Theme Week Wales – Swansea

8 June 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Swansea Harbour Trust Building © jrw/cc-by-sa-3.0

Swansea Harbour Trust Building © jrw/cc-by-sa-3.0

Swansea, officially the City and County of Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. It is Wales’s second largest city. Swansea lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands. The City and County of Swansea had a population of 239,000 in 2011, making it the second most populous local authority area in Wales after Cardiff. During its 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was a key centre of the copper industry, earning the nickname ‘Copperopolis’. Swansea can be roughly divided into four physical areas. To the north are the Lliw uplands which are mainly open moorland, reaching the foothills of the Black Mountain. To the west is the Gower Peninsula with its rural landscape dotted with small villages. To the east is the coastal strip around Swansea Bay. Cutting though the middle from the south-east to the north-west is the urban and suburban zone stretching from the Swansea city centre to the towns of Gorseinon and Pontarddulais.   read more…

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