Post by Dave on Nov 17, 2012 9:49:41 GMT
Swansea
You can't choose where you are born, but you might later in life decide to move to another town, village or city anywhere in the UK, or even abroad. But where you were born will always be a special place to you as it will hold so many memories of your childhood etc.
Anytime you do return you are bound to find a number of changes that have happened since the time you did leave. It might be old parts knocked down and replaced with some new supermarket or DIY store.
I have heard some people say Swansea is not a nice place (well they used stronger words than that) but as I have had my own personal guide who has given me many history lessons into the bargain, I have grown to like the place.
I suppose having to drive through Port Talbot to get to Swansea might be a bit off putting as that place looks bloody horrible, but Swansea does have some great history and a good number of interesting buildings.
A zoomed in shot of Port Talbot taken from the Mumbles road in Swansea
Swansea is a city and when we think about any city we expect it to have a cathedral but some cities do not have cathedrals: Leeds (which comes under Ripon); and Nottingham (which comes under Southwell), as well as Swansea in Wale They are cities by royal charter rather than by possessing a cathedral. In the twentieth century, it was explicitly recognised that the status of city in England and Wales would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral, and grants made since have been awarded to communities on a variety of criteria, including population size.
Driving into Swansea is much like driving into so many other large towns or cities. On the outskirts you find all the industrial estates before you get anywhere near the city centre. If you stay on the main road into Swansea the road goes straight to the Mumbles and what there is of the city centre you bypass. The only problem with this road is the amount of traffic lights along it and if you are unlucky you can get stuck at each set and then it takes forever to get anywhere. On a good day if the lights are all in your favour it’s a much better drive along the Mumbles road.
The shopping area of the city is rather small and you soon pass it and then are greeted on the right hand side by the Swansea prison. A bit further on and you drive past St Helen's and then what is now a car park that for many years was just waste ground where the traveling fair would set up. Then for a good stretch you drive past Singleton Park, this park is very large indeed and goes all the way up to Sketty where Lyn’s mum lives. Its not as big as it once was at the hospital has now been built on one part of the park and also the university has been extended and that has also played a part in reducing the park size.
There is another very good park called Brynmill Park that was built by the Victorians, it is in between the new car park and the start of Singleton Park, but does not come right down to the road. Lyn took me to both parks on the Sunday afternoon and told me how much Brynmill Park had changed from the days she played in it. Back then there was a large Victorian greenhouse and peacocks just strutted around everywhere. There was also a gibbon living at the park called La la, but he has long since passed away. The lake is still there but it once had a boat on it the kids could use, I'm sure in these days of health and safety that might be the reason its no longer there.
Brynmill Park
There is now a wonderful garden complete with greenhouses full of tropical plants right at the top of Singleton Park. Here the squirrels are so tame they come up to you, stand on their hind legs and beg for food. Also in this park there is a recent addition, Swansea's very own Stonehenge. Well it’s a stone circle at least, but nowhere near the size of the original. They locals love fishing for ROACH ( naughty people lol) in the lake at the bottom of the park beside the main road to the Mumbles.
Singleton Park
Sadly for me we only had the Saturday afternoon and some of the Sunday to explore Swansea this time, I was not able to go and find some of the buildings I wanted to. I spend the Saturday afternoon visiting the Vetch Field and also spending some time in the Mumbles. I went to the Mumbles as I had hoped this time to go inside Oystermouth Castle, but sadly it was closed again.
I left Lyn at home with her mum on the Sunday morning and had planned to park as near to the city centre as I could to try start my search for interesting buildings. But as I got near the St Helen's ground I decided to try and get some shots of the ground and parked the car in a street beside the ground.
Silly me only then thought it would not take too long to walk to the centre but that proved not to be the case and it was in the end far further away than it seemed driving in the car. As I only had two hours before I needed to return as we were all going out to lunch, I had to keep my eye closely on the time to ensure I got back on time. The end result was I was not able to do all I had wanted to do, but did end up finding some interesting parts I might not have seen otherwise.
