The Horsepool Harbour: A Vanished Landmark
by Carol Powell M.A.
This is one of our ‘Vanished Landmarks’ and is a brief history of one of the bygone features of our locality, which live on only in the imagination and through stories passed down through the generations. If there was just one of our ‘vanished’ landmarks, which I would have loved to have seen above all others, it would be the Horsepool.
The Horsepool: before the Mumbles Railway causeway arrived in 1893
The oyster skiffs are laid up the Horsepool Harbour, while on the right, is the Antelope Inn and almost in the middle of the photo is the three storey Prince of Wales Hotel, now reborn as 'Patrick's with Rooms'. Just seen behind the ship's mast is the tower of the Church School, known as 'The Academy,' attended by Harry Libby who was a pupil, and eventually became a Mayor of Swansea.
The Horsepool is on the right hand side of this 1853 view which includes oyster skiffs
Tithe map, 1844 showing Horsepool
Reproduced by permission ofCounty Archivist at West Glamorgan Archive Office, Swansea.Ed Note: Items marked in red are my additions
This 1870 view shows Horsepool and the shoreline at the roadside.
Since 17C, many Mumbles fishermen would lay up their craft all along the shore as far out as Southend (outalong) and in stormy weather, at the Horsepool, a natural haven. On a normal high tide, the sea would rise up over the sand-bank, across the Horsepool and reach as far as the side of the road, as shown here.
Horsepool House (The Marine Hotel in the photo) looked out over this little harbour.
Horsepool House (The Marine Hotel in the photo right) looked out over this little harbour. On 20 December 1734, a lease for three lives on this property had been granted to Philip Powell and his two daughters for an annual rent of ‘two shillings together with two fat pullets or one shilling in lieu thereof. Plus the sum of five shillings on the decease of every tenant dying in possession . . .’ By 1891 and known as the Marine Hotel, George Dowman was the Licensed Victualler and lived there with his wife, Hannah and their three daughters, a general servant and a barmaid. Nearby on the water’s edge were two fishermen’s cottages, one occupied at that time by William and Jane Jenkins and their son, Alfred and the other by Thomas Llewellyn and his wife, Martha. These, then, were just some of the people who lived near Horsepool.
The remains of an Oyster skiff (boat)
The wrecked remains of several oyster skiffs (boats), which still lie near the sea wall and are a small, but constant reminder of a proud and hard-working band of men, who once worked in this thriving centre of our past sea-going community.
A group stands on the Horsepool sand-bank in 1870, with Knab Rock in the background. Notice that although there is a road shown, the cutting has yet to be made.
OS Map, 1890
Reproduced by permission of theCounty Archivist, West Glamorgan Archive Office, SwanseaEd Note: Items marked in red are my additions
However later in the 1890s, with the growth of Mumbles as a tourist mecca, the Swansea Improvements and Tramways Company decided to extend the Mumbles Railway line from Oystermouth out across the Horsepool to the gardens at the Parade and thence to the other part of their development—the new Pier.
The soon-to-be-enclosed area became known as the Ballast Bank as the ballast from Cornish ships was used to fill the now-defunct Horsepool. The ships would then return to Cornwall loaded with Mumbles Limestone. A funfair was soon erected on the site, which today is occupied by the tennis courts, bowling green and Cornwall and Devon Places.
Also in the 1890s, the railway track was diverted along the shore from Blackpill to Norton instead of running at the road-side as it had been. In doing so, the face of the Mumbles foreshore was irrevocably changed and the mode of living of many families altered forever. The oyster industry was already in decline and the livings of its attendant industries of dredge- and sail-making, smithy and carpenter, suffered too.
As compensation to the fishermen, the Mumbles Railway Company constructed a wooden groyne (which can be seen in the middle of the photo) as shelter for them on the shore near the Antelope. Unfortunately, the Oystermouth U.D.C. refused to maintain it and when the weather did its worst, it soon fell into disrepair. Some wooden stakes still remain visible, as do the remains of several oyster skiffs, which lie near the sea wall and are a small, but constant reminder of a once proud and hard working band of men