Please Note: Fishing will not be permitted on 23rd and 24th July
Daily Work Across the Estate
General work on the Margam estate covered a wide range of practical tasks: cutting chaff, mowing, collecting thistles and ferns, hauling dung, repairing walls and fences, and clearing thorns and ditches across Margam Moors. Sheep shearing was a major annual event, with shearers rewarded with a kilderkin of porter. In 1843 the park held more than 400 sheep, and each summer the Haywards were instructed to gather stray animals from Margam Mountain. Groups set out from Bryn and Cwm Kenfig, returning unclaimed sheep to the pound before they were sold at Taibach market for the benefit of the lord of the manor. From the late 1830s, Isaac Stubbs was paid for grazing cattle and horses in the park, while Job Townsend, the groom, received payment for keeping a colt belonging to one of Talbot’s associates. Early each spring, the dry fern and undergrowth around the park was burned — a blaze so large it could be seen from Swansea. Local farmers helped manage the flames, and the ash was used as manure. Haymaking was a major task too; in 1852 it lasted a fortnight and involved thirty‑eight men, women and children, with extra payment for thatching the ricks.
The History of Deer at Margam
Deer have been part of Margam for centuries. Seventeenth‑century paintings show them roaming the old deer park, and records from 1740 mention plans to restock the herd. By the late 18th century, red deer were being caught and penned, and in the 1830s both red and fallow deer lived in the park. Talbot even purchased two stags in 1832 in the hope they would breed with the existing hinds. Their presence, however, sometimes caused problems. Estate accounts show payments for capturing wandering bucks and compensation to farmers for damaged crops. One farmer, Charley Hayward, spent forty‑two nights in the winter of 1846 guarding his turnips from hungry deer.