
:''This page is about Swansea in Wales. For others, see Swansea (disambiguation).'' {| class="toccolours" style="float: right; clear: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" |- !colspan=2 align=center bgcolor="#99ff99"|Swansea city |- |colspan=2 align=center| |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Geography |- |Surface area
- Total
- % Water||List of Welsh principal areas by area
1 E8 m² square kilometre
? % |- |Admin HQ||Swansea |- |ISO 3166-2:GB||GB-SWA |- |ONS coding system||00NX |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Demographics |- |Population
- Total (April 29, 2001)
- Density||List of Welsh principal areas by population
223,301
591 / km² |- |Ethnicity||96.1% White
1.6% S.Asian
1.2% Afro-Caribbean
1.1% Chinese |- |Welsh language
- Any skills||List of Welsh principal areas by percentage Welsh language
22.5% |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Politics |- |colspan=2 align=center|City & County of Swansea Council
http://www.swansea.gov.uk/ |- |Control||Liberal Democrats (UK) +
Conservative Party (UK) + Ind |- |MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005||Martin Caton
Sian James
Alan John Williams |} Swansea (Welsh language: ''Abertawe'' - "aber" river-mouth + river Tawe) is a city and county in South Wales, situated on the coast, immediately to the east of the Gower peninsula in the traditional county of Glamorgan. The name Swansea is believed to come from "Sweyn's Ey" ("ey" being a Germanic languages word for "island") and to have originated in the period when the Vikings plundered the south Wales coast. The city boundaries are widely drawn: they include a large amount of open countryside, towns like Gorseinon and Loughor, and the Gower peninsula. A healthy proportion of the population of the city and county are Welsh language speakers: 13.4% at the 2001 census, as compared with 11% for the capital city, Cardiff. Swansea is Wales' second city, and it grew to its present importance during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming a centre of heavy industry. However, it did not enjoy the same degree of immigration as Cardiff and the eastern valleys. Consequently, it retains close links with agriculture and rural life. According to the mid-year estimates for 2002, the population of Swansea was about 230,000. ==Geography== The Gower, to which Swansea is considered the gateway, is Britain's first area to be designated an Areas_of_Outstanding_Natural_Beauty_in_England_and_Wales . The coastal landscape of the county as a whole is stunning. The wide sandy beaches at Langland, Caswell and Limeslade are the most popular with swimmers and tourists with children, whereas the wide and calm waters of Swansea Bay tend to attract the water-sport enthusiast. Coastal paths connect most of the Gower bays and Swansea Bay itself, and hikers can enjoy breathtaking views throughout the year. As a coastal region, Swansea experiences a milder Climate of the United Kingdom than the mountains and valleys inland. This same location, though, leaves Swansea exposed to rain-bearing winds from the Atlantic: figures from the Met Office make Swansea city the wettest city in Britain. [http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14140027&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=soggiest-city-in-britain-pays-high-price-for-rain-name_page.html] The south Wales coalfields run right down to the coast in the county of Swansea. This had a great bearing on the development of the town. The former fishing village of Mumbles (located on the western edge of Swansea Bay) has excellent restaurants and coffee shops, and is a great place to pick up a local souvenir. In addition, the vista of Swansea Bay is perhaps most spectacular when viewed from the promenade at Mumbles. The village, also known as Oystermouth, is home to the ruins of a 12th Century Oystermouth Castle of the same name. ==History== ''Main article: History of Swansea'' Archaeology on the Gower peninsula includes many remains from prehistoric times, passing through Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Prehistoric finds in the Swansea city area proper are rare. The History_of_Wales#Wales_under_the_Romans visited the area, as did the Viking , whose name for the settlement on the river is used in English today. Following the Norman Conquest, a Welsh Marches was created: named Gower, it included land around Swansea Bay as far as the Tawe, and the manor of Kilvey beyond the Tawe as well as the peninsula itself. Swansea was designated its chief town, and subsequently received one of the earlier borough charters in Wales. Swansea became an important port: some coal and vast amounts of limestone (for fertiliser) were being shipped out from the town by 1550. As the Industrial Revolution reached Wales, the combination of port, local coal, and trading links with the west country, Cornwall and Devon, meant that Swansea was the logical place to site copper smelting works. Smelters were operating by 1720 and proliferated. Following this, more coal mines (everywhere from Gower to Clyne to Llangyfelach) were opened and smelters (mostly along the Tawe valley) were opened and flourished. Over the next century and a half, works were established to process arsenic, zinc and tin and to create tinplate and pottery. The city expanded rapidly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was termed "Copperopolis". Through the twentieth century, these industries eventually declined, leaving the lower Swansea valley filled with derelict works and mounds of waste products from them. The Lower Swansea Valley Scheme (which still continues) reclaimed much of the land: the present Enterprise Zone exists almost entirely a result of this scheme, and of the many original docks, only those outside the city continue to work as docks: North Dock is now Parc Tawe and South Dock became the Marina. Little city centre evidence beyond road layout remains from mediaeval Swansea; its industrial importance made it the target of heavy bombing in the war, and the centre was flattened completely. ==The city== In addition to being a holiday resort, Swansea is also a commercial centre, and the recently regenerated dock areas are home to some cutting-edge hi-tech industries. One of the most well-known employers in Swansea is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, or DVLA. Whilst the city itself has a long history, many of the city centre buildings are post-war as much of the centre was destroyed by World War II bombing in the so-called Three Nights' Blitz. Within the city centre, sites worth a visit are the ruins of a Swansea Castle, the Marina, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Museum, the Dylan Thomas Centre, the Environmental Centre, and the Central Market, which is the largest covered market in Wales. It backs onto the Quadrant shopping centre which was built in the seventies. Wind Street is the city's main watering hole and also the location of many high quality restaurants. Many of these buildings were originally banks (or the old central post office) and thus are substantially larger than some of the other city centre pubs. Discos and clubs line the Kingsway and this street is one of two hubs of central Swansea nightlife. The other being the aforementioned Wind Street. St Helen's Road connects the city centre with the Brynmill area, and has many Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants and shops on it: convenient when walking back from the Kingsway to Brynmill in the evening. Swansea was granted city status in the United Kingdom in 1969, to mark Charles, Prince of Wales's investiture as the Prince of Wales. It obtained the further right to a have Lord Mayor in 1982. The city is currently in the phase of further redevelopment. Many areas have seen changes