Swansea is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea.
Gower or the Gower Peninsula in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales are areas of countryside that have been designated for statutory protection due to their significant landscape value in Wales. There are currently five areas designated, four wholly in Wales and another spanning the Wales-England border, accounting for 4% of Wales' land area. The responsibility of designating areas in recognition of their national importance is devolved to Wales and performed by Natural Resources Wales, on behalf of the Welsh Government. The designation is also used in England, and Northern Ireland. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty enjoy levels of protection from development similar to those of Welsh national parks, but unlike national parks, the responsible AONB bodies do not have their own planning powers, instead are performed by local authorities. They also differ from national parks in their more limited opportunities for extensive outdoor recreation. It has been proposed that the designation be renamed to National Landscapes of Wales, however, such proposals have failed to be followed through.
Sir William Timothy Gowers, is a British mathematician. He is Professeur titulaire of the Combinatorics chair at the Collège de France, and director of research at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1998, he received the Fields Medal for research connecting the fields of functional analysis and combinatorics.
The Ilston Book is the earliest record of a Baptist church in Wales. It is named after the location of a Baptist meeting place near the ruins of the old Trinity well, the site of a pre-Reformation chapel, at Ilston Beck in Gower near Swansea.
Bishopston is a large village and community situated on the Gower Peninsula, some 6 miles (9.7 km) west south west of the centre of Swansea in South Wales.
Garjainia is an extinct genus of erythrosuchid archosauriform reptile from the Olenekian of Russia and South Africa. It was approximately 1.50–2 m long. It contained two species, Garjainia prima from the Yarengian/Yarkenskian Supergorizont of Russia, and Garjainia madiba from the Burgersdorp Formation of South Africa. "Vjuskovia triplicostata", a name assigned to some erythrosuchid fossils from Russia, has been synonymized with Garjainia prima.
Loughor Castle is a ruined, medieval fortification located in the town of Loughor, Wales. The castle was built around 1106 by the Anglo-Norman lord Henry de Beaumont, during the Norman invasion of Wales. The site overlooked the River Loughor and controlled a strategic road and ford running across the Gower Peninsula. The castle was designed as an oval ringwork, probably topped by wicker fence defences, and reused the remains of the former Roman fort of Leucarum.
Nigel Jenkins was an Anglo-Welsh poet. He was an editor, journalist, psychogeographer, broadcaster and writer of creative non-fiction, as well as being a lecturer at Swansea University and director of the creative writing programme there.
The Royal Institution of South Wales is a Welsh learned society founded by George Grant Francis in Swansea in 1835.
Parc le Breos was a great medieval deer park in the south of the Gower Peninsula, about eight miles (13 km) west of Swansea, Wales, and about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) north of the Bristol Channel. The park was an enclosed, oval area of 6.7 miles (10.8 km) in circumference, covering about 2,000 acres (810 ha) and measuring 2+1⁄2 miles (east–west) by just over 1+3⁄4 miles. Parc le Breos was established in the 1220s CE by John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Gower and husband to Margaret Ferch Llywelyn, Llywelyn Fawr's daughter. Other than for deer husbandry, the park received an income from agistment, pannage, and from sales of wild honey, ferns and dead wood. There is evidence of rabbit warrens in the park. Whether the warrens were free or domestic is unknown.
Archaeologia Cambrensis is a Welsh archaeological and historical scholarly journal published annually by the Cambrian Archaeological Association. It contains historical essays, excavation reports, and book reviews, as well as society notes and accounts of field visits. The journal has included "much valuable material on the manuscripts, genealogy, heraldry, toponymy, folklore and literature of Wales".
The Gower dialect refers to the older vocabulary or slang of the Gower Peninsula on the south Wales coast. It was Normanised/Anglicised relatively early after the Norman conquest of England. Relatively cut off from the Welsh hinterland, but with coastal links across south Wales and the West Country, the region developed their distinct English dialect which endured to within living memory.
The archdeacon of Gower is the priest in charge of the archdeaconry of Gower, an administrative division of the Church in Wales Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. The archdeaconry comprises the six deaneries of Clyne, Cwmtawe, Gower, Llwchwr, Penderi and Swansea.
Cathole Cave, Cat Hole Cave or Cathole Rock Cave, is a cave near Parc Cwm long cairn at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. It is a steep limestone outcrop, about 200 yards (180 m) north of the cromlech along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley and near the top of the gorge, about 50 feet (15 m) from the valley floor. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two. It is about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula.
Y Cofiadur is published by Cymdeithas Hanes Annibynwyr Cymru, a society founded in 1920 by Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg. The first issue was published in 1923. It is an annual Welsh-language magazine on the history of religion and contains articles on the history of Welsh Independent churches and the individuals involved, with references. It also includes society notes. The magazine has been digitised by the Welsh Journals Online project at the National Library of Wales.
Phil Tanner was a traditional singer from Llangenith in the Gower Peninsula.
Welsh cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with Wales. While there are many dishes that can be considered Welsh due to their ingredients and/or history, dishes such as cawl, Welsh rarebit, laverbread, Welsh cakes, bara brith and Glamorgan sausage have all been regarded as symbols of Welsh food. Some variation in dishes exists across the country, with notable differences existing in the Gower Peninsula, a historically isolated rural area which developed self-sufficiency in food production.
Owain William Jones was a Welsh Anglican priest.
John Davies is a Welsh poet whose first collection, The Strangers, was published in 1974. He was awarded the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize in 1985.
