Request for information: Road projects around Swansea in the 1940s/50s

[FosseWay]

I've received the following request for information:

Dear sirs,

I am writing a book about some of the commercial and civil rebuilding projects in and around Swansea during the post war period of the nineteen forties and fifties. Among the subjects covered is the construction of the Briton Ferry bridge and the new Carmarthen trunk road starting at the Earlswood roundabout. I am particularly interested in the latter because I can remember being on site there just after the rock wall was breached.

The original contractor for that part of the digging was undertaken by Cowman using two Ruston Bucyrus excavators. Unfortunately they went bust for whatever reason and the work was continued using a Lima 1201 shovel with a fleet of 25 ton Euclid trucks. I wondered if your archive goes back this far and what information and pictures you may have appertaining to the Earlswood section. It was jobs like this led to my taking up a five year apprenticeship in heavy engineering with Messrs Ruston Bucyrus in 1959. I would imagine that somewhere there is a fairly detailed record of this project.

Any information you can offer, particularly photographs of the Lima and RB machines at work, would be much appreciated. I remember standing in the Lima as a fourteen year old schoolboy while it bucked and bronked attacking the rock.

Many thanks

Geoffrey Lewis

I've replied and suggested he search our online resources if he hasn't already done so. But I know some Sabristi have extensive archives of their own. If anyone has any material that may be of interest, and is willing to share it, please get in touch with me.

[M4Simon]

I've received the following request for information:

Dear sirs,

I am writing a book about some of the commercial and civil rebuilding projects in and around Swansea during the post war period of the nineteen forties and fifties. Among the subjects covered is the construction of the Briton Ferry bridge and the new Carmarthen trunk road starting at the Earlswood roundabout. I am particularly interested in the latter because I can remember being on site there just after the rock wall was breached.

The original contractor for that part of the digging was undertaken by Cowman using two Ruston Bucyrus excavators. Unfortunately they went bust for whatever reason and the work was continued using a Lima 1201 shovel with a fleet of 25 ton Euclid trucks. I wondered if your archive goes back this far and what information and pictures you may have appertaining to the Earlswood section. It was jobs like this led to my taking up a five year apprenticeship in heavy engineering with Messrs Ruston Bucyrus in 1959. I would imagine that somewhere there is a fairly detailed record of this project.

Any information you can offer, particularly photographs of the Lima and RB machines at work, would be much appreciated. I remember standing in the Lima as a fourteen year old schoolboy while it bucked and bronked attacking the rock.

Many thanks

Geoffrey Lewis

I've replied and suggested he search our online resources if he hasn't already done so. But I know some Sabristi have extensive archives of their own. If anyone has any material that may be of interest, and is willing to share it, please get in touch with me.

As a child of the (very late) 60s, this is all a bit before my time. But there is a lot of information on the "So you think you know Swansea" and "Swansea and its history" facebook groups. Some of the people on there are very knowledgeable, though you have to do a lot of sifting to find usefule information. There are many photos of the city centre area in the post war years, including the building of Kingsway and Princess Way. Most of the road building I know of dates from the 70s and 80s, so is a little later than the OP is looking for.

Simon