Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SWANSEA

SWANSEA, a town, a parish, a district, and a hundred, in Glamorgan. The town stands on S. bay, and on S. canal, at the mouth of the river Tawe, and on the South Wales railway, at the terminus of the S. Va1e railway, 45¾ miles WNW of Cardiff; is called by the Welsh Abertawy; has remains of a castle, built in 1099, by H. de Beaumont,-destroyed in 1260, by Llewelyn ab Gruffydd,- and afterward rebuilt; began to acquire importance about 1719, as the seat of the copper trade; has very greatly increased, since about 1830, in connexion with that trade, with other trades, and with commerce; was, for some time, a considerable sea-bathing resort, but has lost all its watering-place appliances through extension of trade and formation of docks; contests with Cardiff the character of being the metropolis of South Wales; was visited, in 1848, by the British Association of Science; numbers, among its natives, Bishop Gower, who founded the grammar-school, and Beau Nash; and had, for a native, the poet Savage. The modern part comprises wide and well built streets, and presents a somewhat imposing appearance. The remains of the cast1e st and nearly in its centre, almost hid by other buildings; consist of a massive tower, surmounted by an open gallery, terminating in a finely-carved parapet; and are used as store-rooms for the militia. The town hall was built in 1827, at a cost of £6,647; and contains as-size court-room, council-room, and numerous public offices. The post-office stand s on part of the castle's site. The music hall was built in 1864. The Royal Institution was built in 1838; is a handsome edifice in the Grecian style; and contains a library, a museum, and a theatre. The market house was built in 1828, at a cost of £7,540; and measures 320 feet by 220. The county house of correction was built and enlarged at a total cost of nearly £50,000; and has capacity for 151 male and 45 female prisoners. The old theatre was erected on the Tontine principle; and is notable as the place where Charles Mathews made his first appearance, and where Macready both acted when a boy, and bade farewell to the profession. A monument of J. H. Vivian, Esq., stands in front of the town hall. St. Mary's church was rebuilt in 1739, and has three side-chapels. St. John's church stands on the site of an ancient chapel of the Knights of St. John. St. James' church was built in 1867, at a cost of £5,000: and is in the early English style. There are three other churches, and at least sixteen dissenting chapels. The Independent chapel in Walton-street was built in 1867; and is in the geometric style, with tower and spire. The Presbyterian chapel has a rich stained glass window of 1865. There are an endowed grammar-school, with £110 a year, five educational establishments erected since 1847 at a cost of £8,450, several other public schools, an infirmary of 1866, with accommodation or 100 inpatients, a workhouse , and charities £125.

The town has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, three banking offices, and three chief inns; is a head port, a seat of Lent assizes and quarter sessions, and a polling place; and publishes five weekly newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and fairs, on Easter-Tuesday, Whit-Tuesday, the second Saturday of May, 2 July, 15 Aug., and 8 Oct. The smelting of copper-ores is the staple trade; draws its supplies of ores from Cornwalland the colonies; is carried on in 15 establishments; and turns out copper to the value of about £3,500,000 a year. Iron-working, patent-metal-working, patent-fuel-making, pottery manufacture, and ship-building also are carried on. Only insignificant wharves existed prior to 1791; two piers, 1,340 and 580 feet long, and 215 feet apart at the mouth, were then constructed; a new harbour-channel for the river was cut in 1840-4, at a cost of £23,000; docks were formed in 1849-51, and 1856-61, at a cost of £95,688; a floating dock to the S, with embankment to exclude the sea, was formed mainly in 1857-9, at a cost of £169,073; and hydraulic machinery for all the docks was constructed on such a scale as to cost nearly £23 a-week for engine-power. The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 36 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 1,135 tons; 105 large sailing-vessels, of aggregately 20,379 tons; 12 small steam-vessels, of aggregately 367 tons; and 7 large steam-vessels, of aggregately 842 tons. The vessels which entered, in 1863, were 112 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 19,125 tons, from British colonies; 3 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 586 tons, from British colonies; 453 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 89,465 tons, from foreign countries; 1,094 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 118,190 tons, from foreign countries; 33 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 9,089 tons, from foreign countries; 1 foreign steam-vessel, of 160 tons, from foreign countries; 3,424 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 244,063 tons, coastwise; and 563 steam-vessels, of aggregately 98,064 tons, coastwise. The vessels which cleared, in 1863, were 123 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 23,604 tons, to British colonies; 48 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 15,247 tons, to British colonies; 1,009 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 168,777 tons, to foreign countries; 1,353 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 161,627 tons, to foreign countries; 2 British steam-vessels, of jointly 1,051 tons, to British colonies; 46 British steam-vessels, of aggregately 14,856 tons, to foreign countries; 3 foreign steam-vessels, of aggregately 901 tons, to foreign countries; 5,595 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 407,799 tons, coastwise; and 497 steam-vessels, of aggregately 81,368 tons, coastwise. The amount of customs in 1862 was £6,459. Steamers sail regularly to Bristol, Milford, Ilfracombe, Belfast, and Glasgow. The town is a borough by prescription; was first chartered by John; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; and unites with Neath, Loughor, Kenfigg, and Aberavon, in sending a member to parliament. The borough limits are the same parliamentarily as municipally; and comprise Swansea town and franchise, St-Thomas hamlet, St. John-near-Swansea parish, and parts of Llansamlet and Llangafelach parishes. Pop. of the borough in 1851, 31,461; in 1861, 41,606. houses, 7,578.

The parish is politically divided into Swansea town and franchise, St. Thomas hamlet, Swansea Higher, and Swansea Lower; and is ecclesiastically cut into the sections of Swansea, Holy Trinity, and Sketty. Acres, 9,029; of which 2,435 are water. Real property, £106,549; of which £1,500 are in mines, £181 in quarries, £9,425 in canals, and £500 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 24,902; in 1861, 33,972. houses, 6,147. The living of Swansea is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of St. Peter and St. James, and the livings of Holy Trinity and Sketty are p. curacies, in the diocese of St. David's. Value, of St. M., £340;* of H. T., £300;* of S. £160. Patron of Swansea and H. T., the Church Patronage Society; of S., H. H. Vivian, Esq.—The district contains 4 parishes; is cut into the sub-districts of Swansea, Llangafelach, and Llandilo-Talybont; and formerly contained also the 17 parishes now constituting the district of Gower. Acres of the present district 44,166. Poor rates in 1863, £22,938. Pop. in 1851, 38,420; in 1861, 51,260. Houses, 9,675. Marriages in 1863, 542; births, 2,170,-of which 90 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,094,-of which 453 were at ages under 5 years, and 25 at ages above 85. The places of worship in the old district, or as inclusive of Gower in 1851, were 27 of the Church of England , with 9,367 sittings; 25 of Independents, with 8,942 s.; 15 of Baptists, with 4,636 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 240 s.; 2 of Unitarians, with 900 s.; 14 of Wesleyans, with 2,265 s.; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 620 s.; 13 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 4,838 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 650 s.; 4 undefined, with 876 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 212 s.; 1 of Jews, with 72 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 200 attendants. The schools were 31 public day-schools, with 3,328 scholars; 61 private day-schools, with 1,597 s.; 81 Sunday schools, with 7,977 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 14 s.-The hundred contains 21 parishes. Acres, 80,463. Pop. in 1851, 13,221; in 1861, 14,371. houses, 3,053.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Swansea AP/CP       Swansea Hundred       Swansea RegD/PLU       Glamorgan AncC
Place: Swansea

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