The Morfa Copperworks was started in 1834, and built next door to the Hafod Works with only a high stone wall between the two works to divide them.
Legend has it that workers at Morfa were instructed not to talk to the Hafod workers for fear of giving away trade secrets.
In 1828 work had begun on building the steam-powered rolling mill that would eventually become the Swansea Museum Collections Centre (at the rear of Landore Park & Ride) that you can see today.
Morfa was operated by Williams Foster & Co. from 1835-80.
After 1894 family interest in the Hafod Copperworks dwindled and in 1924 the firm was absorbed into the adjacent Morfa complex. The latter was the largest non-ferrous metal smelter in the world by the mid-19th century.
British Copper Manufacturers owned the combined works until 1928, when they were taken over by ICI, although the refining of copper had ended around 1924.
The site was taken over by Yorkshire Imperial Metals, an amalgamation of ICI and Yorkshire Metals in 1957, the two works working as one, until closure in August 1980.
