Now, PENCLAWDD Grass Track Races 1966 the Crofty Industrial Estate now occupies this site, but Swansea Motor Club & Treseder family in particular held this event, after racing on the flat Grass tracks of the borders & Midlands & North of England this was the bumpiest surface I ever encountered & the Scrambles outfit drivers must have relished it.... Lynn Isaac driving & Ken Jones of Llanelli on that centre machine, Norton Frame, Triumph 650 powered Methanol fuelled machine built by Owen Greenwood, Roger Maughling of Knighton built the Forks, with Ray Price of Newport just behind us, Bill Purnell of Newport drives no 17. 

Broughton Bay (pronounced Bruffton) Speed Trials of 1927 is covered  in our Oxwich 1931 Section & it's has the Programme & reported records of results there plus a list of competitors & machines.

An 'East Indiaman' Bounty Hall of 700 tons came ashore in 1819 at Llanmadoc Sands undamaged in 'obscure' circumstances with a valuable cargo of rice spices & sugar.  villagers had assisted in discharging the cargo & the vessel itself was safely refloated.   Five days or so later the Swansea Cavalry were reported to go to safeguard the 'desirable' goods & foodstuffs which were praisworthily discovered to have been intact & as dumped in the Burrows.   What was to occur years later pales this.

However, I noted Burry estuary areas from west of Penclawdd , Whitford Sands, Llanrhidian, Llanmadoc, Broughton, (along Rhossili beach & other Gower seashore) were affected by possibly the largest maritime disaster seen in Wales?.    

Several days of storm & Westerly Gale conditions had kept vessels stormbound in port in 1868 until winds died down & on the evening of January, Sunday 22nd a fleet of 19 vessels departed outbound from Llanelly (old spelling) they were assisted by pilots vessel plus in light wind conditions & aided by 3 Tugs, each towing its quota of the assorted 80 to 400 tons vessels. Conditions did not appear unmanageable & the tide was to help them reach Whitford Sker then speed over Burry Holmes sand bar to the open water beyond, noone had imagined the swell conditions prevailing until the sandbar was approached.

Wind stilled, & a heavy groundswell increased to what was described as an extraordinary level & only 3 of the 19 vessels were able to reach the open sea, the remaining 16 vessels became entrapped, without wind and with a fierce ebb tide grounding them, (re. 'groundswell' waves you see travelling without breaking! as an ex pro. diver of many years I can assure you that what is seen on the surface is exactly the same effect on the seabed.) 

The trapped vessels were unable seek a lee to shelter from the huge waves or have a wind to travel & sought enough water beneath them to survive, anchors were laid  but from the wave forces cables snapped & vessels drifted at the mercy of the increasing ebb tide and pounding in shallow reaches . These waves lifted and slammed the vessel hulls of differing shapes loads & drafts in the shallows.  

Without even a gentle wind, sails could not even align the vessels head to the force & beam on rolling was yet another force to contend with. Where hard or rocky bottom was encountered, damage was sudden & severe.  Distress of so many vessels saw crews having to swim for the shores with some reaching Pembrey & others Gower at least 5 ships lay badly damaged on Whitford Sands with as many high & dry at Broughton, eighteen lives recorded to be lost.  2 ships were later learned to have reached their home Ports in France.

Of the 16 vessels four were of Llanelli, inc, Onward.  Amethyst was of Dublin, Jeune Celine of Jersey foundered with all hands, as did Waterfly.    Others such as The Brothers, Huntress of Workington, & Roscius of Llanelly were among those stranded on the sands.  Ann of Barnstaple was wrecked on Burry Holmes. Mary Fanny with a 4 man crew rounded Burry Holmes safely only to be wrecked in Rhossili Bay.  Mary Fanny was later salvaged & refitted to last for 50 yrs until sunk by a U Boat in 1918. Eliza of Jersey, Mary Anne of Amlwch, St Catherine of Fowey, Sophie of Regneville, plus the Pilot Cutter Ceres, all were involved. Elizaeth of Barnstaple albeit badly battered from the battering managed to make it to Tenby. A survivor from its sister ship Ann reported the severity of pounding with the estuary reaches had actually knocked its mainmast out.

The vessels which at this stage were extremely vulnerable and became pounded as they reached shallows & even more difficult to control at all.  Cpt. Thomas Roberts, the owner/master of The Brothers along with others on his tow thought they were able to clear the sand bar & cast off his tow to realise they had further to go an by 2300 hrs struck the bar itself & this became the obstruction to another Llanelly vessel Roscius badly holed & drifting down to collide with it out of control its 7 man crew & pilot. Brigantine Jeune Celine drifted by calling for assistance. Later The Brothers, although leaking itself cleared the bank & dropped anchor to repair & assess damage, quickly, when the damage from the pounding was evaluated the anchor cable was cut to enable the vessel to beach itself, the now both Crews reached refuge on the Hulk lightship in Broughton Bay on which crews of other vessels were desperately clinging exhaustedly.  The late Sunday evening with poor survival conditions over such a wide area saw an entire area the following morning display the aftermath of a catastrophy which needs no description.

Where bodies were recovered identifiable or not they were interred in consecrated grounds over Gower at this Llanmadoc Church plus I believe some were interred at Rhossilli Church.

A 1900 wreck occurred near Whitford sands where the ballast carrying Barquentine Agot was driven ashore & the Rhossili based LSA Company (Breeches Buoy) designed by Cornish cabinet maker Henry Trengrouse 1772 - 1854 in the early 1800's & which was recorded to have been in use on the Gower into WW2 when it came under Commander Hurst, whilst reported use is as late as 1988 & updated variations prevail.

This picture believed to be at a Cornish location shows the Rocket launching device which carried that all important first line to a stricken vessel to enable the buoy to be set up to save a great many distressed folk down the years.  The 4 wheeled apparatus carrier initially required its cart to be horse drawn to locations plus then the inevitable manoevring into a suitable position by a fit crew....That 'Breeches Buoy' which would be hauled to & from a vessel can be seen held by the chap at the lower left of the pic.

The vessel was safely on the beach after tide ebbed.  A pilot cutter from Llanelly (old spelling) had removed its crew safely leaving a Pilot aboard who would leave not even the coastguards aboard.   He had unfortunately to all made considerable use of the 'spirits' aboard & in spite of the ladder provided fell to the sand unconscious & the vessel slowly became deteriorated to become a total constructive loss.

Four yrs. later 1904 Steam Ship (SS) Evangeline was driven ashore in ballast inside Llanmadoc Point, a newish vessel hardly damaged her stores & provisions & ballast was discharged using farmers' carts, one of which was damaged when a seaman had propelled a block aimed at the culprit pocketing some of the biscuits from a torn bag.  Channels were cut in a process taking some months & the vessel pulled & refloated to deeper water.  

We are currently creating content for this section. We do need a more information & pictures of the event. Please stop by again. Thank you for your interest!