Clyne Wood Arsenic and Copper Works are the only nonferrous smelting works of which substantially complete remains survive. There would have been fifty or so works that made south-west Wales the world centre of this industry. The site is in dense woodland in the Clyne Valley Country Park, and its survival is largely due to its early failure and abandonment.

The works were built between 1825 and circa 1840 - possibly in 1837 - for a Cornish company and closed in 184l. It was then re-opened in 1844 by Henry Kingscote and by 1852 was being run by the Jennings family who in 1860 transferred their activities to a site with better transport links and coal supplies. The remains of several pipes, flues and furnaces survive. A large uphill flue terminates in the picturesque 'Ivy Tower' [SS 6133 9081], which in reality is the stump of the main chimney-stack of the works to which have been added battlements, an internal staircase, a gothic window and a door!

There may originally have been a condensing chamber in the base of the stack. The Clyne Valley Canal of 1799 - 1803 skirts the lower part of the site and what appears to have been a dock or inlet may have allowed small tub-boats from a coal level upstream to enter the works.

Source:
A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region", Association for Industrial Archaeology, 2nd Edition, 1989

RCAHMW, 8 September 2011.