Visit Birchgrove, Swansea Places

Welcome to Visit Birchgrove, Swansea Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Birchgrove, Swansea

  

Birchgrove, Swansea Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Birchgrove, Swansea

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Birchgrove, Swansea history

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Prehistory

The countryside surrounding Birchgrove is scattered with prehistoric sites. There are numerous barrow mounds and evidence of prehistoric dwellings. Carreg Bica is a large standing stone on Drummau Mountain. The stone is local sandstone and is around 13 ft high. The name means “pointed stone” in the Welsh language. The stone is also known by other names: Maen Bredwan or Maen Bradwen. It is also mentioned in a charter to King John to William de Breos in 1203 as “meynhirion”, as a boundary stone marking the Gower. There is a legend of the stone moving and going to a local stream to drink or bathe. In this case the stone is said to bathe in the river Neath once a year on Easter morning. Children from Skewen were said to race to the stone on Easter morning. Cistercian monks built the nearby Neath Abbey in the early 12th century. Wintering their flocks and herds in the few open spaces down in the valley, during the other seasons keeping them in their specially constructed stone walled fields on Drummau mountain top, using the standing stone as a landmark. Many sections of the stone walls are still standing from Cistercian times.

Industrial era

From an early date to the beginning of the 19th century, coal-mining played an important role in Birchgrove. It was mainly on coal-mining that the villages of the parish grew, and Birchgrove was no exception. Mining played a very important role in the industrial development of the lower Swansea Valley, which was becoming the metallurgical centre of the world. (See History of Swansea.) Coal was replacing wood in the smelting of ores; and it was because of the demand for coal that a pit was sunk in Birchgrove, known as Birchgrove Colliery Company, locally known as the ‘Old Pit’. It was situated just below the Birchgrove Post Office. It was sunk in 1845, to a depth of approximately 100 feet. As a result of its prosperity, two further pits were sunk, namely Sisters Pit, and Brothers Pit. Approximately 200 worked at the Old Pit. This involved many new people coming into the area, to work in both mining and the copper industry. The only cultural recreation was a Reading Room, situated near the colliery. It was not used on Sundays, so the people of the village were given permission to use it for Sunday worship. Services were held there according to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England (the Church in Wales not being founded until 1920). The services held there were well supported. The Birchgrove Colliery was closed in 1931. There are still relics of Birchgrove’s industrial past in the area, The ruins of Scot’s pit pump house dominate the lower end of Birchgrove and evidence of mine workings can still be found.

You can visit Birchgrove, Swansea places with Walkfo Birchgrove, Swansea to hear history at Birchgrove, Swansea’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Birchgrove, Swansea has 40 places to visit in our interactive Birchgrove, Swansea map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Birchgrove, Swansea, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Birchgrove, Swansea places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Birchgrove, Swansea & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 40 audio facts unique to Birchgrove, Swansea places in an interactive Birchgrove, Swansea map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Birchgrove, Swansea Places Map
40 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Birchgrove, Swansea historic spots	Birchgrove, Swansea tourist destinations	Birchgrove, Swansea plaques	Birchgrove, Swansea geographic features
Walkfo Birchgrove, Swansea tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Birchgrove, Swansea

  

Best Birchgrove, Swansea places to visit

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Birchgrove, Swansea has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Birchgrove, Swansea’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Birchgrove, Swansea’s information audio spots:

Neath Abbey television relay station The Neath Abbey television relay station is sited on a hill north of the town of Neath. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television serving the parts of the town of Neath to its east with its vertically polarised signal, and the parts of the town to its northwest with its horizontally polarised signal. This is an unusual layout, chosen to avoid signal degradation from reflections off the cliffs to the north. The site consists of a 12 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on land which is itself about 80 m above sea level. The Neath Abbey transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. Neath Abbey transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Kilvey Hill about 10 km to the southwest. When it came, the digital switchover process for Neath Abbey duplicated the timing at the parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the Kilvey Hill transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 10 W each.

Skewen Dram Road The Skewen Dram Road was a 3 miles (5 km) long mining railway near Skewen in Wales with a gauge of 2 feet 7+1/2 inches (800 mm).

West End F.C. West End Football Club is a football team, based in the Mayhill area of Swansea, Wales, Ardal Leagues South West, the third tier of the Welsh football pyramid.

Craig-Cefn-Parc television relay station The Craig-Cefn-Parc television relay station is sited on Mynydd Gelliwastad to the west of Clydach in the Swansea Valley. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television. It consists of a 17 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on land which is itself about 160 m above sea level.

Tabernacle Chapel, Morriston The Tabernacle Chapel (Capel y Tabernacl in Welsh), also known as Libanus Chapel, is a Grade I listed chapel on Woodfield Street in Morriston, Swansea.

Morriston Morriston is the largest community in Swansea county. It has never had a town charter and is now part of the continuous urban sprawl around Swansea. It is the most populous of Swansea’s electoral divisions.

Crymlyn Bog Crymlyn Bog is a nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest of international significance, near Swansea, south Wales. It is the largest area of lowland fen in Wales and lies immediately to the eastern side of Kilvey Hill. Predatory visitors like the hen harrier, buzzard, hobby and the occasional marsh harrier visit the site regularly.

Ynystawe Ynystawe (also Ynysdawe in Welsh; Welsh pronunciation: [ənɨ̞s.taʊ.ɛ] is a village in the City and County of Swansea, Wales. It is 0.5 miles (1 km) north of the M4 motorway junction 45 in the Swansea Valley. The Welsh name derives from ynys, meaning “island” or “river-meadow”, and Tawe.

Visit Birchgrove, Swansea plaques