Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
there were water-powered looms. However, the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the advent of steam
roller mills and cheap flour from imported corn sealed the fate of the grist mills, as did the mass produc-
tion of cloth which put the local weavers out of business. In order to feed water to the mills, certainly for
the larger wheels, leats and millponds were created, the best surviving example of a millpond being that
at Lower Mill, Llanrhidian (Fig. 36). The mill, built in 1803, once had the largest waterwheel in Gower,
measuring 18 feet by 3 feet (5.5 by 0.9 metres), but by the 1960s the wheel had been removed along with
the machinery. The building is now a private house.
LIMESTONE
ThemainexportfromthetwocoastalvillagesofOxwichandPort-Eynonintheeighteenthandnineteenth
centuries was limestone, which was shipped to north Devon as the raw material of agricultural lime. Sur-
prisingly large amounts were quarried, Isaac Hamon recording that 'they do transport much limestones
… along this coast'. At Oxwich alone, for instance, between April and August 1708, according to
manuscripts from the Penrice estate, there were shipments amounting to 1,698 tonnes. The cliffs stretch-
ing out from Oxwich Bay to the Point have been quarried for their limestone since 'time out of mind',
though the industry did not really develop until the early part of the nineteenth century, reaching its peak
inabout1850.Intheearlydaysthelimestonewasbrokenawayfromthecliffusinghammersandwedges,
but later explosives were used and the 'shot holes' for placing the charges can still be seen. For about a
mile out towards the point the cliffs are still a mass of quarry faces and artificial scree slides. The land
is still unstable with huge blocks occasionally becoming detached, the last in 1985. The broken rock was
piled up on the beach and small sailing ships holding between 50 and 100 tonnes would come alongside
these piles at high tide.
Most of the limestone was shipped across the Bristol Channel to Devon where it was converted into
lime for use on the acid soils of north Devon and Cornwall. The 'alien stones' found on the beach below
the quarries are igneous rocks picked up from the Devon beaches and used as ballast. The lower part of
Crawley Bluff also bears the scars of commercial quarrying. Similarly on Mumbles Hill during the 1850s
some 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of limestone were quarried every year, the activity employing nearly 40 men.
At Pwlldu there was a large community that worked the quarry, the remains of which can be seen in the
parallel bands and ditches which run down the steep slopes of the headland to the west of the bay. Once
there were two public houses to cater for the thirsty workers, but today these are private residences. The
overgrown and derelict remains of many of the workers' cottages can be found in the nearby woodland.
LANDSCAPED PARKS
In the late eighteenth century there was a fashion for developing landscaped parks around grand houses,
whichwasdrivenbythedevelopmentsatWoodstockinOxfordshireandtheactivitiesofprofessionalpark
designers such as Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Even a relatively isolated area such as Gower was not
immune to this trend and in the 22 years between 1776 and 1798 a number of substantial mansions were
built, or extended, and an extensive area of ground set aside for development. Parklands have a typical
structure that consists of large, open-grown or high forest trees at various densities in a matrix of grazed
grassland and woodland communities. These provide a number of specialist habitats for a variety of an-
imals, including bats, birds and saproxylic (wood eating) fauna, with mosses and lichens on the old trees.
The trees are predominantly native species, but there may also be non-native species, which have been
planted, or which have regenerated naturally. The Gower parklands, like others in Britain, are nationally
