Moving to Swansea?
Swansea is a coastal city in southwest Wales, in fact three quarters of the city
is bordered by sea! It is a very beautiful region with long sandy beaches and a
haven for hikers and swimmers. The Gower Peninsula, which lies to the west of Swansea,
was the first area in the UK to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty.
Originally the area was established as a Viking trading post. The name ‘Swansea’
also originates from this time, when it was known in Old Norse as ‘Sveinsey’ – literally
‘Svein’s Island’. In the 13th Century the town was mentioned in Welsh poems as ‘Aber
Tawy’, and today is called ‘Abertawe’, in the Welsh language.
The arrival of the Industrial Revolution in Wales also heralded the expansion of
Swansea. Due to its port, the proximity of local coal and its already established
trading links with the West Country, Corwall and Devon, made it the obvious place
to site copper smelting works. By 1720 several smelters were in operation. The next
century and a half the city produced, zinc, arsenic, tin, and of course, copper.
The city grew rapidly, and earned the nickname, ‘Copperopolis’.
The 20th Century saw a massive decline in heavy industries, which obviously left
a great many abandoned and derelict works and great mounds of waste products. The
Lower Swansea Valley reclaimed much of this land and still today is redeveloping
areas and creating new landmarks. The Swansea Marina being one of them. It also
saw Swansea being awarded city status, in 1969, to mark Prince Charles’ becoming
the Prince of Wales.
The famous Welsh poet and writer, Dylan Thomas, (1914-1953) was born, and raised,
in Swansea, and his life and works are still very much celebrated here. The ‘Dylan
Thomas Festival’ is an annual, and much loved and visited, event.
There are four higher education institutions in Swansea, all of them offering excellent
service and all have high levels of achievement and recognition.
All in all Swansea is a rich place to live, work and study. An exciting city to
be a part of, especially right now; the city has a huge development scheme in process
and a large area of the city has been designated for redevelopment.