within the 21st century. The Wales National Pool, of near-Olympic size, is now complete, although at the loss of two other swimming pools in the town. A new National Waterfront Museum has been built and is due to open in October 2005. Massive redevelopment of out-of-town retail parks is currently underway: as of 2005 Fforestfach Retail Park now has a Tesco Extra, along with the city's second openings of stores such as Dixons and Pizza Hut; and an area next to the new sports stadium in Landore has a large new B&Q warehouse and Morrisons supermarket. ==Culture== Swansea's diverse and interesting past has helped weave a city of character and charm, which has produced many famous personalities. On the literary stage, the poet Dylan Thomas is perhaps the most well known. He was born in the town and grew up at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands. There is a memorial to him in the nearby Cwmdonkin Park. The actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is probably the most famous of the city's recent cultural exports, and she maintains closes links with the city. The singer Bonnie Tyler, author Mary Balogh, singer/songwriter Mal Pope, scriptwriter and producer Russell T. Davies and entertainer Sir Harry Secombe were also born and raised in the city, as was the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. However, perhaps the city's most celebrated personality is Swansea Jack - a black labrador. During his seven years of life, he managed to save twenty-seven people from drowning in the murky waters of Swansea docks. There is a monument to commemorate Jack's gallant efforts on the foreshore near the St. Helen's stadium. St Helen's is one of two legendary sporting venues in Swansea. It is a cricket ground which is home to Glamorgan County Cricket Club. It was in this ground that Sir Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in one over: the first time this was achieved in a game of first-class cricket. One ball is reputed to have landed in the Cricketers' pub just outside the ground. It is also the traditional home of the All-Whites, Swansea RFC . Swansea RFC is now a feeder club for the newly-formed (in 2003) Neath-Swansea Ospreys regional rugby club. Swansea RFC remains at St Helen's, but the Ospreys are moving to the new stadium in Landore. Also moving to the new stadium are Swansea City F.C., the Swans, whose long-delayed move from their Vetch Field stadium is now underway. The final Ospreys match at St Helen's was played on the same day as the final Swans league game at the Vetch: April 30 2005. The Swans' football following are known as the Jack Army due to the regional nickname for people from Swansea. Strong local rivalries exist between Swansea and Cardiff in football and between Swansea and Llanelli in rugby. Swansea/Neath rugby games used also to be a hotly-contested match, such that there was some debate about whether a regional team incorporating both areas was possible. The Neath-Swansea Ospreys in fact came fifth in the Celtic League (Rugby Union) in their first year of existence as a regional team, and won the league in their second year. People from Swansea are known locally as Swansea Jacks, or just Jacks. The source of this nickname is not clear. Some attribute it to Swansea Jack, the life-saving dog. Others point to Swansea's long history as a port and the use of the word ''jack'' to indicate a sailor. There are a number of theatres in the city and the surrounding areas. The Grand Theatre in the centre of the city is a Victorian theatre which celebrated its centenary in 1997 and which has a capacity of a little over a thousand people. A new wing of the Grand, the Arts Wing, has a studio suitable for smaller shows (capacity about 200). The Taliesin building on the university campus has a theatre. Other shows are held at the theatre in Penyrheol Leisure Centre near Gorseinon. In the summer, outdoor Shakespeare performances are a regular feature at Oystermouth Castle, and Singleton Park is the venue for a number of parties and concerts, from dance music to outdoor Proms. Although Pontardawe is properly in the county of Neath Port Talbot, the trip from Swansea to Pontardawe for the annual folk festival is a short one. Another folk festival is held on Gower. There are several Welsh-language chapels and churches in the town and county. Welsh-medium education is an extremely popular choice for both English- and Welsh-speaking parents, leading to claims in the local press in autumn 2004 that to accommodate demand, the council planned to close an English-medium school in favour of opening a new Welsh-medium school. (Swansea Evening Post, September 8 2004, and subsequent issues.) 45% of the rural council ward Mawr speak Welsh, as do 38% of the ward of Pontardulais. Clydach, Kingsbridge and Upper Lougher all have levels of more than 20%. By contrast, the urban St Thomas has one of the lowest figures in Wales, at 6.4%, a figure only barely lower than Penderry and Townhill wards. Swansea hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1863, 1891, 1907, 1926, 1964 and 1982. The Eisteddfod returns to Swansea in 2006. As well as its more creditable achievements, Swansea has acquired a less enviable reputation for car crime: the BBC has described it as a "black spot for car crime" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/in_depth/uk/2002/cracking_crime/2262344.stm], for example. Car crime is a central theme in the film Twin Town, which is set in and around Swansea. ==Education== The University of Wales, Swansea has a large campus in Singleton Park overlooking Swansea Bay. Other establishments for further and higher education in the city include Swansea Institute of Higher Education and Swansea College, with Gorseinon College in the county but outside the city proper. Swansea Institute was particularly well-known for its Architectural Glass department [http://www.sihe.ac.uk/sihe/glass/baasg.htm]; stained glass was a long time speciality. There are fifteen comprehensive schools under the remit of the local education authority, of which two are Welsh-medium. ==Transport== ===Present-day=== Swansea is on the mainline railway. Its High Street railway station is part of the South Wales Main Line railway line, a branch of the Great Western Main Line, and also gets Arriva Trains Wales services on their way to west Wales: Carmarthen, Milford Haven and Haverfordwest. The Heart of Wales Line train service begins (or terminates, depending on your point of view) at High Street station, its bright orange and yellow carriage travelling via Gowerton to Llanelli where it joins the Heart of Wales line. Swansea is close to the M4 motorway (junctions 42 to 48 inclusive), the main artery for road traffic through south Wales. It is a National Express stop, and for a short while was on the Megabus route. The Swansea-Cardiff shuttle bus is heavily used. Swansea is also on the Traws-Cambria route which connects the north and south of the country together via Aberystwyth, a bus so well-known in Wales that songs have been written about it. The local commercial bus companies include FirstCymru. Some rural routes in the county are funded by the local council; this includes the majority of the services on Gower, for example, which are operated by Pullman Coaches. Swansea Airport is situated on Fairwood Common on Gower peninsula. It is primarily a domestic airport. It was first built during WWII when there was no need for an inquiry. Air Wales operated services from Swansea, but ceased to use the airport from late 2004. Some submarine communications cables leave the mainline of Great Britain from Oxwich Bay on Gower peninsula . There is a thriving passenger ferry service between Swansea and Cork. Much of the apparently baffling design of the public transport system (a bus and train station