Report - Ysgol Pen Rhos / Copperworks Community Infant School | Llanelli | May 24

[Ryhs]

The History:
Copperworks is situated approximately half a mile south of Llanelli Town Centre. It is the oldest remaining school in the Llanelli area and is rich in history, being established in 1847 by R.J.Nevill, to serve the children of the area. The original school building still stands to this day.
Richard Nevill was originally from Birmingham where his father was Mayor of the City and managed a Copper works. The family decided to move to Llanelli because of the heavy demand for coal in the newly developing industries in the South Wales area. Coal was plentiful in Llanelli.

In 1804, they approached a number of pit owners to secure a supply of coal for their proposed Copper Works. The construction of the Copper Works and its associated docks began in 1805.

The Nevill family were caring employers and created a mini welfare system for their employees. All the needs of the employees and their families were taken care of, midwives, healthcare, social care, housing and education were provided by the Nevill family.

Copperworks School was initially established as a works charity school, a free school for the children of parents who were employed at the Copper Works and the Caemaen and Box Collieries, by Richard Nevill in the early years of the 19th.century. The school existed in the yard of the Copper Works, and not on its present site.

Eventually, after many years the present school building was built by Richard Nevill along with contributions made by local industrialists. The school, which came into commission in 1847 was ranked as one of the outstanding schools of its type in the 19th century.
The Explore:
Entry was tricky, nearly fell off the roof but fortunately had a friend to hold me

The place is quite empty but there are still things to be found.

Quite a confusing spot to research, there is another ysgol pen rhos down the road but entry is sealed as of now. @RealBBNC and @A-DOG managed to get in around march and according to them ‘It’s the fun school’. Was confused until I saw a video of A-dog hopping off a springboard on the 2nd floor onto a crash mat, that guy is wild.

Anyways, Im gonna assume that they relocated or that this was the site for the younger students, it went under the copperworks name for most it’s history so I suppose I can refer to it as that from now on.

Enough Ranting, enjoy the pictures

The Photos:

A view from outside

A view from the inside yard

RealBBNC making his way into the canteen

One of the classrooms

The wallpaper is strange in this room

Some storage

The toilets

Another classroom

The layout of this school is strange to say the least, no proper corridors so you would walk through classrooms to get to where you needed to be, sounds like a nightmare

Some more toilets

Another classroom

I swear every school had something like this, Not sure why

The alarms

In the canteen going towards the kitchen

Some chairs just placed here, why here? I would not know

Whatever this is

More kitchen appliances, suprised these have not been wrecked

The main hall bit, also doubles as another canteen

Overall, it was not worth the climb for us all.
From what I have seen the other school had much more but I don’t have enough photos for a good report sorry

BBNC
Ryhs

 

[RealBBNC]

Good explore, need to check the other 2 buildings out

 

[Ryhs]

Good explore, need to check the other 2 buildings out

No chance there is a way in, but we will get in

 

[GhostoftheRoast]

Oh wow, I had no idea someone had been in Copperworks, this was my first primary school! I genuinely remember nothing of it, but it's cool to see inside it like this.

To address the confusion of the two Pen Rhos schools, they used to have different names. This school was Copperworks, and the bigger one further down the road was Lakefield. Going by what my mate told me, Copperworks had to be closed due to the building being in a poor state and rats being present. Because of this, Copperworks was integrated into Lakefield and then they called it Pen Rhos. I guess eventually that building too proved unsuitable, and a brand new school was built on the site of the old (actual factory) copperworks a few streets over, and that's the Pen Rhos of today.

So basically, Copperworks combined with Lakefield to make Pen Rhos, and then they built a new Pen Rhos on top of the copperworks. It's almost poetic.

 

[Ryhs]

Oh wow, I had no idea someone had been in Copperworks, this was my first primary school! I genuinely remember nothing of it, but it's cool to see inside it like this.

To address the confusion of the two Pen Rhos schools, they used to have different names. This school was Copperworks, and the bigger one further down the road was Lakefield. Going by what my mate told me, Copperworks had to be closed due to the building being in a poor state and rats being present. Because of this, Copperworks was integrated into Lakefield and then they called it Pen Rhos. I guess eventually that building too proved unsuitable, and a brand new school was built on the site of the old (actual factory) copperworks a few streets over, and that's the Pen Rhos of today.

So basically, Copperworks combined with Lakefield to make Pen Rhos, and then they built a new Pen Rhos on top of the copperworks. It's almost poetic.

Lakefield is also abandoned but its proper locked up, my mates been in and it’s very fun to mess around with all the crash mats and springboards

 

[c.f.spiral]

Lakefield is also abandoned but its proper locked up, my mates been in and it’s very fun to mess around with all the crash mats and springboards

Any more photos from either primary would be greatly appreciated I attended both , and its really interesting to see what happend .

 

[Ryhs]

Any more photos from either primary would be greatly appreciated I attended both , and its really interesting to see what happend .

I havent been into the other primary as of yet but I know ppl that have, not sure how many pics they have and the quality of them but I can try get my hands on them and pm you

 

[c.f.spiral]

I havent been into the other primary as of yet but I know ppl that have, not sure how many pics they have and the quality of them but I can try get my hands on them and pm you

Thank you that would be helpful