Early roads and transportation on Gower

The Gower Peninsula is a place that has changed dramatically during the last century or so. Even fifty years ago, its roads would have been unable to cope with the volume of traffic that traverses the peninsula nowadays, especially during the main tourist season. Road surfaces have been dramatically improved in recent years, there are numerous sign posts to help out the lost, and traffic calming measures have been introduced in some areas. However, great care must still be taken on Gower's roads, many of which are steep, narrow and/or winding, with high hedges, making it hard to anticipate what lies around the corner. You could encounter anything from a touring caravan to a farmer's tractor coming towards you. Newcomers to the peninsula must also be on the lookout for animals in the road. Gower is an agricultural region, with large tracts of unfenced common land. So sheep, cows and ponies are frequently seen wandering in the middle of its roads. Please kill your speed, not an innocent animal, yourself, or another person. That said, Gower's roads are far easier to negotiate in modern times, than they were century or so ago.

Gower's main roads were not tarred over until after World War I. Most of its roads were little more than dirt tracks, in fact. The few roads that were surfaced prior to this time, were covered with a loose layer of crushed limestone. These roads were often so treacherous to negotiate, that even in the early 1900s, Gower's inhabitants rarely ventured away from the peninsula. Diaries and other archival sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, illustrated the trepidation with which Gowerians viewed 'foreign' travel. If a Gower farmer was due to travel to London, or some other distant corner of the country, the journey was deemed so treacherous, and his likelihood of safe return so negligible, he would make his will and hold a final farewell supper for family and friends. When the farmer returned, a similar celebratory feast was held, to hail his safe return.

Gower roads were so rough and perilous, wheeled carts were not in general use until after 1830. This fact is quite staggering, when you place it in perspective. It is believed the first crude, wheeled vehicle was invented around 8,000 B.C. in Asia. But the oldest surviving wheel was discovered in Mesopotamia, and is believed to hail from around 3,500 B.C. These crude wheels were improved upon by the Egyptians, around 2,000 BC, and later, the Greeks. The advent of more modern-looking two and four-wheeled vehicles is attributed to the Romans. Yet in 1830, Gower farmers still relied on their packhorses, and transported their wares on primitives sleds or slide-cars. Wheeled vehicles were considered too costly and troublesome, as the rough roads would soon break an axle or wheel, and isolated Gower had no wheelwrights who could repair such vehicles.

The nineteenth century Gower road map bore little resemblance to the Ordinance Survey map of today. Instead of main arteries such as the North and South roads, the Penclawdd to Llanrhidian road, and the Bishopston/Pennard route, there was an extensive network of lanes and tracks. This network linked every village and farm, and many of these roads, although overgrown, still remain, often serving as public rights of way. Some of these routes were circuitous. Interestingly, one such route commenced at a ford near Fairy Hill, which is now a bridge. This route travelled north of Reynoldston, over Cefn Bryn itself, before descending to Penmaen, and all the way down to the stepping stones over Pennard Pill, leading to Three Cliffs Bay.

The Penclawdd to Llanrhidian road was laid in the 1920s, as a replacement for the winding, narrow, flood-prone road through the marshes. Prior to the First World War, life moved at a slower pace, and locals saw no great hardship in waiting for high tide to subside, before continuing their journey through the marsh. Those who chose not to wait, would drive their horse-drawn carts on through chest-high water, their carts often half-afloat. To ensure these impatient and reckless locals did not meet their ends in the deep gullies and ditches either side of the submerged road, the local council of the time installed stout wooden posts, which were visible above water level. The remains of these posts can still be seen today.

As mentioned earlier, many of Gower's roads were covered with crushed limestone. This made travel a very messy affair, thanks to the clouds of white dust hurled up by the passage of hooves and wheels. The exception to this was the unsurfaced road traversing the red sandstone ridge of Cefn Bryn. A journey over the Bryn would throw up clouds of red dust, and the road was known locally as the Red Road. On the limestone roads, when two or more vehicles went by in quick succession, other road users could not make out the road ahead, due to the massive white dust cloud thrown up. The photograph below was taken in Llanrhidian around 1932, from a spot just above the Welcome to Town. Although it looks a little like a snowscape, it shows an old, limed road.


