Swansea (Wales)

Swansea , Welsh Abertawe, city (1981 pop. 172,433) and county, 146 sq mi (378 sq km), S Wales. Located on Swansea Bay at the mouth of the Tawe River, the city of Swansea is a metallurgical center with sheet-metal mills, foundries, and smelting works. Other industries are engineering, shipbuilding, and oil refining (at the suburb Llandarcy). Crude oil, metals, timber, grain, and rubber are imported. Swansea ware, of rich blue coloring with decorative painting, was made at the Swansea potteries in the first half of the 19th cent. The Royal Institution of South Wales, a Univ. of Wales campus, and a medieval castle on the site of an old ruined Norman castle are points of special interest. The poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea.

Swansea Town of south Wales located at the mouth of the river Tawe (Abertawe). The name, Scandinavian in origin, reflects post‐Roman Viking activity, but there is no evidence of settlement until the site was developed as a castle borough by Henry de Beaumont, the first Norman lord of Gower. After 1717 it became the centre of the early Welsh metallurgical industry, mainly copper, lead, and silver. Swansea acquired city status in 1969 and is now an industrial and administrative centre for the western coalfield.