Images of Industry

The painting illustrates the beach at Oystermouth (the church is visible in the left background), with two Mumbles oyster dredgers laid-up just above the high tide mark. Remains of the track of the Oystermouth Tramway, latterly known as the Mumbles Railway, can be seen. During the 1850's and 1860's the railway gradually fell into decline and almost disuse but, in the early 1870's the line was rebuilt and extended beyond Oystermouth church. As commonly happened with the rebuilding of a railway track, the old rails were often left to one side and it would appear here that the old rails were simply crow-barred over the wall and onto the foreshore.