two miles apart, for example, with until recently minimal connection between the two) results from historical legacy. ===Historically=== ''See History of Swansea for a more detailed account of the evolution of the transport system.'' Railway lines and their predecessors for the purposes of transporting coal and heavy goods proliferated in the 19th century. The world's oldest passenger railway, the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, began as a tramway line in the 1800s for transporting heavy goods, with a branch line up into Clyne valley to connect with the colliery owned by Sir John Morris, one of the founders of the railway. A few tourists had been carried by the railway in the early days, but a scheduled passenger service only began around 1860. The Mumbles Railway was closed in 1960. Also used to transport goods rather than people were waterways such as the Swansea Canal. Swansea was also served by a network of trams, one of which connected the (still-used) High Street railway station with Victoria Station near the Slip on the bay. Some of Swansea was impossible to provide tram services to: the attempt to run a tram up and down the locally infamous slope of Constitution Hill, for example, quickly foundered. In 1944 the world's first test of a full-scale submarine oil pipeline was conducted on a pipeline laid between Swansea (Queen's Dock) and Cornwall in Operation Pluto. ==Local media== The local newspaper is the South Wales Evening Post. Local radio stations include Swansea Sound and 96.4 FM The Wave. Swansea is one of the few regions in Wales with reasonable digital radio coverage: this was improved in January 2005 with the launch of the Swansea Digital audio broadcasting multiplex. ==External links== Sports In Swansea * [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/whatleys/Swansea%20Rifle%20Club.htm Swansea Rifle Club] Swansea Landmarks * [http://www.castlewales.com/landimor.html Landimor Castle] * [http://www.castlewales.com/loughor.html Lougher Castle] * [http://www.castlewales.com/oxwich.html Oxwich Castle (Gower)] * [http://www.castlewales.com/pennard.html Pennard Castle (Gower)] * [http://www.castlewales.com/weobley.html Weobly Castle (Gower)] Directories * [http://www.regiochannel.co.uk/swansea/index.html Web directory providing information for Swansea] Cities in Wales Coastal cities Principal areas of Wales Swansea Glamorgan
In the page on `Swansea` it describes a healthy proportion of the population are Welsh - speaking. The vast majority of people in Swansea are non-Welsh speakers. I have lived here for 48 years in several areas ( or districts) and have only met one person who can speak Welsh. :You've lived a very sheltered life, then. Seriously though, it's true that most of the Welsh speakers are in the Swansea valley and outlying areas rather than the city centre. User:Deb 21:01, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC) ::According to the 2001 census 13% of Swansea (City & County) residents reported themselves as welsh speakers - and this was the same as the 1991 census results. ::: I realise that personal experience isn't enough to base an article on, but I hear Welsh in the city centre regularly. More usefully (well, I hope!), I do have some statistics about the language locally. Worth digging out? User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::::Duly dug. The additions to the article come from "Spreading The Word: The Welsh Language 2001", John Aitcheson & Harold Carter, Y Lolfa, 2004, which lists every council ward in Wales. User:Telsa 15:37, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC) has the name "swansea" anything to do with the german area called "schwansen"? :Probably not. User:Deb 19:06, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) Swansea was referred to as the city's 'English' name. This is incorrect, and so I've deleted it. As the article points out, the name has a North European origin. It was not that the city had two names, one given by the Welsh and the other coined by the English. Swansea is just the name that evolved from the original settlement. It has no connection with the English language. Incidentally, does anyone know when the Welsh name, Abertawe, first started being used? I can't find any historical reference for the name. Steve :Don't know about that, but one could argue that Swansea is the English name on the grounds that (a) it is an anglicised version of the original Scandinavian name, and that {b} it is the name English speakers use for the town. I'm not going to change it back, though. User:Deb 12:05, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC) * Yes, you make some good points. However, I still argue that referring to Swansea as an English name is incorrect, as it is not an anglicised pronouciation of the original Scandinavian name (as in, say, 'Beijing' being called 'Peking' by British missionaries), nor a name given to the city by the English, but is how the name evolved within the community itself. Only a few hundred years ago, the name was spelt Swanzee. It seems more of a coincidence that the final name sounds like a combination of two English words. As you know, the people of Swansea, while not being English by race are also not Welsh speaking (Here, I'm referring to the original town around the castle, not the northern suburbs), and those who settled on the Gower were predominately from Flanders. So, it is quite reasonble that the name would be less Welsh sounding than say Llanelli, which is predominantely a Welsh speaking town. Furthermore, Swansea is not only the name used for the city by English language speakers, but of all nationalities except the Welsh. Anyway, this is just a light hearted discussion about a topic that I've often wondered about. It would, however, be interesting to research when the name 'Abertawe' came into use and for what purpose it was introduced. Can anyone offer any imput on that? Anyway, thanks for your response, Deb - much appreciated. Steve :Unfortunately I can't reply on your talk page, as you don't seem to have registered. However, I would recommend you take a trip over to the Welsh wikipedia (we don't all speak Welsh fluently - in fact, most of us don't) and see if anyone there can shed any light on the origins of "Abertawe". User:Deb 20:09, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC) * Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot. - Steve ** I didn't see anything about the origins of the name on the Welsh wikipedia. Is it still needed? If so, I'll ask a friend who seems to have more books and articles on the subject than your typical library. User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- I am surprised to hear of people who don't realise there are a lot of Welsh speakers in Swansea. I hear it all the time. Maybe people who don't speak the language don't necessarily realise it is being spoken. I often find that I can't be sure which language local people are speaking when I cannot quite hear what they are saying. I have a whole set of local friends who I don't usually speak to in English. As for the name Abertawe I have no idea when it was first used but it seems to be a natural name that describes the area "mouth of the tawe". It describes the place by a geographical feature. There are "pen-y-bryn"s all over Wales for example. It just means "The top of the hill". User:neilj ---- ==living the dream?