THIS was once the Copper capital of the world

Swansea Part 3

This week after a turn of speed I head downtown into my old local High Street with ties of music and some unexpected abandoned buildings. We follow the river Tawe valley
And explore it’s rich industrial history including the site of an old Addis factory where my father worked for a while then dive deep into the story of the huge Copper industry
That really put Swansea on the map. Next come tales of wild rock music nights at a pub which no longer stands followed by stories and memories of the best movie ever to come out of Swansea, Twin Town (except maybe this one haha).

I hope you enjoy this one and maybe even learn a little like I did.

If you fancy buying me a coffee, I’d love a Frappaskinnylattechinoocha thingy, or whatever they have in the pot, link below

https://buymeacoffee.com/jscuzzylondon

#explorer #copper #industry #river #welshhistory #valleys #historicalfacts #admiralnelson #nelson #battleofhastings #twintown #cultclassics #cultfilm #cultclassic #twins #myhome #riverside #welsh #walesadventure

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:59 A bit of Speeed
02:24 Woodfield Street and Music Studios
03:15 Potential Urbex
03:45 The River Tawe
04:41 The Liberty Stadium
05:40 Old Addis Factory
06:15 The Copper Story
08:02 Finding some old Ruins
08:40 View over the Tawe Valley
09:50 Saving us from the French
11.20 Remains of more ruins
13:50 Story of the Cardiff Arms (Whackemout)
14:55 Twin Town stories
17:05 Swansea Castle
18:05 Ending

Music Credit
Soundroll – Bulletproof

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/bulletproof
License code: MHYU5TIHEQ3IEUMR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Town

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/paul-durden-twin-town-died-24946592

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120394/

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/415074/

The Beginning of the Copper Industry

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/ten-most-notorious-swansea-pubs-14987788

