Swansea

Professional Photographers Swansea Wales

Approximate Population: 169,880

Following the Norman Conquest, a marcher lordship was created.   Named Gower, it included land around Swansea Bay as far as the Tawe, and the manor of Kilvey beyond the Tawe, as well as the peninsula itself.   Swansea was designated its chief town and subsequently received one of the earlier borough charters in Wales.

Swansea’s port grew, shipping some coal and vast amounts of limestone (for fertiliser) out from the town by 1550. As the Industrial Revolution reached Wales, the combination of port, local coal, and trading links with the West Country, Cornwall and Devon, meant that Swansea was the logical place to site copper smelting works.   Smelters were operating by 1720 and proliferated.

Following this, more coal mines (everywhere from north-east Gower to Clyne and Llangyfelach) were opened and smelters (mostly along the Tawe valley) were opened and flourished.   Over the next century and a half, works were established to process arsenic, zinc and tin and to create tinplate and pottery.   The city expanded rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was termed “Copperopolis”.

Professional Photographers Swansea Wales

Cardiff

Professional Photographers Cardiff Wales

Approximate Population: 317,500

In 1536, the Act of Union between England and Wales led to the creation of the shire of Glamorgan, and Cardiff was made the county town.   Around this same time the Herbert family became the most powerful family in the area.

In 1538, Henry VIII closed the Dominican and Franciscan friaries in Cardiff, the remains of which were used as building materials.  A writer around this period described Cardiff: “The River Taff runs under the walls of his honours castle and from the north part of the town to the south part where there is a fair quay and a safe harbour for shipping.”

Cardiff had become a Free Borough in 1542.  In 1573, it was made a head port for collection of customs duties, and in 1581, Elizabeth I granted Cardiff its first royal charter.  Pembrokeshire historian George Owen described Cardiff in 1602 as “the fayrest towne in Wales yett not the welthiest.”  The town gained a second Royal Charter in 1608.

During the Second English Civil War, St. Fagans just to the west of the town, played host to the Battle of St. Fagans.   The battle, between a Royalist rebellion and a New Model Army detachment, was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians and allowed Oliver Cromwell to conquer Wales.  It is the last major battle to occur in Wales, with about 200 (mostly Royalist) soldiers killed.

Professional Photographers Cardiff Wales

Newport

Professional Photographers Newport Wales

Approximate Population: 140,100

In 1402 Rhys Gethin, General for Owain Glyndwr, forcibly took Newport Castle together with those at Cardiff, Llandaff, Abergavenny, Caerphilly, Caerleon and Usk.  During the raid the town of Newport was badly burned and St. Woolos church destroyed.

A second charter establishing the right of the town to run its own market and commerce came from Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1426. By 1521 Newport was described as having “….a good haven coming into it, well occupied with small crays [merchant ships] where a very great ship may resort and have good harbour.  ” Trade was thriving with the nearby ports of Bristol and Bridgewater and industries included leather tanning, soap making and starch making.  The town’s craftsmen included bakers, butchers, brewers, carpenters and blacksmiths. A further charter was granted by James I in 1623.

In 1648 Oliver Cromwell’s troops camped overnight on Christchurch Hill overlooking the town before their attack on the castle the next day. A cannon-ball dug up from a garden in nearby Summerhill Avenue, dating from this time, now rests in Newport Museum.

As the Industrial Revolution took off in Britain in the 19th century, the South Wales Valleys became key suppliers of coal from the South Wales coalfield, and iron: these were transported down local rivers and the new canals to ports such as Newport, and Newport Docks grew rapidly as a result. Newport became one of the largest towns in Wales and the focus for the new industrial towns of the eastern valleys of South Wales.

Professional Photographers Newport Wales

Bangor

Professional Photographers Bangor Wales

Approximate Population: 13,725

Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. The origins of the city date back to the founding of a monastic establishment on the site of Bangor Cathedral by the Celtic saint Deiniol in the early 6th century AD.   The name ‘Bangor’ itself is an old Welsh word for a type of fenced-in enclosure, such as was originally on the site of the cathedral.   The present cathedral is a somewhat more recent building and has been extensively modified throughout the centuries.
Bangor in 1610.

While the building itself is not the oldest, and certainly not the biggest, the bishopric of Bangor is one of the oldest in Britain.   Another claim to fame is that Bangor allegedly has the longest High Street in Wales.   Friars School was founded as a free grammar school in 1557, and Bangor University was founded in 1884.

