Collieries
Pentre Pit
In the eighteenth century, Morris centred his collieries in the Landore and Brynhyfryd areas. He was mining coal for his own smelters, for shipping and for other copper-works.
The original Pentre colliery lay behind St. John’s Road in Manselton from 1745 but the existing workings became exhausted so two new pits were sunk much deeper, they consisted of two new tunnels or stone drifts for the purpose of getting at the remaining coal.
The largest colliery was at Pentre, the property of Mr. Morris of Clasemont.
Production, from January 1788 to November 1795, rose to an annual average of 16,394 tons. The expenditure was, Wagon-ways and a wharf £1,583 – Pits and drifts £1,686 – Repairing an old level £59 – erecting a new engine £1,253 - 28th December 1778.
Pit head and the beam winding engine
Pentre - originally Penfilia - Pit stood between Cwm Level Road and Llangyfelach Road. Cwm Pit was at the end of Trewyddfa Road, directly below Morris Castle. Today, St Peter's Roman Catholic Church occupies the site.
Eaton Road, Brynhyfryd, is unusually wide because it was the site of the marshalling yard. Over the years, three lines converged at the Brynhyfryd yard. The first originated in 1806. It was built to connect Penfilia with the 18th Century railway that ran down Cwm Burlais to the shipping wharves at Swansea.
John Morris, the Morriston industrialist, connected his Cwm Pit to the line. By 1830, when there was a big demand for coal from the new smelters near Landore, John Morris Il built a new line to connect with the Swansea Canal- and in 1843 a line was built to Mynydd Newydd at Penlan.
Pentre Pit 1920
Natural incline – The old horse-drawn tramroad from Brynhyfryd to Swansea which was used by Pentre and Cwm pits to transport their coal to the riverside wharves.
Both pits sent their coal to the wharves of Swansea by a horse-drawn tram road which followed the natural incline of Cwm Road, Neath Road and the Upper Strand to the banks of the river Tawe.
Content.