So lets get started on my walk from the St Helen's Ground, but just before I do, I will take you to Swansea beach. I must be honest and say I never thought that Swansea had a beach but it has and it is typical of so many other beaches I have seen in that part of Wales. Long with a sweeping curve and completely left as nature intended. No beach huts or beach cafes etc.
Lyn told me she remembers as a child lorry after lorry taking sand from the beach and said these days there is a lot less sand on the beach. When the tide is out it really is out. It’s a fair old walk just to get to the edge of the sea. Lyn also said when the tide is in you can walk into the sea for 15 minutes and the water will still only come up to your knees. She also pointed out a part of the beach that was plagued with flashers when she was young; thankfully we saw none when we were on the beach.
Swansea Beach
Walking on and on the left is a long row of tired looking guest houses, some have been boarded up, while a few others have been converted into student accommodation. They tell their own story about the signs of the time, as seaside type guest houses struggle to survive.
The next noticeable building on the same side is Swansea Prison it is a Victorian prison built between 1845 and 1861 to replace former prison accommodation at Swansea Castle. Both male and female inmates were incarcerated there until 1922, at which point all females were transferred to Cardiff Prison
The Prision
Walking on and just before you get to the Tesco's store on the main road that has the main heart of the city behind it, you come across an old pub and I wonder if any TUFC fans have ever had a pint there.
The Swansea Jack
Looking across the road from the Swansea Jack you can see the Civic Centre and a tall tower building that is on the edge of Victoria Quay.
Civic Centre
So lets go and take a walk and look behind Tesco's, the first thing you will come across is the new bus station that is linked into the Quadrant Shopping Centre. This centre is the principal under-cover shopping centre in Swansea. The centre opened in 1979 Since the 1980s it has been home to the Swansea Devil, a controversial carved wooden statue of the Devil. You will also see the Swansea Grand Theatre.
[/urThe story of the Swansea devil
In the 1890s it was decided that St. Mary's Church in the centre of Swansea would be rebuilt. The task of designing the new church was put to tender. Among those who applied were a local architect and Sir Arthur Blomfield. The committee accepted Blomfield's designs and the church was built. The local man took his rejection as a slight against his talent. After several years a row of cottages adjacent to the church became available for purchase. The offended architect bought these houses, and tore them down. In their place he erected a red brick building to house the brewery offices, on which he placed a carving of Satan, facing the church. The local man is reputed to have prophesied: "When your church is destroyed and burnt to the ground my devil will remain laughing."
Swansea, being a major strategic target in South Wales, was bombed heavily during World War II. One of the buildings destroyed during the three night blitz in February 1941 was St. Mary's Church. The building on which Old Nick was mounted was not hit and remained standing through the war thus allowing Old Nick to continue laughing over the burnt remains of the church.
In 1962 the brewery offices were torn down, while St. Mary's was rebuilt to the original designs. The devil was sentenced to rot in a garage in Gloucester, until a local historian returned him to Swansea during the 1980s.
Occupying the land of the brewery offices is now the Quadrant Shopping Centre. Once returned to Swansea the devil was placed as close to his original location inside the shopping centre as possible without directly offending the church goers. There was notable religious objection to his reinstallation, and when the Quadrant was refurbished he was placed in storage. After public outcry aided by the local newspaper the South Wales Evening Post Old Nick was placed back once more to watch over St. Mary's. It sits today on the corner of the second floor of the Quadrant next to New Look, look to the left as you're entering the shopping centre.
The Swansea Devil and St Marys Church
St Mary's Collegiate and Parish Church is an Anglican Church.
