Pre-Industrial Swansea: Siting and Development
34 PRE-INDUSTRIAL SWANSEA: SITING AND DEVELOPMENT Gerald Gabb Abstract This article is an investigation of what, in the eleventh or twelfth century, drew its founders to the location where Swansea grew up, why their successors remained there, and how and why the settlement developed the form it did. Starting with the Norse origins of Swansea followed by its Norman developments, the article draws on what limited evidence is available, including archaeological evidence from recent excavations. The article considers the importance of Swansea’s topography as a trading port and discusses some of its important medieval buildings, including the castle and major churches. This article is an investigation of what, in the eleventh or twelfth century, drew its founders to the location where Swansea grew up, why their successors remained there, and how and why the settlement developed the form it did. It addresses data from at least seven centuries, across which continuities figure strongly. Even when John Evans published his ‘Plan of Swansea’ in 1823 the area of the town had only crept a little beyond the perimeter of the town walls of the fourteenth century.1 Industrialization was soon to trigger rapid expansion, but what follow are some thoughts on the slower changes which came before that. Two things should be borne in mind. In any study of this sort, direct evidence is minimal. To adopt the technique of reductio ad absurdum for a moment, there is no extant report made by a steward to the first lord of Gower, Henry, Earl of Warwick, on the best place for his caput castle and town, nor, and this is less ludicrous, a burgess minute from the 1640s on where the new market house should go.
[Show full text]