== There's a link to Morgans (the big hotel) under the title "living the dream" in the Famous People section. Should there be? User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Having now read Wikipedia:external links, it seems likely that the Morgans link is not the only one that shouldn't be there. I'm going to get rid of it and a couple more, and add more wiki links into the text. Hope that's okay. User:Telsa 15:08, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Muahaha. Added lots of internal links, removing the external links as I go. I don't know what to do about the sports and castles links. I don't think they should really be there, but I am only new here. User:Telsa 11:24, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ==Stuff to add== Before adding any more to this article (and there is lots to add! my current list includes Swansea Jacks, Swansea Valley (well, a bit), a bit more about the regions within the town, the old railway line(s) and Victoria station, Clyne Valley, Singleton Park and the botanical gardens, Twin Town, and about a thousand years' worth of history), I am going to rearrange it into paragraphs which can then have nice headings put on them. Hope this is alright with people? User:Telsa 11:24, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ==Sources for figures== The sources for the figures I just added to the article about education: I got the comprehensive schools from a November 2004-dated PDF off the local council website. And I've just removed the figures about full-time students because I got them from the [http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk UK government statistics website] and on reading the about-this-site-and-these-stats pages, I am apparently supposed to obtain some click-use licence before using them. (Uhhh?) My naive reading of this suggests they're useless for wikipedia articles as a result. Can that be right? User:Telsa 16:44, 1 May 2005 (UTC) :I'm not sure but I'd guess the licence thing is only if you want to use them commercially, eg. for market research. I can't see how the government can stop us using them in wikipedia articles -- or why they would want to. User:Deb 17:14, 1 May 2005 (UTC) I have just messed around on the [http://www.clickanduse.hmso.gov.uk] website which provides these licences. You have to make an account there before you can even apply for a licence! I have now created an account, and the possible licences look completely unusable from a wikipedia point of view: time-limited among other things. This statistic will self-destruct in five years, and so on. It seems that the data is public, but the aggregations from all these different sources are Crown copyright. I expect I can get individual statistics from the council quite fairly, however, so I shall make long phone calls on Tuesday morning. Sorry if all this is over-careful, but it is always easier to add stuff than to try to unpick stuff which shouldn't be there out of it. Is there a more general place I can raise this issue? I can't be the only person on Wikipedia who uses statistics.gov.uk: it is utterly fascinating! So someone else must have had this idea for a source before. The Swansea talk page seems a silly place to ask, though. Where can I raise this? User:Telsa 18:32, 1 May 2005 (UTC) Answering my own question, I have had half an answer from the Crown copyright people, but it is in direct contradiction to the responses someone else on Wikipedia was getting, so I shall try and figure out what's going on before blithely assuming. User:Telsa 14:00, 8 May 2005 (UTC) ==External links: regiochannel== (Incidentally, I just realised why my titles weren't showing up and have turned all my titles with three = marks into titles with two to make them show up properly on this page) Can User:84.137.32.245 explain why s/he is running around putting regiochannel.co.uk links into various UK city articles? I removed a pile of others recently, following the "Wikipedia is not a web directory" suggestions of Wikipedia:external links and I would like to remove this regiochannel one too. If no-one says I shouldn't, I shall remove it in a few days. I have to admit that I think the ones I removed originally were much more relevant and encyclopaedic than this one, which seems to be content from DMoz. User:Telsa 14:00, 8 May 2005 (UTC) == Expand section or create new page? == Advice please. I have put an extremely terse summary of Swansea history in as a section, but I actually have some 1500 words on the subject, including more about people as well as which industries started when. I think it might completely unbalance the Swansea article to put it all here. It must be as long as all the rest put together. Should I put it in anyway, to replace what I have already? Or should I create a History of Swansea page and put it all there? User:Telsa 10:05, 13 May 2005 (UTC) :I'd go for a new section if you've got that much material, and just cross-reference it from here. User:Deb 11:55, 13 May 2005 (UTC) ==Transport links?== Precious little (nothing?) about transport at all - surely an important place like Swansea should have a section on that! It is on a motorway; a mainline station with cross country links; docks including ferry to Ireland; and an airport! User:Peter Shearan 15:44, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC) :I agree. It was on my list of things to do (see the stuff to add) above. I have added a stubby start. Feel free to augment. :) The railways history in particular seems to be very complicated; I have 1850s and 1904 OS maps of Swansea which show all manner of links and companies which are not there now, and I am still disentangling them. I am also utterly baffled that the Heart of Wales can start off from Swansea -- which it does, I see it there all the time -- and yet apparently technically Swansea is not part of the Heart of Wales line. :Stuff I know I have omitted so far. Trains: St Thomas station (gone now), Landore is where the depot is, the Post Office sorting trains (now gone, but are they coming back?), local services, request stops. Buses: who runs the new Gower buses? How true is it that all the Gurkhas who lost their jobs in Llanelli ended up on the Gower run? I think pensioners in Wales get free/cheap travel courtesy of the Assembly: worth a mention if true? Who are the company running the "other" bus to the university, the £1 one? Waterways: well, everything about non-people transport, for a start, I know nothing about it. And what gets sent from the docks would be interesting, too. Cycle paths, Sustrans (Swansea's part of something in that; also it has what may be the shortest cycle path in the world, perhaps I shall go and measure it for laughs). The silly toy "train" on the old Mumbles railway. Links generally: we now have the beginnings of Swansea/rest of world and round Swansea town services, but Swansea-rest-of-county is completely lacking. Anything else? :This will all be much easier when the transport museum re-opens! :--User:Telsa 13:07, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC) Under 'Culture', you mention :'Swansea's diverse and interesting past has helped weave a city of character and charm, and as one would expect, the land has been very fertile in producing famous personalities', however, I fail to see how a city of character and charm necessarily equates to the production of famous personalities. If anything, the proportion of famous personalities is lower in cities of character and charm than in those lacking charm and character - take Peter Kay's Bolton heritage for instance. User:163.1.227.76 22:54, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC) :Good point, but why didn't you just change it yourself? User:Deb 17:00, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The city of Swansea is one of the principal areas of Wales. This category contains locations within the principal area. Principal areas of Wales
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Swansea
:''This page is about Swansea in Wales. For others, see Swansea (disambiguation).'' {| class="toccolours" style="float: right; clear: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" |- !colspan=2 align=center bgcolor="#99ff99"|Swansea city |- |colspan=2 align=center| |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Geography |- |Surface area
