| In 1795, Swansea was described
as being situated ‘near the centre of a most beautiful bay, on angle
between two hills’. The southerly winds blew over a ‘vast expanse
of sea rendering the air mild and the soil was to a considerable depth gravelly,
making it a pleasant and very healthy situation, the adjoining country was
very picturesque furnishing a great variety of beautiful rides and walks’.
An agricultural environment surrounded a town so popular as a seaside resort
that it became known as “the Brighton of Wales”. However, these
were not the only advantages that Swansea possessed. The town was also on
the Western side of the South Wales coalfield, its coal measures reaching
right down to the sea. While the River Tawe was so accommodatingly navigable
that sea-going vessels were able to enter the coalfields. These factors,
together with a geographical proximity to the copper-ore mines of Devon
and Cornwall, sealed Swansea’s future. |
