Swansea and Port Talbot Docks History

Gareth Mills started work as a boy of 15 with the Alexandra Towing Company at Swansea. A keen photographer, encouraged by the company’s local manager Tom Richards, he began to keep a photographic record of the many ships visiting Swansea Docks, and also of the day-to-day activities of the Alexandra Towing Company’s tugboats.

Throughout the following decades, Gareth – always a well-known and popular figure on the dockside – went on to take countless photos of ships and cargoes at Swansea and Port Talbot, as well as accumulating a substantial collection of old docks photos, prints and documents from a variety of different sources.

On the following pages, with Gareth’s kind permission, we have reproduced a selection of photos representing just a small fraction of his extensive collection, the whole of which has now been donated to the Swansea Museum.

Sadly, after a long illness, Gareth Mills passed away on the 31st March 2011

Old Dock Images

Shipping (Pages 1-7)

Ferries and Pleasureboats