Professional Photographers Bangor Wales

St. Davids

Professional Photographers St. Davids Wales

Approximate Population: 1,797

St David’s (Welsh: Tyddewi) is the smallest city in the United Kingdom, with a population of under 2,000 people.   It lies on the River Alun, on Saint David’s peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales.   St David’s is the de facto ecclesiastical capital of Wales and the final resting place of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

St David’s is home to football team, St. David’s City F.C. and rugby union team St. Davids RFC.  St David’s hosted the National Eisteddfod in 2002.

Henry Hicks (born 1837-died 1899), a Welsh physician, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), President of the Geological Society and Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).   He studied the Precambrian rocks of Anglesey, Caernarvonshire and Pembrokeshire, the Devonian rocks of Devon and Somerset, and cave deposits in Denbighshire.   He was born on the 29th of May 1837 at St Davids, followed in the footsteps of his father Thomas Hicks and studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital, and then practised in St Davids from 1862 until 1871.   The musician David Gray was a pupil at St Davids School.

Professional Photographers St. Davids Wales

Wrexham

Professional Photographers Wrexham Wales

Approximate Population: 42,576

Recent years have seen a large amount of redevelopment in Wrexham’s town centre.  The creation and re-development of civic and public areas such as Queens Square, Belle Vue Park and Llwyn Isaf have improved the area dramatically.   New shopping areas have been created at Henblas Square and Island Green with the newest development at Eagles Meadow (a fairly large area of land between St. Giles and the inner ring road) which opened on 31 October 2008.   The development increases Wrexham’s retail area by over 400,000 sq ft (40,000 m2) and houses retail outlets, bars, restaurants, cinema (from spring 2009, a bowling alley and new apartments.   It includes public areas and an “iconic” bridge to connect the development with the old High Street.

The central area has seen a number of conversions and new-build apartment complexes. Apartments have been built on a large area off Mold Road (close to the football ground) and are planned for Salop Road (close to Eagles Meadow), and close to the Island Green shopping complex. Outside the town centre new estates are being developed in Brymbo (the former steelworks site).

Wrexham Western Gateway site (Ruthin Road) and Mold Road: Plans were due to be unveiled in Summer 2007 of the next stage in the development of Wrexham Technology Park as one of the country’s first sustainable business centres – the development is expected to increase the size of the Park by more than a third before 2012.

Professional Photographers Wrexham Wales

Aberystwyth

Professional Photographers

Aberystwyth Wales

Approximate Population: 11,607

The recorded history of Aberystwyth, however, may be said to date from the building of a fortress in 1109 by Gilbert Fitz Richard (grandfather of Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, the Cambro-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland).   Gilbert Fitz Richard was granted lands and the Lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle.   The fortress built in Aberystwyth was located about a mile and a half south of today’s town, on a hill over the south bank of the Ystwyth River.

Edward I replaced Strongbow’s castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh.   His castle was however built in a different location, at the current Castle Hill, the high point of the town.   Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndŵr, but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England).   Shortly after this the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog, or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile (1.6 km) inland).

It is thus styled in a Royal charter granted by Henry VIII, but by Elizabeth I’s time the town was invariably termed Aberystwyth in all documents.   In 1649 the Parliamentarian troops razed the castle[5], so that its remains are now inconsiderable, though portions of three towers still exist.   Excavations in the 1970s within the castle, in what is believed to be a stables area, revealed a complete male skeleton, deliberately buried.[citation needed] Rarely surviving in Wales’ acidic soil, this skeleton was probably preserved by the addition of lime from the collapsed building.   Affectionately known as “Charlie”, he probably dates from the English Civil War period, probably dying during the Parliamentarian siege and is now housed in the Ceredigion Museum in the town.

Professional Photographers Aberystwyth Wales

Rhondda

Professional Photographers Rhondda Wales

Approximate Population: 72,443

Although little evidence of settlements has been found in the Rhondda that date between the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, several cairns and cists have been discovered throughout the length of both valleys.   The best example of a round-cairn was found at Crug yr Afan, near the summit of Graig Fawr, west of Cwmparc.

The cairn consisted of an earthen mound with a surrounding ditch 28 metres in circumference and over 2 metres tall.  Although most cairns discovered in the area are round, a ring cairn or cairn circle exists on Gelli Mountain.  Known as the ‘Rhondda Stonehenge’ the cairn consists of 10 upright stones no more than 60 cm in height encircling a central cist.  All the cairns found within the Rhondda are located on high ground, many on ridgeways, and may have been used as waypoints.

In 1912 a hoard of 24 late Bronze Age weapons and tools was discovered during construction work at the Llyn Fawr reservoir, at the source of the Rhondda Fawr.   The items did not originate from the Rhondda and are thought to have been left at the site as a votive offering.   Of particular interest were fragments of an iron sword which is the earliest iron object to be found in Wales and the only ‘C-type’ Hallstatt sword recorded in Britain.

Professional Photographers Rhondda Wales