Mumbles Marble and Margam
Introduction
Until recently little has been written of Mumbles Marble and its
associated industry and published details are brief but often
relate to Margam. Its study and the search and recording of further
examples are on-going.
What is Mumbles Marble?
Mumbles, also known as Swansea or Cambrian Marble is a marble in
the commercial sense being a limestone capable of taking a polish
to produce an attractive appearance. Mumbles Marble is a limestone
formed some 350 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period
of geological time. Then Mumbles was located South of the Equator
beneath a shallow sea and probably had a tropical climate, the
sediments that accumulated on the shallow sea floor were compacted
into limestone, became uplifted and subsequently quarried some
millions of years later.
Today the limestone can be seen at many natural outcrops in the
Mumbles area. 200 years ago some of the limestone was selected for
cutting and polishing to produce the Mumbles Marble which is grey
of various shades, veined with white streaks of calcite and
occasionally fossils can be seen. There is also a liver coloured
variety, limestone stained by iron oxides.
The production of
Mumbles Marble
The stone is not well known today but was widely used during the
19th Century. Advertisements at the time refer to the availability
of articles such as chimney pieces, monuments, tombs, hall
pavements, baths, tables, dairy slabs and plain jambs, heads and
slabs available at four shillings a foot.
The layers, slabs or beds of limestone used to produce Mumbles
Marble were probably quarried at the Colts Hill Quarry at Mumbles
then taken by horse drawn cart to the marble mill to the north of
where the West Cross Hotel now stands, known then as Norton
Burrows. The marble works at West Cross is believed to have closed
by 1837.
Philip Rogers Snr had left the Mumbles Marble Works in 1826 and
set up business as Philip Rogers Marble Works in Swansea Philip
Rogers Jnr, entered the business and records indicate that Philip
Rogers & Son Marble Works traded until circa 1876. The marble
monuments they produced remain and are important in the context of
Mumbles Marble. Philip Rogers Jnr died on 24th February 1902 at 2
De La Beche Street, Swansea aged 93, and was at that time Swansea’s
oldest inhabitant.
The people and Mumbles Marble
at Margam
Four people were associated with the marble works at West Cross,
William Gubbins, Charles Wallis, William Watts and Mr Griffiths and
were also involved with the major restoration works at Margam Abbey
which began in 1805 and completed in 1809.
Charles Wallis, a Swansea architect, was superintendent. William
Gubbins was appointed master mason, charging four shillings a day
for his labour with Mr Griffiths assisting Mr Gubbins and Mr Watts
involved with the painting.
William Gubbins was also the master mason involved with the
building of Thomas Mansel Talbot’s Tomb and the Orangery at Margam.
He died on the 1st May 1823, aged 81 and is buried at Margam Abbey,
residing at Cefn Cribbwr at the time of his death.
Records show that the designer of the tomb of Thomas Mansel
Talbot was one William Weston Young of Bristol and Neath – artist,
illustrator of Swansea porcelain; land surveyor; miller ; merchant;
architect; draughtsman; wreck raiser and salvage operator.. a
remarkable man and possessor of formidable talents! Among the
Margam manuscripts at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
are the four large coloured drawings which he prepared for the
design of the tomb. He was an inventive genius, but lacked business
acumen and in his commercial dealings often faced financial
disaster. Misfortune followed his every move and his declining
years were spent in impoverished circumstances
The use of Mumbles Marble at
Margam
Examples of articles made of Mumbles Marble are recorded both at
the Abbey Church of St Mary and Margam Castle
Margam Castle
There is a bill from Mr Philip Rogers, dated 1833, to
C.R.M.Talbot Esq.M.P. of Margam. It mentions one Mumbles Marble
Gothic Chimney piece at £6.00 and seven other Mumbles Marble
Chimney pieces, of these only four now remain and these are of
varying condition of preservation.
Mumbles Marble fireplaces are made of limestone with a
pseudobrecciated texture, white calcite veins and include fossils
such as corals, brachiopod shells and gasteropods. The new
fireplaces are in the style of a fireplace at Singleton Abbey,
Swansea which has been attributed to the Philip Rogers Marble
Works
Margam Abbey
The Tomb of Thomas Mansel Talbot
The tomb of Thomas Mansel Talbot is sited beneath the Mansel
mural at the east end of the Talbot Chapel. A year after his death
at his villa at Penrice, in 1813, the family and Trustees of the
estate commissioned William Weston Young of Bristol and Neath to
design and erect a suitable imposing monument to his memory. The
preparation of plans and detailed specifications was to occupy
Young intermittently for seven years, the greater part of the work
was completed in 1815-1816 and the cost of the project, which was
completed in early 1820, was£168.16s.71/2d
The tomb is a fine example of the worked marble and documents
authenticate stone from Mumbles, a grey limestone with streaks of
white calcite, being used for the upper moulding of the tomb at a
cost of £18.3s.6d and another account of expenses connected with
the erection of the tomb is as follows:
‘Stone from the Mumbles, 25 feet, £5: 2 days processing
£2.20’
In Margam Abbey Church there are many fine different marbles
including some from Wales, Ireland and Italy. The examples of
Mumbles Marble are of particular interest
Elsewhere in the Margam Abbey there are numerous memorial
tablets on the walls that are of relevance:
One tablet to the memory of William Bruce Knight, a former
incumbent at the Abbey, also bears the name of the supplier
P.Rogers, Swansea and this tablet is held in place by a block of
polished limestone which has been identified as Mumbles Marble, as
is another to the memory of William Llewellyn held in place by two
further pieces of Mumbles Marble. Another tablet, in the Talbot
Chapel, is held in place by a block of polished Mumbles Marble.
The font at the Abbey is recorded as being of Mumbles Marble,
and is illustrated in the story of Margam Abbey however recent
examination reveals that the top and base are of two distinct and
different rock types and it is considered more likely that the
fawn-coloured top is of a coarse crinoidal limestone, from
Denbyshire, and the base, reddish in colour, is very different and
is possibly of Cork Red Marble from Ireland, very popular from the
1830s until the 1920s, and commonly known as Victorian Marble.
Major restoration works were undertaken at the church between
1872 –73 and there is reference to the replacement with a ‘fine
crinoidal limestone’ of that installed during the restoration of
1805-09…….this raises the question as to what became of the
original font made of Mumbles Marble – was it given to another
church in the area?
Further locations of
examples of Mumbles Marble
For those intrigued by this stone, another recorded example and
a place to visit locally is St Mary’s Church at Aberavon
Unfortunately, many of the larger houses of the area have now
been demolished or rebuilt. Fortunately many churches remain and
are potentially very rewarding
The
disappeared font
… further information on this, or other suspected local examples
of Mumbles Marble, would be much appreciated.
Selected further
reference on Mumbles Marble at Margam
- Adams,D.J.,1984, The restoration of Margam Abbey Church in the
19th Century
- Adams,D.J.,1988,The Tomb of Thomas Mansel Talbot, An
Anthology
- Austin, R.L. 1999,Mumbles Marble and its association with
Swansea and District
- Austin, R.L & Murray,A.,2001,Mumbles Marble – An
Update