- Total
- % Water||List of Welsh principal areas by area
1 E8 m² square kilometre
? % |- |Admin HQ||Swansea |- |ISO 3166-2:GB||GB-SWA |- |ONS coding system||00NX |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Demographics |- |Population
- Total (April 29, 2001)
- Density||List of Welsh principal areas by population
223,301
591 / km² |- |Ethnicity||96.1% White
1.6% S.Asian
1.2% Afro-Caribbean
1.1% Chinese |- |Welsh language
- Any skills||List of Welsh principal areas by percentage Welsh language
22.5% |- !colspan=2 bgcolor="#99ff99"|Politics |- |colspan=2 align=center|City & County of Swansea Council
http://www.swansea.gov.uk/ |- |Control||Liberal Democrats (UK) +
Conservative Party (UK) + Ind |- |MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005||Martin Caton
Sian James
Alan John Williams |} Swansea (Welsh language: ''Abertawe'' - "aber" river-mouth + river Tawe) is a city and county in South Wales, situated on the coast, immediately to the east of the Gower peninsula in the traditional county of Glamorgan. The name Swansea is believed to come from "Sweyn's Ey" ("ey" being a Germanic languages word for "island") and to have originated in the period when the Vikings plundered the south Wales coast. The city boundaries are widely drawn: they include a large amount of open countryside, towns like Gorseinon and Loughor, and the Gower peninsula. A healthy proportion of the population of the city and county are Welsh language speakers: 13.4% at the 2001 census, as compared with 11% for the capital city, Cardiff. Swansea is Wales' second city, and it grew to its present importance during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming a centre of heavy industry. However, it did not enjoy the same degree of immigration as Cardiff and the eastern valleys. Consequently, it retains close links with agriculture and rural life. According to the mid-year estimates for 2002, the population of Swansea was about 230,000. ==Geography== The Gower, to which Swansea is considered the gateway, is Britain's first area to be designated an Areas_of_Outstanding_Natural_Beauty_in_England_and_Wales . The coastal landscape of the county as a whole is stunning. The wide sandy beaches at Langland, Caswell and Limeslade are the most popular with swimmers and tourists with children, whereas the wide and calm waters of Swansea Bay tend to attract the water-sport enthusiast. Coastal paths connect most of the Gower bays and Swansea Bay itself, and hikers can enjoy breathtaking views throughout the year. As a coastal region, Swansea experiences a milder Climate of the United Kingdom than the mountains and valleys inland. This same location, though, leaves Swansea exposed to rain-bearing winds from the Atlantic: figures from the Met Office make Swansea city the wettest city in Britain. [http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=14140027&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=soggiest-city-in-britain-pays-high-price-for-rain-name_page.html] The south Wales coalfields run right down to the coast in the county of Swansea. This had a great bearing on the development of the town. The former fishing village of Mumbles (located on the western edge of Swansea Bay) has excellent restaurants and coffee shops, and is a great place to pick up a local souvenir. In addition, the vista of Swansea Bay is perhaps most spectacular when viewed from the promenade at Mumbles. The village, also known as Oystermouth, is home to the ruins of a 12th Century Oystermouth Castle of the same name. ==History== ''Main article: History of Swansea'' Archaeology on the Gower peninsula includes many remains from prehistoric times, passing through Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Prehistoric finds in the Swansea city area proper are rare. The History_of_Wales#Wales_under_the_Romans visited the area, as did the Viking , whose name for the settlement on the river is used in English today. Following the Norman Conquest, a Welsh Marches was created: named Gower, it included land around Swansea Bay as far as the Tawe, and the manor of Kilvey beyond the Tawe as well as the peninsula itself. Swansea was designated its chief town, and subsequently received one of the earlier borough charters in Wales. Swansea became an important port: some coal and vast amounts of limestone (for fertiliser) were being shipped out from the town by 1550. As the Industrial Revolution reached Wales, the combination of port, local coal, and trading links with the west country, Cornwall and Devon, meant that Swansea was the logical place to site copper smelting works. Smelters were operating by 1720 and proliferated. Following this, more coal mines (everywhere from Gower to Clyne to Llangyfelach) were opened and smelters (mostly along the Tawe valley) were opened and flourished. Over the next century and a half, works were established to process arsenic, zinc and tin and to create tinplate and pottery. The city expanded rapidly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was termed "Copperopolis". Through the twentieth century, these industries eventually declined, leaving the lower Swansea valley filled with derelict works and mounds of waste products from them. The Lower Swansea Valley Scheme (which still continues) reclaimed much of the land: the present Enterprise Zone exists almost entirely a result of this scheme, and of the many original docks, only those outside the city continue to work as docks: North Dock is now Parc Tawe and South Dock became the Marina. Little city centre evidence beyond road layout remains from mediaeval Swansea; its industrial importance made it the target of heavy bombing in the war, and the centre was flattened completely. ==The city== In addition to being a holiday resort, Swansea is also a commercial centre, and the recently regenerated dock areas are home to some cutting-edge hi-tech industries. One of the most well-known employers in Swansea is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, or DVLA. Whilst the city itself has a long history, many of the city centre buildings are post-war as much of the centre was destroyed by World War II bombing in the so-called Three Nights' Blitz. Within the city centre, sites worth a visit are the ruins of a Swansea Castle, the Marina, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Museum, the Dylan Thomas Centre, the Environmental Centre, and the Central Market, which is the largest covered market in Wales. It backs onto the Quadrant shopping centre which was built in the seventies. Wind Street is the city's main watering hole and also the location of many high quality restaurants. Many of these buildings were originally banks (or the old central post office) and thus are substantially larger than some of the other city centre pubs. Discos and clubs line the Kingsway and this street is one of two hubs of central Swansea nightlife. The other being the aforementioned Wind Street. St Helen's Road connects the city centre with the Brynmill area, and has many Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants and shops on it: convenient when walking back from the Kingsway to Brynmill in the evening. Swansea was granted city status in the United Kingdom in 1969, to mark Charles, Prince of Wales's investiture as the Prince of Wales. It obtained the further right to a have Lord Mayor in 1982. The city is currently in the phase of further redevelopment. Many areas have seen changes within the 21st century. The Wales National Pool, of near-Olympic size, is now complete, although at the loss of two other swimming pools in the town. A new National Waterfront Museum has been built and is due to open in October 2005. Massive redevelopment