The late 19th century saw the arrival of public transport on Gower, in the form of a horse-drawn bus. Despite seeming somewhat crude by modern standards, the horse-bus revolutionised travel on the Gower Peninsula. Prior to its advent, a trip into town from Gower's remoter parts was often a two day affair. Visiting artist, William Simmonds (1876 -1968), was given the following account, by a blacksmith at Llanmadoc, sometime in 1926:

"The old lady who used to live in the first little house along there I've heard say that she used to go into Swansea one day and come back the next - she'd start in the morning and take all day getting there and start back late at night and get home the next day".

There were three return horse-bus journeys a week from Port Eynon to Swansea, with the outward journey taking around four hours. The bus left Port Eynon at 5am and reached Swansea some time between 9 and 10am. It often carried not just passengers, but livestock too, on its way to be sold at market. The return journey was a much slower affair. The bus left Swansea anytime between 4 and 5pm, depending on when everyone had completed their buying and selling for the day. It would set out, its interior piled high to the roof, with both passengers and their purchases. It would stop at every tavern along the way, and would eventually arrive back in Port Eynon between 10pm and midnight that night. Most of the passengers on the bus would only undergo this journey three or four times a year, which was why the bus was always piled so high on its return journey, and why each trip was such an adventure.

The Taylor family ran a horse bus service from Llangennith to Swansea between 1896 and 1910. The first bus was in fact a converted farm wagon, and it made one journey a week, on Saturdays. Many farmers could not spare time to travel to market. So it was a common occurrence for them to load their produce or livestock onto the bus, for the driver to sell at market, on their behalf. C.D. Morgan gave a hair-raising account of a journey on the horse bus, this version of it appearing in "Gower Fact and Fable" by Roger Jones.

"There is no man on earth can go down hill like a Gowerian. I have driven thousands of miles and seen many crack 'whips' but I'll back our Gower champion against the world, and I should like to sit beside him once more on the box seat of the bus for another ride in the old fashioned racing style.

Talk about the Jockey Club and their four-in-hand thoroughbreds, they would not have been in it. When my friend gave his horses 'sheet' they seemed to fly. 20 miles an hour did not represent the pace. The steeds went straight as arrows and the wheels of the heavily laden bus revolved so fast the spokes appeared as threads.

One ride I shall never forget. The bus was full and just as we turned the crest of the hill the driver gave the horses "sheet" and they went hell for leather. They gathered speed down the hill. No stopping them now, the weight was too great, and the thing was could they keep ahead of the vehicle.

Planting his feet firmly on the footboard and holding the reins tight the driver let the horses go. The inside passengers were screaming as the bus suaged round the corners. But we went full stretch and gained the foot of Llethrid Hill in the grandest style man or horse ever did or ever will.

An officer who had been in a cavalry regiment sat beside me and the driver on this ride and when we dismounted to walk up the hill he was pale as a sheet and frankly told me he had ridden many a cavalry charge but he never felt such a sensation as he did coming down that hill".

Motor buses eventually took over the old horse-bus routes, around 1906. Apparently, on the early motor bus journeys from Rhossili, it was commonplace for passengers to get out and help push the bus or assist with repairs.

But travellers' woes did not end with the advent of the motor bus. Gower's early motor buses were bulky, as they had purpose built bodies, which facilitated the transportation of livestock and produce, as well as passengers. The bus's arrival was heralded not by a distant glimpse or the sound of the engine approaching, but by the huge dust cloud. Most passengers sat on the open, upper deck, and as well as getting coated in white limestone dust, they frequently had to duck overhanging tree branches. Furthermore, the early motor buses had non-existent suspension, solid tyres and rock hard seats. So those brave enough to venture into town, arrived caked in dust, with leaves and twigs adhering to their hair and clothing, and multiple bruises into the bargain. Even nowadays, a bus trip to Gower can be an eventful and bumpy ride, due to its tortuous lanes, and ever-increasing traffic levels. But early public transport users must have needed cast-iron constitutions to even contemplate, yet alone undertake, the arduous journey into town and back.