Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - March 1984
Ian Morgan
Recently an article in the current issue of 'The Carmarthenshire Antiquarian' by Major Francis Jones drew my attention to some information about the 'Swan Pool' mentioned by Richard Fenton's 'Tours in Wales' 1804-1813. Fenton himself quoted the eminent antiquarian Edward Llwyd (1660-1709), Welshman and Keeper of the renowned Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His contributions to botany are celebrated by the naming of the rare Snowdon Lily (Lloydia serotina) after him; this plant being; found in Britain only on the Carneddau and Glyder in Snowdonia. Apart from his botanical studies he had interests in Celtic linguistics, geology and of course antiquarian matters, collecting a great deal of information by sending out questionnaires to knowledgeable people all over Wales. Llwyd's facts about the Swan Pool as quoted by Fenton are as follows:
"Here are two lakes close together called Swan Pool where there are plenty of Eels, and in the Winter store of Fowls such as Ducks and Teal, sometimes wild Swans or Elks and wild Geese. The adjoining one, stored with Turbot, Bret and Sole. They take here a large sort of Fish called Friers or Monk Fish"... "This Pool (or Pools for both may be called one) is called Swan Pool because the Lord of the Manor (Mr. Ball) has thereon about 40 Swanns. Before the hard frost there were about 80, which all died to six". (The last sentence is an early reference to the effects of bad weather on birds!)
Unfortunately this great pond was drained and filled in within living memory for the now disused. Pembrey, airfield at the beginning of the Second World War, thus depriving South-east Carmarthenshire of a rival for the noted Witchett and Kenfig Pools (in West Carmarthenshire and Glamorgan respectively). The Swan Pool would have been similar to these surviving pools in many respects such as their common locations in, or near, duneland areas ; the ornithological and botanical treasures must have been similarly outstandingly rich. Nesting duck could well have included Pochard, Tufted and Shoveller and the rare Marsh Harrier and Bittern would both probably be present. That the Bittern was once familiar (duo to its 'booming') to the Welsh is shown by the onomatopoeic 'Bwmp-y-gors' or 'Aderyn-y-bwn', Welsh names for that bird. Rare aquatic plants could well have been found growing in or near the Swan Pool.
Perhaps if the Swan Pool had been threatened by destruction during the more enlightened post-war period it might have been saved for its numerous scientific interests. But the sad fact is that here was a site which did not succeed, perhaps only by a decade or so, to survive into that time of enlightenment, when the conservation lobby would have been strong enough to save it. Thus it was that a locality which drew the attention of a discerning naturalist like Llwyd approx. 300 years ago, just failed 'to make it', only the name persisting and a little of its aquatic flora still surviving* in the 'Swan Pool Drain' on the landward side of Pembrey Forest.
* But nevertheless including rare plants (in VC44) like Chara vulgaris, Zannichellia palustris, Sparganium emersum, Potamogeton crispus and (found and in 1983), Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - the ' Frogbit', which is such feature of the newly-excavated ditch on our reserve at Ffrwd Fen.