of out-of-town retail parks is currently underway: as of 2005 Fforestfach Retail Park now has a Tesco Extra, along with the city's second openings of stores such as Dixons and Pizza Hut; and an area next to the new sports stadium in Landore has a large new B&Q warehouse and Morrisons supermarket. ==Culture== Swansea's diverse and interesting past has helped weave a city of character and charm, which has produced many famous personalities. On the literary stage, the poet Dylan Thomas is perhaps the most well known. He was born in the town and grew up at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands. There is a memorial to him in the nearby Cwmdonkin Park. The actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is probably the most famous of the city's recent cultural exports, and she maintains closes links with the city. The singer Bonnie Tyler, author Mary Balogh, singer/songwriter Mal Pope, scriptwriter and producer Russell T. Davies and entertainer Sir Harry Secombe were also born and raised in the city, as was the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. However, perhaps the city's most celebrated personality is Swansea Jack - a black labrador. During his seven years of life, he managed to save twenty-seven people from drowning in the murky waters of Swansea docks. There is a monument to commemorate Jack's gallant efforts on the foreshore near the St. Helen's stadium. St Helen's is one of two legendary sporting venues in Swansea. It is a cricket ground which is home to Glamorgan County Cricket Club. It was in this ground that Sir Garfield Sobers hit six sixes in one over: the first time this was achieved in a game of first-class cricket. One ball is reputed to have landed in the Cricketers' pub just outside the ground. It is also the traditional home of the All-Whites, Swansea RFC . Swansea RFC is now a feeder club for the newly-formed (in 2003) Neath-Swansea Ospreys regional rugby club. Swansea RFC remains at St Helen's, but the Ospreys are moving to the new stadium in Landore. Also moving to the new stadium are Swansea City F.C., the Swans, whose long-delayed move from their Vetch Field stadium is now underway. The final Ospreys match at St Helen's was played on the same day as the final Swans league game at the Vetch: April 30 2005. The Swans' football following are known as the Jack Army due to the regional nickname for people from Swansea. Strong local rivalries exist between Swansea and Cardiff in football and between Swansea and Llanelli in rugby. Swansea/Neath rugby games used also to be a hotly-contested match, such that there was some debate about whether a regional team incorporating both areas was possible. The Neath-Swansea Ospreys in fact came fifth in the Celtic League (Rugby Union) in their first year of existence as a regional team, and won the league in their second year. People from Swansea are known locally as Swansea Jacks, or just Jacks. The source of this nickname is not clear. Some attribute it to Swansea Jack, the life-saving dog. Others point to Swansea's long history as a port and the use of the word ''jack'' to indicate a sailor. There are a number of theatres in the city and the surrounding areas. The Grand Theatre in the centre of the city is a Victorian theatre which celebrated its centenary in 1997 and which has a capacity of a little over a thousand people. A new wing of the Grand, the Arts Wing, has a studio suitable for smaller shows (capacity about 200). The Taliesin building on the university campus has a theatre. Other shows are held at the theatre in Penyrheol Leisure Centre near Gorseinon. In the summer, outdoor Shakespeare performances are a regular feature at Oystermouth Castle, and Singleton Park is the venue for a number of parties and concerts, from dance music to outdoor Proms. Although Pontardawe is properly in the county of Neath Port Talbot, the trip from Swansea to Pontardawe for the annual folk festival is a short one. Another folk festival is held on Gower. There are several Welsh-language chapels and churches in the town and county. Welsh-medium education is an extremely popular choice for both English- and Welsh-speaking parents, leading to claims in the local press in autumn 2004 that to accommodate demand, the council planned to close an English-medium school in favour of opening a new Welsh-medium school. (Swansea Evening Post, September 8 2004, and subsequent issues.) 45% of the rural council ward Mawr speak Welsh, as do 38% of the ward of Pontardulais. Clydach, Kingsbridge and Upper Lougher all have levels of more than 20%. By contrast, the urban St Thomas has one of the lowest figures in Wales, at 6.4%, a figure only barely lower than Penderry and Townhill wards. Swansea hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1863, 1891, 1907, 1926, 1964 and 1982. The Eisteddfod returns to Swansea in 2006. As well as its more creditable achievements, Swansea has acquired a less enviable reputation for car crime: the BBC has described it as a "black spot for car crime" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/in_depth/uk/2002/cracking_crime/2262344.stm], for example. Car crime is a central theme in the film Twin Town, which is set in and around Swansea. ==Education== The University of Wales, Swansea has a large campus in Singleton Park overlooking Swansea Bay. Other establishments for further and higher education in the city include Swansea Institute of Higher Education and Swansea College, with Gorseinon College in the county but outside the city proper. Swansea Institute was particularly well-known for its Architectural Glass department [http://www.sihe.ac.uk/sihe/glass/baasg.htm]; stained glass was a long time speciality. There are fifteen comprehensive schools under the remit of the local education authority, of which two are Welsh-medium. ==Transport== ===Present-day=== Swansea is on the mainline railway. Its High Street railway station is part of the South Wales Main Line railway line, a branch of the Great Western Main Line, and also gets Arriva Trains Wales services on their way to west Wales: Carmarthen, Milford Haven and Haverfordwest. The Heart of Wales Line train service begins (or terminates, depending on your point of view) at High Street station, its bright orange and yellow carriage travelling via Gowerton to Llanelli where it joins the Heart of Wales line. Swansea is close to the M4 motorway (junctions 42 to 48 inclusive), the main artery for road traffic through south Wales. It is a National Express stop, and for a short while was on the Megabus route. The Swansea-Cardiff shuttle bus is heavily used. Swansea is also on the Traws-Cambria route which connects the north and south of the country together via Aberystwyth, a bus so well-known in Wales that songs have been written about it. The local commercial bus companies include FirstCymru. Some rural routes in the county are funded by the local council; this includes the majority of the services on Gower, for example, which are operated by Pullman Coaches. Swansea Airport is situated on Fairwood Common on Gower peninsula. It is primarily a domestic airport. It was first built during WWII when there was no need for an inquiry. Air Wales operated services from Swansea, but ceased to use the airport from late 2004. Some submarine communications cables leave the mainline of Great Britain from Oxwich Bay on Gower peninsula . There is a thriving passenger ferry service between Swansea and Cork. Much of the apparently baffling design of the public transport system (a bus and train station two miles apart, for example, with until recently minimal connection between the two) results from historical legacy. ===Historically=== ''See History of Swansea for a more detailed account of the evolution of the transport system.'' Railway lines and their predecessors