detonated.

In the 84 years since the detonation, the crater has softened with the crater lip mostly eroded. The crater frequently fills with water and has a different botanical nature to the surrounding grassland. This crater is a local biodiversity hotspot, allowing moisture to be present all year round and providing better protection from excessive temperatures. A large pine in the centre of the crater has died providing a reservoir of dead wood.

Above an extract from an initial 3D model of one of the Kilvey bomb craters, 2025.

Kilvey: Recent storms and Windthrow

Kilvey Hill experiences frequent storms and high winds, which are a major threat to woodlands and any buildings or structures. The risk of wind damage and windthrow is expected to increase with climate change, with more frequent storms, wind speed, winter rainfall, and faster tree growth.

The projected increase in our winter rainfall is likely to increase wind risk, as rooting depth and root anchorage are both reduced in waterlogged soils. An increase in tree growth rate due to warmer temperatures is possible in areas where moisture availability is not limiting, this could increase wind risk with stands reaching a critical height earlier.

The presence of the TV and phone masts on the hill means that we know a lot about the wind speeds and weather on the hill. However, getting hold of the data is sometimes hard as it can be regarded as a ‘secret’. Anybody who walks the hill will know the signs of wind damage and constant high winds, which are now increasingly common around the year, no longer just the winter months.

We can use the table below to assess wind speeds and damage based on the evidence we see after the storm is over. This table is based on expert fieldwork from the US Forest Service and is used all over the world. Look at the damage in the photos here and see where it is on this list…

It doesn’t matter what your viewpoints are on who or what causes climate change. The evidence is out there, and the question is how to interpret it and design for the future. It might, for instance, be an incredibly risky act for Swansea Council to risk millions of pounds (of money they apparently don’t have) on supporting a risky tourism venture on a Welsh coastal hill that is increasingly exposed to dangerous windspeeds and disruptive weather.

Those who walk the hill regularly know of the health and safety responsibility of taking walkers out on Kilvey in deteriorating or unsettled weather. We never take the risk. Would a profit-centred tourist firm be equally responsible? Would you get in cable cars and zip wires in the bad weather? Equally, how many days a year is Kilvey safe for adventure tourism? I’m not sure, but I can be confident that climate change means that the number of days of safe weather is declining as the climate changes.

Storm damage above White Rock works in January 2025.

Above wind and wildfire damage in the ‘Skyline Zone’ 2023.

Kilvey Hill and its Second World War archaeology

In Swansea, as the anniversary of the February 1941 bombing raids approaches, interest in the Blitz always increases.

Kilvey Hill has many bomb craters across its southern part and into the woodlands near Pentrechwyth. Most craters date from September 1940 to February 1941. The German Air Force didn’t aim at Kilvey Hill; it’s just that the bombs that were intended for the docks missed and ended up on the hill. Bomb craters in town were quickly filled in, but craters on the hill were left and still survive today. A few have filled with water and have become biodiversity hotspots.

Above: bomb craters and anti-landing defences on the top of Kilvey Hill as identified by German bomber aircraft in February 1941. The anti-landing trenches are marked with ’11’ and a white line.

Kilvey also has a series of ditches and banks across the top, which were hastily constructed to prevent German soldiers from landing on the Hill in gliders. It was a definite threat, and my reconnaissance research confirms that the Germans had evaluated the usefulness of the Hill as a landing ground if they ever invaded. They survive as a poignant reminder of how real the threat was in 1940. The Council/Skyline development will destroy some of the banks, breaking a remarkable historical link between the darkest days of World War Two and our present day. It is ironic how so much is made of the disappeared Swansea copper industry in Landore is revered, but so much more recent and relevant history is ignored by Swansea Council.

Above: A modern Lidar image of the top of Kilvey Hill showing the anti-landing trenches as they exist today as little square hillocks either side of deep trenches. They would have made landing by glider very dangerous or impossible. The flat part of the hill top was particularly attractive as a landing ground.. Morris Lane runs from the top to the bottom of the image and is seen as a series of earth banks.

Above: The top of Kilvey Hill today. Bomb craters in red, Glider defences in Red.

If you want to know more about all of the archaeological features on Kilvey Hill, they are listed and described in the third Cilfái book available here.

Cilfái: The History and Heritage Features is a 100-page illustrated book of all the historic features on the hill.

If you want to know more about Swansea and World War Two you can read my book on German Intelligence and the bombing of the South Wales Ports 1040-1941.

Or if you want to know more about the Swansea Blitz, you can read Y Tan: A History of Destruction, February 1941.

When it is considered inconvenient, the archaeological history of World War Two is easily and regularly destroyed in Wales.

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