There was a church on the site of St Mary's since circa 1328, erected by Henry de Gower, Bishop of Saint David's. One Sunday morning, in 1739, the roof of the nave collapsed into the church. Fortunately this was before the waiting congregation entered the building. The whole structure was re-built apart from the tower. 1822 saw the church being lit by gas for the first time with thirty six lamps. The church underwent complete renovation between 1879 and 1882 by Vicar Dr Morgan. In 1896, the church was flattened and rebuilt again under the designs of Arthur Blomfield by Dean Allan Smith, though some parts of the old church survived the re-development. In Feb 1941 the Church was extensively damaged by Bombing during the Blitz It was not rebuilt until the 1950s
Next to the Quadrant Shopping Centre is the Swansea indoor market.It is the largest indoor market in Wales.The market is covered by a steel arched portal frame roof clad in steel and glass. The current market was built in 1959-1960 by Percy Edwards. It is the fourth market to be built at the site in 200 years. The previous market on this site had existed since 1894 and was destroyed during bombing raids during World War II. The site has been used as a market since the Middle Ages.
Lyn always makes a bee line to this market to buy cockles, but she says these days they are much smaller than they once were, as a chld she would buy a halfpint glass full for just sixpence, these days it costs a few pounds for a very small tub of them. I tired one and bloody hated the taste.
After the market was bombed
How it looks today
There is one other smaller shopping centre close by St. David's Shopping Centre. Completed in 1982, the complex has thus far been fairly unsuccessful, in terms of filling its outlet spaces and retaining customers.
Apart from one other street that is Swansea City Centre, but in that street you will find Joes Icecream shop. It is a must visit shop as they make and sell the best ice-cream in the whole world.
Back in 1898, Luigi Cascarini came over to Swansea from the Abruzzi Mountains in Italy. In the midst of the industrial era, Mr. Cascarini was shocked to find that there were no cafes open to accommodate the early workers of the Swansea valley. So Luigi decided to open up a workers haven where he would serve them rich roast coffee from the crack of dawn until the darkness of the night. He worked every hour of the day making his cafe such a sucess that soon he opened another...and.... another...and another. Before long, Luigi had opened a chain of cafes that his children ran with him.
When his eldest son, Joe, was old enough he brought him over to Wales from Italy and Joe ran the cafe at 85, St. Helen’s Road. As a passionate ice cream lover, Joe Cascarini sought to add a truly Italian flair to the Welsh cafes, so following a secret recipe from his home in Italy, he sourced the finest ingredients in Wales and introduced to Swansea the most unique tasting, luxury, Italian ice cream.
Joes
There a number of out of town shopping centres where you will find such stores as comets etc, but as the hills rise upwards away from the city centre, you find millions of houses. I'm not sure how many people live in Swansea, but it must be a great number.
The houses on the Hills
Crossing back over the the Mumbles Road by Tesco's to the side of the City the Civic Centre is build, you come across a number of new large buildings. but behind these buildings I found my most interesting finds of the day.
The first was the Dylan Thomas Theatre. The theatre officially opened under its present name in 1983, but was home to the Swansea Little Theatre from 1979.The Swansea Little Theatre is an amateur drama group based at The Dylan Thomas Theatre and was the first Little Theatre in Wales. The theatre group began performances from 1924 and was based at various different locations during its early years.
In the early 1930s poet Dylan Thomas became a member of the troupe after first reviewing plays by the Little Theatre for South Wales Evening Post.In 1932 he appeared with the group for a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever, taking the role of Simon. A local critic wrote that Thomas' was "an artist with an explosive yemper and untidy habits" Thomas appeared in plays with the theatre for the next two or three years.The group maintained its link with Thomas' family when his daughter, Aeronwy Thomas-Ellis, became President of our Theatre.
In 1979 Swansea City Council offered the Swansea Little Theatre the derelict former Oscar Chess showroom and garage in an area which had been ear-marked for development as a permanent home. On 29 September 1983 Sir Harry Secombe officially opened the Theatre
The new buildings and The Dlyan Thomas Theatre
The man himself sitting on the quay
Right next to the theatre is the Tramway Museum
The museum sits on one edge of Victoria Quay and this quay is much the same as you will find in so many places these days. Modern housing built all around the sides of the quay.
Victoria Quay
That the end of my morning walk and just three more pictures to add. the first one is a small building across the street from the theatre, the second one is the first building you see when you leave the quay and the third one is just a bridge over the Mumbles road but I love the shot.
