Memories of Visits to Bracelet Bay

by Carol Powell MA

New Information Board, September 2019

History can be garnered from many official sources such as parish records, trade directories, censuses or old newspapers, but perhaps more importantly from the memories of the people who lived it.

This article tells the stories of visits to Broadslade Bay, known to us as Bracelet Bay (photo) but Bruslet in Mumbles parlance. These accounts were obtained partly from three people who recorded their experiences in the Victorian era, from two who grew up in the years just before the Great War and from Stanley Poolton, a member of the Mumbles Coast Guard Service who took part in the trip to the Mixon Sandbank in January 1957. My own memories date from the 1950s.

Bracelet was once so aptly described back in the Swansea Guide of 1851 as 'one of the delicious little bays where one can dream away the day in gazing.'

Several boatmen offer holidaymakers trips around the bay and in the background is the pool referred to later, c1905

Access to the cove had always been difficult as, to reach it from Mumbles (photo, near Knab Rock) people would have had to climb up the hill at Dickslade or Western Lane, or take a boat around the headland or dodge the fast-tides on foot in the Inner Sound. I

n 1859, someone only identified as E.H. Described, 'How very pretty is the walk up and over the Mumbles Hill. You ascend a narrow steep road, turn round a rocky rough sharp corner and following a fence, separating some fields from the down, skirt round the brow of the hill and before you is Bracelet Bay' He or She enthused that. 'Even the name is pretty.'

Mumbles Head, looking towards the village and Knab Rock

Lewis Weston Dillwyn described the trek in his diary as 'walked over the hill or under the rocks across the beach.' He recorded that and his family were fond of coming to Mumbles and exploring Bracelet Bay. In June 1843, he wrote that he had 'procured Nicholas's boat and enjoyed a row to Bracelet Bay.'

and in August 1847, he and his wife, Mary 'scrambled over the rocks as far as Bracelet Bay ' and noted that they 'saw a green fish in a pool left by the tides.'

In 1855, a young lady, Ellen Edmond wrote hers in the form of a long poem, in which She painted pictures in words, which included these snatches, 'I must record in memory, our stroll the bright March day; We gathered sea-weed 'midst the rocks of sheltered Bracelet Bay,' and of 'women in groups ere turn of tide toiling to procure fresh sea-weed for potato fields.' She described how 'peaceful and tranquil as a lake was the sea - a sparkling green.' and delighted that 'in each clear pool, with sea-weed fringed, a little world may see! And those strange wonders - living flowers' Sea anemones perhaps?

Then in 1888, when the Mumbles Road was extended through the hill in the form of The Cutting to the New Road at Bracelet Common and in 1898, when the Mumbles Railway extension and the Pier opened, a whole new experience for many opened up. It made for an easier journey for locals or those on a day out from Swansea. Thus Bracelet soon became a very popular destination with crowds flocking to enjoy it. Edwardian picnics, an essential part of the imagery of the long hot summers of a century ago, must have indeed been a sight to behold.

Mrs. Gwladys Ferris (nee Bowen) recalled her visits to Bracelet Bay with her mother and younger brother, Marchant. They would travel on the Tram to Castle Street, from their home in Landore, to buy Eynon's pies, before boarding the Mumbles Train at Rutland Street to journey to the Mumbles Pier. There, they would climb the hill to Bracelet, where they then played on the beach and picnicked using the kettle, small paraffin stove and picnic basket, full of cups, saucers, plates and tins of cake and bread, which had been carried all the way from home by her mother!

One pastime, sea‑bathing, was becoming increasingly popular as a healthy pursuit. However, unlike today, modesty forbade mixed bathing or undressing on the beach. Many people still made use of that peculiar eighteenth‑century invention —the Bathing Machine, a wooden structure on wheels, which could be drawn down to the water’s edge by a horse. Sometimes Gwladys’s family would hire one, which ensured their privacy to don the elaborate neck‑to‑knees swim‑wear. She remembered the exhilarating feeling of the machine being drawn down the beach by a horse and of stepping down the wooden steps into the water, dressed in her favourite lavender swimming costume, which had straight knickers and a little frilly skirt edged with black.

Several machines were situated at ‘the slip’ on Swansea Beach, Limeslade, Langland, Caswell and Bracelet Bays. At Bracelet, there were sundry licensed operators, one of whom was James Webborn, ((photo) who, in July 1905, had eight machines. Archie Webborn, James’s grandson, recounted that if the holiday‑makers happened to choose one of his grandfather’s machines, it would cost 6d to hire a machine, towel and costume and a little comic ritual would often be played out for the customers' benefit.

His Grandpa would whistle to his clever black retriever dog, Don which would then run up to the tearooms at the top of the beach (see picture above) and return with the correct number of male and female costumes and towels for their customers! The holiday-makers would be amazed and compliment him on his very clever dog. However, it was actually Archie's Grandma in the tearoom, who would hear the whistle, look out of the window, count the number of customers and get the bathing apparel ready to give to the dog to carry back down the beach in his mouth!