for the purposes of transporting coal and heavy goods proliferated in the 19th century. The world's oldest passenger railway, the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, began as a tramway line in the 1800s for transporting heavy goods, with a branch line up into Clyne valley to connect with the colliery owned by Sir John Morris, one of the founders of the railway. A few tourists had been carried by the railway in the early days, but a scheduled passenger service only began around 1860. The Mumbles Railway was closed in 1960. Also used to transport goods rather than people were waterways such as the Swansea Canal. Swansea was also served by a network of trams, one of which connected the (still-used) High Street railway station with Victoria Station near the Slip on the bay. Some of Swansea was impossible to provide tram services to: the attempt to run a tram up and down the locally infamous slope of Constitution Hill, for example, quickly foundered. In 1944 the world's first test of a full-scale submarine oil pipeline was conducted on a pipeline laid between Swansea (Queen's Dock) and Cornwall in Operation Pluto. ==Local media== The local newspaper is the South Wales Evening Post. Local radio stations include Swansea Sound and 96.4 FM The Wave. Swansea is one of the few regions in Wales with reasonable digital radio coverage: this was improved in January 2005 with the launch of the Swansea Digital audio broadcasting multiplex. ==External links== Sports In Swansea * [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/whatleys/Swansea%20Rifle%20Club.htm Swansea Rifle Club] Swansea Landmarks * [http://www.castlewales.com/landimor.html Landimor Castle] * [http://www.castlewales.com/loughor.html Lougher Castle] * [http://www.castlewales.com/oxwich.html Oxwich Castle (Gower)] * [http://www.castlewales.com/pennard.html Pennard Castle (Gower)] * [http://www.castlewales.com/weobley.html Weobly Castle (Gower)] Directories * [http://www.regiochannel.co.uk/swansea/index.html Web directory providing information for Swansea] Cities in Wales Coastal cities Principal areas of Wales Swansea Glamorgan
Swansea
In the page on `Swansea` it describes a healthy proportion of the population are Welsh - speaking. The vast majority of people in Swansea are non-Welsh speakers. I have lived here for 48 years in several areas ( or districts) and have only met one person who can speak Welsh. :You've lived a very sheltered life, then. Seriously though, it's true that most of the Welsh speakers are in the Swansea valley and outlying areas rather than the city centre. User:Deb 21:01, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC) ::According to the 2001 census 13% of Swansea (City & County) residents reported themselves as welsh speakers - and this was the same as the 1991 census results. ::: I realise that personal experience isn't enough to base an article on, but I hear Welsh in the city centre regularly. More usefully (well, I hope!), I do have some statistics about the language locally. Worth digging out? User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::::Duly dug. The additions to the article come from "Spreading The Word: The Welsh Language 2001", John Aitcheson & Harold Carter, Y Lolfa, 2004, which lists every council ward in Wales. User:Telsa 15:37, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC) has the name "swansea" anything to do with the german area called "schwansen"? :Probably not. User:Deb 19:06, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC) Swansea was referred to as the city's 'English' name. This is incorrect, and so I've deleted it. As the article points out, the name has a North European origin. It was not that the city had two names, one given by the Welsh and the other coined by the English. Swansea is just the name that evolved from the original settlement. It has no connection with the English language. Incidentally, does anyone know when the Welsh name, Abertawe, first started being used? I can't find any historical reference for the name. Steve :Don't know about that, but one could argue that Swansea is the English name on the grounds that (a) it is an anglicised version of the original Scandinavian name, and that {b} it is the name English speakers use for the town. I'm not going to change it back, though. User:Deb 12:05, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC) * Yes, you make some good points. However, I still argue that referring to Swansea as an English name is incorrect, as it is not an anglicised pronouciation of the original Scandinavian name (as in, say, 'Beijing' being called 'Peking' by British missionaries), nor a name given to the city by the English, but is how the name evolved within the community itself. Only a few hundred years ago, the name was spelt Swanzee. It seems more of a coincidence that the final name sounds like a combination of two English words. As you know, the people of Swansea, while not being English by race are also not Welsh speaking (Here, I'm referring to the original town around the castle, not the northern suburbs), and those who settled on the Gower were predominately from Flanders. So, it is quite reasonble that the name would be less Welsh sounding than say Llanelli, which is predominantely a Welsh speaking town. Furthermore, Swansea is not only the name used for the city by English language speakers, but of all nationalities except the Welsh. Anyway, this is just a light hearted discussion about a topic that I've often wondered about. It would, however, be interesting to research when the name 'Abertawe' came into use and for what purpose it was introduced. Can anyone offer any imput on that? Anyway, thanks for your response, Deb - much appreciated. Steve :Unfortunately I can't reply on your talk page, as you don't seem to have registered. However, I would recommend you take a trip over to the Welsh wikipedia (we don't all speak Welsh fluently - in fact, most of us don't) and see if anyone there can shed any light on the origins of "Abertawe". User:Deb 20:09, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC) * Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot. - Steve ** I didn't see anything about the origins of the name on the Welsh wikipedia. Is it still needed? If so, I'll ask a friend who seems to have more books and articles on the subject than your typical library. User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---- I am surprised to hear of people who don't realise there are a lot of Welsh speakers in Swansea. I hear it all the time. Maybe people who don't speak the language don't necessarily realise it is being spoken. I often find that I can't be sure which language local people are speaking when I cannot quite hear what they are saying. I have a whole set of local friends who I don't usually speak to in English. As for the name Abertawe I have no idea when it was first used but it seems to be a natural name that describes the area "mouth of the tawe". It describes the place by a geographical feature. There are "pen-y-bryn"s all over Wales for example. It just means "The top of the hill". User:neilj ---- ==living the dream?