The Cornish entrepreneur John Vivian opened the Hafod Copperworks in 1810.
Vivian & Sons was established as a partnership between John Vivian and his two elder sons, John Henry Vivian and Richard Hussey Vivian. John Vivian invested £50,000 into the venture in 1809, the equivalent of over £4 million today.
The Hafod works was to become one of the largest and most innovative industrial enterprises in Europe. There were 24 furnaces in the 1810 works and by 1823 this had increased to 84. The different stages of roasting and smelting in reverberatory furnaces, in use throughout the period that Wales dominated the world copper trade, was known as the ‘Welsh Process’. It was adopted elsewhere and became the favoured method of smelting until it was replaced by newer technology towards the end of the nineteenth century.
By the 1840s Vivian & Sons were the largest exporters of finished copper in Britain.
In 1886 Vivian & Sons employed 3,000 people, of which 1,000 were employed at the Hafod works, but by that time it was proving to be more economical to smelt the copper ore at the mines in Chile and elsewhere around the world. This eventually led to the end of copper smelting in the Lower Swansea Valley.
Vivian & Sons traded from 1810 to 1924.Various mergers eventually led to Yorkshire Imperial Metals owning the works in 1957. The works closed in 1980.
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Agorwyd gwaith copr Hafod yn 1810 gan fuddsoddwr John Vivian o Gernyw. Seiliwyd Vivian a’i feibion fel partneriaeth rhwng John Vivian a’i ddau fab hynaf, John Henry Vivian a Richard Hussey Vivian. Buddsoddodd John Vivian £50,000 yn a fenter y 1809, cyfwerth a dros £4 miliwn heddiw.
Byddai gwaith yr Hafod yn tyfu i fod yn un o’r diwydiannau mwyaf llwyddianus a mwyaf creadigol yn Ewrop. ‘Roedd yna 24 ffwrnes yn y gwaith yn 1810 ac erbyn 1823, ‘roedd yn nifer wedi cynnyddu i 84. Gelwid y gwahanol gamau o chynhesu a toddi y copr mewn ffwrnesi adlewyrchol ‘y broses Cymreig’. Hwn oedd y gyfundrefn a ddefnyddid trwy’r cyfnod pryd ‘roedd Cymru’n meistrioli masnach copr y byd. Fe’i defnyddid mewn llefydd eraill ac aeth i fod yn dull dewisiedig o doddi nes gael ei ddisodli gan dulliau newydd tua diwedd y 19ed ganrif.
Erbyn yr 1840au, Vivian a’i feibion oedd allforwyr fwyaf copr gorffenedig ym Mhrydain. Yn 1886 ‘roeddent yn cyflogi tair mil o fobl, un mil ohonynt yng ngwaith Hafod. Erbyn yr adeg yna, ymddanghosodd ei fod yn rhatach toddi’r mwyn copr yn y gloddfa yn Chile ac yn llefydd arall ar draws y byd. Yn y diwedd, hwn achosodd dirywiad toddi copr yn nyffryn Tawe isaf.
‘Roedd Vivian a’i feibion yn gweithio o 1810 i 1924. Fel canlyniad i nifer o gyfunderau, Yorkshire Imperial Metals oedd y perchennogion erbyn 1957. Caeodd y gwaith yn 1980.
