Hafod and Morfa Copperworks Docks and Internal Railways (l,600 ' l,900m from Swansea Basin) D12-15 and T8 At this point the River Tawe sweeps away east in a large meander, lying some l6.5m below the steep bank of the line of the Swansea Canal. In the area between the two navigable waterways the important Hafod and Morfa Works were developed. The two works survived in use as the Yorkshire Imperial Metal Company's 'Landore Works' until l980. It was then only a copper rolling works but as such was the last of the non-ferrous works in Swansea still in use. Much of the area inside the works has been cleared except for those structures near the wall towards the canal which have been given statutory protection. The works wall towards the canal still stands. Cuts under new towing-path bridges and through works' walls led into internal factory docks as commonly found in other British industrial districts such as the Black Country and Birmingham Canal systems.

The first of the two docks (Dock l3) at Hafod Works was completed soon after 4th December l8l0 for the opening of the copperworks when an application made by a Mr. Smith for a cut to be made through the towing-path 'to make a bason at the Havod'1 was approved. Dock 12 was built in the 1820s when the first steam-powered rolling-mills were built at the Hafod.

The bricked-up arches, with yellow and red brick voussoirs set in the stone works' wall, indicating internal docks, were still visible in the late l970s, except at Dock l4 where the wall had been rebuilt. Since then the archway nto the Morfa Works dock 15, which served the Morfa Copperworks Rollingmills (now the Swansea Museum Stores) has been demolished. At Dock l5 the stone revetting of the dock entrance cut was visible outside the works' wall. This dock was the last still in use bringing coal in from the nearby tipping stage of the Pentre Coal Pit.2 Within the works the dock structures had been levelled, but the site of Dock l3 was retained as an intake sluice for water entering the works through the former dock entrance cut. Extensive systems of 7cm (2'in) pipes fed water all around the works. Internal railways from all the docks followed various lines within their respective works. Evidence of an inclined railway, which passed over the main canal to the Hafod tips, is to be found in the remains of the piers still flanking the canal-bed. These are built of sandstone and cast blocks of copper slag.

Hafod Works dock 12 SS 66l4 9495
Hafod Work dock 13 SS 66l3 9508
Morfa Works dock 14 SS 66l0 9515
Morfa Works dock 15 SS 66l0 9528

l. Canal Minutes, Volume l, 4th December l8l0.
2. v.i. 'Landore Works' employee

Stephen Hughes, 16.08.2006.