Cylchgronau Cymru

Weaver's Flour Mill, Swansea by Gerald Gabb The early part of 1984 saw the demolition of a building known in the city simply as "Weaver's", a landmark of the dockland and of the eastern approaches. It owed its celebrity to being the first multi-storeyed ferro- concrete building in Britain, but, as the dockland around it became defunct or was converted to leisure use, its very specialised design and lack of aesthetic appeal spelt its end. The car park of Sainsbury's store in Quay Parade now covers its site. Francois Hennebique, who began as a Parisian carpenter, invented what became known as ferro-concrete in about 1890. The significance of the term was that the method was not an attempt to reinforce concrete, but to com- bine the two materials so as to utilise the strengths of each: the compressive strength and resistance to fire and water of the concrete and the tensile