https://buymeacoffee.com/jscuzzylondon

https://www.strava.com/activities/11363120347

https://www.instagram.com/scuzzylondon/?hl=am-et

used to be toilets there with glue sniffers in otherwise we’d all be speaking French here is it Crown green he won that battle with the help of the people of Swansea and this Valley that’s probably enough of moriston Park let’s go this exit luckily for us we are going down there this time time for a bit of speed let’s go around round Church [Music] perfect if the Dukes of Hazard were you know they’d be straight over it wouldn’t they wow this is a bolt ramp other stuff how come I’ve never seen this before good on you Dylan you put us on the map business as usual don’t think so there’s a coffin in front of his porch in his house here you go Derek’s music back in the day you wanted to play The Coach House still selling gig tickets that’s what happens when you live in Swansea you get good at Hills [Music] there’s a shop there still a chip shop that’s good to know new old chip shops are still surviving in Wales down the famous pent Port Hill it is I’ve cycled up this so many times it’s quite nice to go down it for a change it’s a bit fresh though you can see where you come from Wales and you ride a bike you do a lot of Hills a lot of hills and one of the steepest Hills in the Hall of Swansea is right here on the right I think we’ll just have a quick look at it I a going to go up it called Pleasant Street I’m going to show you the entrance I’m going to show you the hill but I’m not going up it cuz I’ve just ridden past the top a bit so was kind of no point doesn’t look so bad now I could go up that so if he was a a bike rider wanted to do some training you could just do loops of this all day go up here go across come around Pender hill come back around and go up and do it again over and over if you wanted to but are you not doing that cuz I’m not crazy anymore well one thing I’ve noticed this building on the right here used to be a pub there’s our theme again was never very popular but it was a pub and it’s gone I used to use a snooker Club up there my first cycle Bike Shop was there I’m just waffling on anyway there’s a musical reference behind there but I won’t bother with that one we did record about four or five songs in there once just the other side of this building oh that’s a church isn’t it that is a one one sort of a church capar Tabernacle there’s a church which is also a roundabout so if you wanted a reference say oh you know the round churches we’d say yes let’s go around the Round Church perfect even the church is closed now good god wow what is going on here X’s dream F an he lots of stuff to fall down on your head in there what nice old building hello Earth boys are you watching look at that what do we got here we have got the wonderful the one and only River toi as in Swansea or abata thei look at itely runs right through the city and this River of course used to be tidle probably not up this High I wouldn’t have thought but it used to be a tidal River up to a point don’t know where that point was but I can see some little Rapids and stuff up there anyway hopefully they’ve made a nice little cycle path out of it now so let’s see what we come across riding down the TA nice cycle tracks peace and quiet Greenery oh a bit of a steep Bel that I didn’t expect this is what you [Music] get of course here in front of us we’ve got the Swansea Stadium this very big impressive football and rugby stadium and maybe even Cricket so back when Swansea was in the Premier League I guess they had to improve conditions they would have had some money from the Premier League to improve their status and built it up oh I can see a little bit inside the ground there just about and we going just about see through the Gap there see all those new bill Flats over there actually I think that very spot is where my father used to work if I’ve got it right I’m pretty sure that was where the Addis Factory was and he used to have a little balcony overlooking the river here just down below huh we got the remains of an Old Bridge here who’s going to jump that then eh the Dukes of Hazard you know they’d be straight over it wouldn’t he oh we got us a paddle border coming up as [Music] well he’s not a young block either F people around here see healthy see all the wonderful things you can do here if you live in Swansea so this area of new builds all along here that we can see which replace the factory where my father used to work this is called called The Copper quarter I can’t wait to go up a flipping Hill and cold so they’ve named this area the copper quarter why have they called it the copper quarter well Swan was of course well known in the world eventually as being the copper capital of the world to the point where they called it actually Copperopolis and it’s thought to have started in around 1717 that’s when swansey starting to really expand and grow into this big city that it is today so the Swansea ta Valley which is where we are now has a natural Harbor at the end where the river reaches the sea and also has great accessibility from that point across the sea to North Cornwell and in North Cornwell is where most of the copper or came from so they would bring the copper or across the Swansea where it would be refined and smelted now there’s a reason why they did it that way around they brought the O across from corwell rather than taking the coold from Wales over that direction and why was that the simple reason was it made economic sense because to be able to smelt one ton of copper ore and refine it took about 3 to four ton of coal so you’re not going to Lug 3 to four tons of coal in one direction to smelt one ton of O you’re going to do the other way around and then send it on to the Midlands of England where it would be produced into whatever was readed at one point there were up to nine copper works here in the Swan Valley on the river to just down beside me it was a Safe Harbor at the end for small boats they could bring the ore up the river to the refineries and they could also take away the refined copper when it was finished just spotted something here just want to have a little look down [Music] here let’s get up here oh God wrong gear again push push push push you can do it oh it’s a spiral how about this there we go you can see it this is the remains of one of the copper Works probably one of the last ones but this Valley this would have been full of them nine of them all along this Valley somewhere all different occasions and those chimneys they would have been everywhere you can imagine the industrial era smoke pouring out to those chimneys all up and down this place and apparently the