In his great book on the Houses of Singleton, Bernard Morris covers the farms that made up the Singleton estate. This collection of farms and small holdings will be briefly outlined here, with more work to come in terms of mapping of the estate. The majority of this section is currently entirely based on Bernard’s work.
A few years back I georeferenced the known maps from the land that made up the Singleton estate on to LiDAR data in an effort to try and illustrate the land for each of the farms.
The Bryn Mills
Upper Mill is the blue land east of Gwerniddiff and lower mill is the pink land east of Marino in the above image.
John Henry acquired the mills and strip of land alongside Brynmill lane during the 1830s. Lower mill was important enough that Benjamin Rosser, it’s owner, paid £10 a year for a branch of the Oystermouth Railway to his yard.
Not much seems to be known of the mills themselves, and no depiction of them survives that I am aware of.
Gwerneinon Farm
This was a large farm around 40 acres in area. The farmhouse was recorded in a few different views and I hope to do a 3d representation of it in the future. The building itself was located around the bottom of the lane between Bishop Gore and St Paul’s Church – where the paths form a large triangle.
Gwerniddiff Farm
The lands of Gwerniddiff were east of the above mentioned Gwerneinon Farm and extended to around the path from the Gorsedd Stones – where the original course of the Brynmill stream lay. The lands of this farm were old having been in one family since the mid 17th century and contained some 44 acres.
Bryn Miskil Farm
Purchased by John Henry Vivian in 1828 along with Ty Gwyn. The farmhouse and out buildings were located around the side of the modern fire station on Sketty Lane. Although plans of the farm house and lands survive the building does not appear to have been captured in painting or drawing.
Elm Hall
Also known as Tir Sirie/Syree/Syre/Seiri/Seiry & Sirey… Also referred to as Tir Issa(or Isha) according to Bernard Morris. Bought from the Morris family in late 1827, and around 17 acres. Building removed by early 1840.
Ty Gwyn
One of the longer lasting of the old farms. Bought during the purchase of Bryn Miskil and combined with it in the LiDAR above it survived into the 1950s when the hospital finally put pay to it.
