Swansea travel guide

Swansea (Abertawe, "mouth of the Tawe") is a city and county in Wales. It is in the historic county of Glamorgan. Situated on the South Wales coast immediately to the east of the Gower Peninsula, Swansea is the second largest city in Wales after the capital, Cardiff. It grew to its present size during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming a centre of heavy industry. It never experienced, however, the same degree of immigration as Cardiff, Newport and the eastern valleys of South Wales.
The name Swansea is often said to come from "Sweyn's Ey" ("ey" being the Old Norse word for "island"), but as there is no island at Swansea, a more likely explanation is that it comes from "Sweyn" (a corruption of the Viking name "Sven") and "sey" ("sey" being an Old Norse word that can mean "inlet"). Consequently it is pronounced Swan's-y ˡswɒnzi) not Swan-sea. The name is to thought to have originated in the period when the Vikings settled along the South Wales coast (Swansea is thought to have developed from a Viking trading post).
The founder of Swansea is believed to be the Viking King of Denmark Sweyn Forkbeard who in 1013 conquered the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex and Mercia, and who controlled a vast empire including Southern England, Denmark and Norway. The earliest known form of the modern name is Sweynesse used in Swansea's first charter, which was granted sometime between 1158-1184 by William de Newburgh, 3rd Earl of Warwick. The charter gave Swansea the status of a borough, granting the townsmen, called burgesses certain rights to develop the area. A second charter was granted in 1215 by King John. In this charter, the name appears as Sweyneshe. The town seal which is believed to date from this period names the town as Sweyse. Swansea was granted city status in 1969, to mark Prince Charles's investiture as the Prince of Wales. The announcement was made by the prince on July 3, 1969, during a tour of Wales. It obtained the further right to have a Lord Mayor in 1982. (...) more....

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