area of Havard the hav which is just across the way there that had about 15,000 people in it and supposedly 10,000 of those people were employed in the copper smelting industry in some shape or form whether it be the boats whether it be smell or anything else and that’s why Swansea became known as the world’s capital of copper and brass production this was in the sort of mid 1800s by this time 1823 mid 18th century when this was at its peak so one of the big claims about the area is a little fact in 1805 there was a battle a battle of Trafalga with Admiral Nelson now Admiral Nelson he obviously won that battle but he didn’t win it alone he won that battle with the help of the people of Swansea and this Valley and how was that well he lined his ships the bottoms of his ships with the purest most refined copper that the Swansea Valley could produce and in doing so he enabled those ships to have much more maneuverability in the water and they say that that maneuverability out on the Seas against the French allowed him to strategically get into better positions and basically win the battle Swansea helped win the Battle of traga there you go otherwise we’d all be speaking French here let’s see if I can get down over that little what looks like a bridge over there without doing myself an injury I think this is doable oh if be on a mountain bike i’ be flying down here it’s a bit rough I’m sure this would have been an old bridge by The Works of it well that’d be fun one it on a mountain bike stay out with that I think well some sort of bridge and walkway and who knows what so this is the historic TW Valley the G bushes look at this wow this is a Bool ramp oh wow we’ve got a Bo ramp clearly on a little Harbor wow obligatory Tesco trolley never mind that look at this so this okay this definitely there would have been another works here I can see another wall over there this would have been a smelting Factory no doubt books probably would have sailed up come into this Harbor here probably the factory would have been just there by the looks of it so we one year one just up there can still see the Chim of the other one how come I’ve never seen this before these are the retaining outside walls of a probably what would have been a factory here maybe perhaps it’s possible oh we go so is that interesting the history of the swans to Valley copper industry and now we once the center of the world here for producing copper and brass and how we helped to win the Battle of Trafalga by supplying copper to the bottoms of the ships that were at war with a French and Admiral Nelson chose swansea’s copper as the purest in the world to line his ships with is that not a good fact or what come on Swansea get down here have a look around look at this see what we’ve got to offer in t in town I love the irony of this one business as usual I think so another one of swansey rundown buildings I like the graffiti there the ABCD I wonder if that’s a rehearsal room H could be right more quick musical facts won’t Linger on this one too long but right here which I’ll show you in a second used to be a cracking pub called the cardif arms and in one of the Bands I was in man it a great band we used to play every second Thursday night here in this Pub band called whacka out Glenn I know you’re out there Charlie Farley John Lloyd big Maggie some of the greatest musicians you can ever imagine playing with and talk about imposter syndrome you who I was some kid on the Bas playing with like absolute Local Heroes I couldn’t believe my luck to me they were gods they were I you know my Idols these people and I got a gig with them and we played all sorts of covers and had some of the wildest Rock Knights you can ever imagine right here in what was the cardi arms and which is now it’s not even a closed Pub it’s not even anything it’s nothing it’s gone 100% great few months of doing that there you go another one bites of dust so I suppose we start to enter the era of twin town now now twintown is a cult classic film based entirely on life in Swansea and if you like cult classics and British films this is a mass SE if you don’t know about it already twin toown was written by one of the writers who made train spotting so it gives you an idea of a category it was in uh and it was also written by a chap called Paul Duran and Paul Duran I think died not so long ago U but he was a great block and dden used to own a studio a a rehearsal Studio that we used to use regularly but Duran had a studio down here and we used to come and rehearse in it let’s say yes it was in there and into this side which is now been done up D was quite a character none of us knew he was a writer and he wrote this film twin twin town it’s fantastic film fantastic film you’ve got to see it and I’ll tell you a story very quickly whilst we look at the old castle Cinema so to get the keys off Paul to use the studio just down there the rehearsals uh used to pop around his house on a Sunday morning or something and pick up the keys and one morning I went around there to grab the keys off him and I got up to the front of his house which was a mile or so away from here and uh there’s a coffin upright in front of his porch in his house I up to the door not the door I said um all right Paul I’ve got the keys for the studio and um what’s with the coffin oh well can’t really tell you about that he said but it’s a coughin and it’s here and I’m I’m having to look after it for a while so uh maybe you’ll find out one day he said anyway weeks went by whatever months went by and then all of a sudden Twin Town the film was released which I knew nothing about not many of us did and uh there was a scene in it somewhere where there was a coffin anyway so he was just looking after it during the filming good days what do you see here is swans Castle everybody knows Swan Castle in this area of course the castle has stood on this site since at least the 13th or 14th century so we’ll just have a little ride up beside it now and see where it comes out a castle right buying in the middle of the city center how’s that so they reckon a castle still on this site for a lot longer but definitely ruins have been used since the 12 for 13th century or 13th or 14th century and this area that we coming up to now down here is all known as Castle Square for pretty obvious reasons hang on get a better look from here here we are don’t think I’ve ever really been this close to it there you go smells like a castle un that’s the post off well it was the post office building behind it I think dungeon anybody swy castle castle square and that’s where we leave part three next week there’d be more exploring more history and even more famous characters