As the bay became more popular, there were also boat rides to enjoy and more and more local boatmen gathered to take people on trips, but by 13 July 1911, 'A Visitor' wrote to the Mumbles Press complaining of the inconvenience caused to bathers by boatmen plying for hire. When trade was slow and they were awaiting passengers they had their boats all crowded together at the edge of the water, so that bathers could scarcely find room to pass. 'Coming out of the water the other morning, I struck my foot against the grappling iron holding one of the boats, cutting it severely' He added that he did not wish to interfere with these men earning a livelihood, but suggested they should keep to one side instead of completely obstructing the narrow strip of sand. A few hundred yards offshore at low tide, waves can be seen breaking over the Mixon Sandbank, which is marked with the large red Mixon Bell. This is a place that has been the scene of much tragedy, because it was the location of a catalogue of shipwrecks.. In the nineteenth century alone, more than ten ships had foundered on the sands with the loss of many lives. Just some of the victims reported in the Cambrian Newspaper were The Hope Reed, which went down in 1806 with the loss of all hands; three were drowned from the Lively in 1829; the Feronia hit the bank and sank in 1838 and in 1865, a pleasure boat with a party of eight, celebrating the 21st birthday of Robert Smith, sank. The crew of the Grenfell, rescued three’ but sadly Mr. Smith was not among them.

The Rev Kilvert during his visit to Mumbles in April 1872 recorded his emotions in his diary on hearing the mournful Mixon Bell ' Among the sighing of the gorse came upon a lift of the wind a faint and solemn tolling of a deep bell from seaward. It was the tolling of the buoy bell moored off the Mumbles, a solemn awful sound, for the bell seemed to be tolling for the souls of those who had gone down at sea, and warning the living of their graves'.

The Mumbles Lifeboat cruises between the islands.

Stormy weather

The Evening Post reported in 1953 that ‘the sands had been free of shipping trouble because of the efficiency of the Mixon Buoy and the unmistakable turbulence at low tide’. But undeniably, modern tools of navigation, powered shipping and the crews of the Mumbles Lifeboat have also played their parts in contributing to the safety record.

The Mixon is virtually unnoticeable when the tide is full, but at low tide, waves break over it as there is very little draft. This happens every two weeks, when the morning and evening ‘spring’ tides are higher, ebb further and move faster than the ‘neap’ ones, which occur in the small hours of the mornings and afternoons in the alternate weeks and which barely reach the beach or go out far enough.

Very very occasionally during spring tides, the Mixon Sands can sometimes be exposed for about thirty minutes, revealing a firm stretch of yellow sand. This could happen perhaps every few years or merely once in thirty years or so and then, only if the winds are in an off-shore direction at the time of the lowest point of the tide.

A moment of rare adventure occurred there in 1928 when Lt. Commander Douglas Probert and his brother, Lt. Commander Phineas Probert, together with a friend, Mr. Cleeve Maslin (later killed in action in the Second World War) decided to land on the unmasked sandbank and play a game of cricket for the short duration that the tide allowed.

Mumbles’ own Harry Libby, Mayor of Swansea in that year and Evening Post photographer, Harry Hynam, made plans to hold a tea party on the Mixon Sands.

Then in January 1957, it was calculated that this unusual phenomenon might be about to recur. To mark the occasion a small group, which included Derek Scott (Coxswain of the lifeboat) and his father, Les; Gwyn John, Assistant Secretary of the Lifeboat Committee and his wife; Stanley Poolton, of H.M. Coastguard; Tom Way; Jack Gammon (Lifeboat mechanic); Mumbles’ own Harry Libby, Mayor of Swansea in that year and Evening Post photographer, Harry Hynam, made plans to hold a tea party on the Mixon Sands.

Subsequently on Saturday 19 January, they set off in two small boats from the Mumbles Pier, armed with a folding table, two stools, a thermos flask of tea, some cups and a few sandwiches. Finding the bank was indeed exposed, they discovered it had a sheer drop on its seaward side, but shelving on its shore side. Following a difficult landing made more so as the seas tend to be choppy in the shallows, causing the temporary grounding of one boat on a small ‘pinnacle’ of sand, they set up the table and chairsand enjoyed their tea and sandwiches for the few minutes before the tide soon turned and they had to re-embark for home.

Harry Hynam was able to capture his companions on film and gain the distinction of being the first newspaper photographer to operate a camera on the Mixon Sands.

A few days later, Harry Libby sent a commemorative letter to each of those who had taken part, saying:‘I consider it very desirable to place this visit on record. It was indeed a unique experience and one, which quite possibly will remain so for very many years to come. The fact that we made the journey in two dinghies with out-board motors and only achieved our objective by all the good luck in the world, renders the adventure more praiseworthy. I think that the possession of this letter . . . will serve to establish .the fact of the landing as against so many rumours attaching to previous claims to have done the same thing. Thanks for your company and for allowing me to share the experience’.

The bathing pool at Bracelet Bay

My own earliest memories of Bracelet date from the 1950s when our family would travel on the Mumbles Train to the pier before climbing the hill and dropping down into the bay. When the tide was full in, there was quite a dangerous back-draft, which could easily drag you off your feet, but when the tide was out, nature had Designed a large 'bathing pool' between the mainland and the Middle Island, which attracted many families.

There, we could enjoy bathing and paddling in safety, we could also 'land' on Middle Island and walk along the 'causeway,' since demolished, to the lighthouse Island, where my parents would sometimes tell us stories of the lighthouse keepers and their families who had lived there in days gone by.

The Big Apple

A famous landmark in the area, The Big Apple was originally built, along with a few others around the country, by a cider company to promote their drink. As far as we know this is the last remaining one.

The Big Apple at Bracelet Bay, for all your seaside needs

Back in the bay, there was also a cave to explore, rock-pools to examine, sandcastles to make and laverbread to pick. Alongside the road above, several people has set up stalls which sold cockles, and of course, there was the iconic 'Apple' which had ice cream, lollies, pop and buckets and spades for sale.

Today, my great-grandchildren in their turn enjoy the time honoured wonders of this delightful little beach, exploring the cave, building sandcastles and joining in the seaside safaris to learn more of the animals and plants, which live in its rock pools.

But the bathing machines, boat rides and the clever dog, Don now reside only in stories handed down.