== There's a link to Morgans (the big hotel) under the title "living the dream" in the Famous People section. Should there be? User:Telsa 09:26, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Having now read Wikipedia:external links, it seems likely that the Morgans link is not the only one that shouldn't be there. I'm going to get rid of it and a couple more, and add more wiki links into the text. Hope that's okay. User:Telsa 15:08, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Muahaha. Added lots of internal links, removing the external links as I go. I don't know what to do about the sports and castles links. I don't think they should really be there, but I am only new here. User:Telsa 11:24, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ==Stuff to add== Before adding any more to this article (and there is lots to add! my current list includes Swansea Jacks, Swansea Valley (well, a bit), a bit more about the regions within the town, the old railway line(s) and Victoria station, Clyne Valley, Singleton Park and the botanical gardens, Twin Town, and about a thousand years' worth of history), I am going to rearrange it into paragraphs which can then have nice headings put on them. Hope this is alright with people? User:Telsa 11:24, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ==Sources for figures== The sources for the figures I just added to the article about education: I got the comprehensive schools from a November 2004-dated PDF off the local council website. And I've just removed the figures about full-time students because I got them from the [http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk UK government statistics website] and on reading the about-this-site-and-these-stats pages, I am apparently supposed to obtain some click-use licence before using them. (Uhhh?) My naive reading of this suggests they're useless for wikipedia articles as a result. Can that be right? User:Telsa 16:44, 1 May 2005 (UTC) :I'm not sure but I'd guess the licence thing is only if you want to use them commercially, eg. for market research. I can't see how the government can stop us using them in wikipedia articles -- or why they would want to. User:Deb 17:14, 1 May 2005 (UTC) I have just messed around on the [http://www.clickanduse.hmso.gov.uk] website which provides these licences. You have to make an account there before you can even apply for a licence! I have now created an account, and the possible licences look completely unusable from a wikipedia point of view: time-limited among other things. This statistic will self-destruct in five years, and so on. It seems that the data is public, but the aggregations from all these different sources are Crown copyright. I expect I can get individual statistics from the council quite fairly, however, so I shall make long phone calls on Tuesday morning. Sorry if all this is over-careful, but it is always easier to add stuff than to try to unpick stuff which shouldn't be there out of it. Is there a more general place I can raise this issue? I can't be the only person on Wikipedia who uses statistics.gov.uk: it is utterly fascinating! So someone else must have had this idea for a source before. The Swansea talk page seems a silly place to ask, though. Where can I raise this? User:Telsa 18:32, 1 May 2005 (UTC) Answering my own question, I have had half an answer from the Crown copyright people, but it is in direct contradiction to the responses someone else on Wikipedia was getting, so I shall try and figure out what's going on before blithely assuming. User:Telsa 14:00, 8 May 2005 (UTC) ==External links: regiochannel== (Incidentally, I just realised why my titles weren't showing up and have turned all my titles with three = marks into titles with two to make them show up properly on this page) Can User:84.137.32.245 explain why s/he is running around putting regiochannel.co.uk links into various UK city articles? I removed a pile of others recently, following the "Wikipedia is not a web directory" suggestions of Wikipedia:external links and I would like to remove this regiochannel one too. If no-one says I shouldn't, I shall remove it in a few days. I have to admit that I think the ones I removed originally were much more relevant and encyclopaedic than this one, which seems to be content from DMoz. User:Telsa 14:00, 8 May 2005 (UTC) == Expand section or create new page? == Advice please. I have put an extremely terse summary of Swansea history in as a section, but I actually have some 1500 words on the subject, including more about people as well as which industries started when. I think it might completely unbalance the Swansea article to put it all here. It must be as long as all the rest put together. Should I put it in anyway, to replace what I have already? Or should I create a History of Swansea page and put it all there? User:Telsa 10:05, 13 May 2005 (UTC) :I'd go for a new section if you've got that much material, and just cross-reference it from here. User:Deb 11:55, 13 May 2005 (UTC) ==Transport links?== Precious little (nothing?) about transport at all - surely an important place like Swansea should have a section on that! It is on a motorway; a mainline station with cross country links; docks including ferry to Ireland; and an airport! User:Peter Shearan 15:44, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC) :I agree. It was on my list of things to do (see the stuff to add) above. I have added a stubby start. Feel free to augment. :) The railways history in particular seems to be very complicated; I have 1850s and 1904 OS maps of Swansea which show all manner of links and companies which are not there now, and I am still disentangling them. I am also utterly baffled that the Heart of Wales can start off from Swansea -- which it does, I see it there all the time -- and yet apparently technically Swansea is not part of the Heart of Wales line. :Stuff I know I have omitted so far. Trains: St Thomas station (gone now), Landore is where the depot is, the Post Office sorting trains (now gone, but are they coming back?), local services, request stops. Buses: who runs the new Gower buses? How true is it that all the Gurkhas who lost their jobs in Llanelli ended up on the Gower run? I think pensioners in Wales get free/cheap travel courtesy of the Assembly: worth a mention if true? Who are the company running the "other" bus to the university, the £1 one? Waterways: well, everything about non-people transport, for a start, I know nothing about it. And what gets sent from the docks would be interesting, too. Cycle paths, Sustrans (Swansea's part of something in that; also it has what may be the shortest cycle path in the world, perhaps I shall go and measure it for laughs). The silly toy "train" on the old Mumbles railway. Links generally: we now have the beginnings of Swansea/rest of world and round Swansea town services, but Swansea-rest-of-county is completely lacking. Anything else? :This will all be much easier when the transport museum re-opens! :--User:Telsa 13:07, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC) Under 'Culture', you mention :'Swansea's diverse and interesting past has helped weave a city of character and charm, and as one would expect, the land has been very fertile in producing famous personalities', however, I fail to see how a city of character and charm necessarily equates to the production of famous personalities. If anything, the proportion of famous personalities is lower in cities of character and charm than in those lacking charm and character - take Peter Kay's Bolton heritage for instance. User:163.1.227.76 22:54, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC) :Good point, but why didn't you just change it yourself? User:Deb 17:00, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Swansea
The city of Swansea is one of the principal areas of Wales. This category contains locations within the principal area. Principal areas of Wales
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SB | SC | SD | SE | SF | SG | SH | SI | SJ | SK | SL | SM | SN | SO | SP | SR | SS | ST | SU | SW | SX | SY | SZ |Words begining with Swansea:
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Swansea_Airport
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Swansea_Sound
Swansea_Town_F.C.
Swansea_University
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Swansea_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
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