In the Defence of Mumbles & Swansea before 1918

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In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the geography of the Mumbles Head peninsular and its twin islands, from which the locality takes its name, proved an ideal location for the positioning of defences for the town of Swansea five miles distant, as there had been further threats from France. Indeed in December 1796, the French had attempted an invasion near Fishguard at Careg Wastad Point, their fleet having some days previously been very close to Mumbles in the Bristol Channel off Lundy Island.

A battery was in place on Mumbles Hill by 1803, but now, with escalating threats of invasion from the French under Napoleon, The Cambrian of 28 January 1804 reported that at a meeting of Swansea Merchants and Ship-owners, it had been decided to 'at their own expense, purchase four brass six-pounders with their carriages and proper appendages, to be placed upon the hill commanding the harbour of Swansea . . . to be under the care of the Commander of the Sea Fencibles and exercised by a sufficient number of his best gunners.' The guns which were cast in Woolwich at a cost of £296.. 13s were used when a Royal gun salute resounded from the hill in June 1804 on the occasion of the birthday of King George III and the following January for that of Queen Charlotte. However shortly afterwards, the Board of Ordnances invited tenders for the removal of its stores that same summer and in the autumn of 1805, for the removal of the guns.

However, the battery (on the cliff between the Middle Island and today's Big Apple) was still shown on the 1844 Tithe map in the same position, although this section of the hill would be gradually quarried away over the next few years and the ballast discharged on the beach. In 1850, the practice became more worrying and complaints were made to the Admiralty Board that it threatened the safety of the Mumbles Roadstead and Swansea Bay. An exhaustive inquiry came to the conclusion that no more quarrying and widening of the Inner Sound should take place, but by then the site of the battery had disappeared.

In the 1850s, it was decided following the 'persistent exertions' of Col. Geo. Grant Francis, to build a new battery 'made of selected limestone on the lighthouse island, the range of which would cover from the Mixon round to Swansea Bay'. It was duly completed in 1860 at a cost to the War Department of £10,000 and equipped with four 18lb guns, which had sometime previously replaced the original 6lb ones on the headland.

Easter Monday of 1861 saw a procession of the First Glamorgan Artillery Volunteers (motto 'Deeds not Words) comprising two firing parties and a detachment of men to keep the ground, who marched from Castle Square in Swansea to the new Mumbles battery to fire the guns. Lieut. Madge put them through their drill followed by a visit from the Inspector of Artillery for the South Wales district, Lieut. G. Mongomery R.A. With horses supplied by Messrs. Hand and Dogget, attached to the guns and tumbrils, accompanied by martial music and dressed in their 'rich full dresses' armed with their new rifle carbines, they set off. They marched through a rain and hail storm but arrived ready for the work ahead. Capt. Francis gave the order to commence firing with round shot, which once the range was obtained changed to 'fire with shell.' The booming of the guns soon brought out a large number of spectators and the display of shot and shell lasted about three hours. The Inspector congratulated the men on the efficiency of the corps and promised to report to HQ that they should be entitled to a certificate of competency. Afterwards the guns were relimbered and the horses 'put too' before they returned to Swansea.

This was in contrast to the Cambrian reports in August when a corps of fifty or sixty men were stationed on the Battery, eliciting complaints from residents concerning their conduct. Additionally, it seems a feeling of rivalry and jealousy had erupted between the men and the Swansea Police. P.C. Milton was attacked with a belt buckle, but his assailant escaped and a few days later P.C. Williams who was knocked almost unconcious by a drunken soldier, who then beat his head against a wall. A member of the corps pleaded that the second man be set free as to convict would create even more animosity. The presiding magistrate, Mr. Francis, said that anyone interfering with the police would be dealt with as severely as the law permitted and that the commanding officer at the Mumbes 'should exercise a wise and sound discretion by refusing to allow bands of eight or ten men to be from their quarters at late hours.'

At a meeting of the Trustees on 10 September 1861, the members were informed by the Chairman, Starling Benson that if the guns were fired off at the new fort, every pane of glass in the nearby lighthouse would be blown out, although he believed that 'the guns were not likely to be fired except in the case of war.' He was proved wrong as the guns were frequently fired for long-range practice and indeed, glass was smashed at the lighthouse in April 1862. The 1st Glamorgan Artillary Volunteers under the command of Col. Francis regularly practised there and the drill was once witnessed by a reporter who visited in 1866 and was impressed 'by the orderliness of the fort, its state of readiness and by the way the gunners were able to hit a cask moored out in the bay.'

