The Mansel-Talbots had, from an early date, involved themselves in industrial enterprises, granting numerous leases on their lands for iron and copper works and the extraction of coal, iron and limestone.
The management of the Margam estate was vested in the capable hands of the Llewellyn family for over a century.
General work on the estate included cutting chaff, mowing, collecting thistles and ferns, hauling dung, repairing walls and fences, clearing thorns and cleaning the ditches on Margam Moors.