In 1868, there were additional fears of an attack by Fenian sympathisers, an Irish Republican organisation founded in 1858 in the United States. However, all was not running smoothly financially either, as shown by the records of the rents due to the Duke of Beaufort, the owner of the land, in 1872-3, which recorded that H.M. Principal Secretary of State for War was in arrears by £7..17..6d for 'erecting a battery on Mumbles Head' and by £1 'for erecting a derrick for the hauling up of boats on Mumbles Head.'

Over the years, the censuses reveal the names of the personnel serving at the Battery. In 1871, it was occupied by military personnel, Sgt. James Capon and his children, Agnes, 13 and James, 7 as well as Gunners James Owens, 36; John Williams, 27 and Thomas Haishay, 42 By 1881, the Battery contained five 68 pounder guns which were maintained by Sgt. Henry Roberts, who lived there with his wife, Julia and children John, 9, Lilian, 2 and Ernest, 6 months and Gunners, John Capel and John Birminhame [sic]. In 1883, Gunner Edward Hutchings of Mumbles Fort together with Margaret Wright (married to one of the servicemen) and Jessie Ace, daughters of the lighthouse keeper, helped rescue two crew members from the ship, the Admiral Prinz Adalbert, which had been driven ashore on the lighthouse island in a fierce storm. The Mumbles lifeboat was involved and lost four members of its crew, leaving four widows and fourteen orphaned children. By 1891, Thomas Hawkes, 45 Sgt. Royal Artillery, his wife, Bertha 26, her sister, Caroline Watson, and Gunner George Rolfe, 35 from London were in residence but in 1901, Gunner George Rolfe was the only occupant.

In the summer of 1877, fifty men of no.2 Brigade Royal Artillery under the command of Captain Cooper replaced the cannon from the headland, which had never been fired in anger and were considered obsolete, with new ones. (The originals were acquired by the Swansea Corporation and two of them stand today on the terrace of the Lord Mayor's official residence at the Mansion House in Ffynone). A report in 1882 pointed out the weakness of the battery, that these new 68lb guns would be utterly useless when pitted against ironclad ships and they became known as 'Lord Palmerston's Follies,' but the recommendations were not acted upon and the site was then kept for practice by local volunteers. They were replaced in 1901 by two more modern 4.7 inch quick-firing guns, probably surplus to naval requirements.

In 1909, it was decided to throw the five 'follies' into the sea to save the expense of moving them and by 1914 the Battery was again in operation, manned by Sergeant Foran and Bombardier Whiteford. A large number of personnel were stationed around the area, with those guarding the fort being housed in the original Bristol Channel Yacht Club with additional accommodation constucted on Mumbles Hill and at Limeslade. Southend itself became a 'no-go' area for the duration.

Only two decades later during the Second World War, Mumbles Head was taking its place once more as a strategic position in the defence of Swansea Bay. But that is another story . . .

previously published in the Swansea History Journal vol 19, 2011/12 pages 76-82

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Primary Sources

Maps

Dunns Mansion, 1663, RISW/ G.F.G

Duke of Beaufort's Gower Estate Map, Lighthouse and Battery on Mumbles Head, 1803, Glam. Archives Cat. No. D/D Beau E 1/29

Oystermouth Tithe Map, 1844, Glam. Archves, Cat.No. P/115/3/1

Badminton Papers Nat. Lib of Wales cat. no. BGA4/122

Fort Record Book, 299 Coast Battery R. A., Defence Plan Scheme, cat. no. PRO WO 192/320

Retired Staff website www.swanseadocks.co.uk

Swansea Mansion House, www.swansea.gov.uk

Some photographs from Oystermouth Historical Association Archive

Newspapers

The Cambrian 28 January 1804, 2 June 1804, 9 June 1804, 19 January 1805, 2 November 1805,

5 April 1861, 9 August 1861, 13 September 1861, 4 April 1862 , 3 January 1868, 17 August 1877

Censuses

1871, 1881, 1891, 1901

Oral testimony from Messrs. R. Daniels, Hayden Evans, Ken Evans, Ernest Macey, Bill Morris, John Pressdee, Peter Smith and Jeff Williams

Secondary Sources

David Browne, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 2004

Phil Carradice, The last Invasion, 1997

Gerald Gabb, The Story of the Village of Mumbles, 1986

W.H. Jones, The History of the Port of Swansea, 1922

Carol Powell, Keepers of the Light, 2007 and Mumbles Hill-a Walk Through Time, 2008, both online at www.thisissouthwales/mumbleslocalhistory

C.W. Slater, The Corner Pew, 1919

Norman Thomas, The Mumbles Past and Present, 1978

WW2 at THE GUNS OF MUMBLES HEAD

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