Swansea railway station

Swansea railway station is a railway station serving Swansea, Wales, and is the fourth busiest in Wales after Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street and Newport.

History

The station opened in 1850. It was built by the South Wales Railway, which amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1863, but it was not originally on the South Wales Railway main line, planned to connect London with the port of Fishguard, and Swansea passengers had to change at Landore, two miles to the north until at least 1879. The station has been renovated and extended several times in its lifetime - most notably in the 1880s, when the stone-built office block facing High Street, on the west side of the station, was added, and in 1925-7 when the platforms were lengthened. The present-day frontage block, facing Ivey Place, was completed in 1934. Nothing now remains of the original wooden station with its two platforms and galvanised iron roof.

Train station

A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot (see below) is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight.

It generally consists of at least one track-side platform and a station building (depot) providing such ancillary services as ticket sales and waiting rooms. If a station is on a single-track line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as "stops" or, in some parts of the world, as "halts" (flag stops).

Stations may be at ground level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other transport modes such as buses, trams or other rapid transit systems.

Terminology

In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station. Railway station and railroad station are less frequent; also, American usage makes a distinction between the terms railroad and railway.

In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, traditional usage favours railway station or simply station, even though train station, which is often perceived as an Americanism, is now about as common as railway station in writing; railroad station is not used, railroad being obsolete there. In British usage, the word station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified.

Swansea

Swansea (/ˈswɒnzi/ SWON-zee; Welsh: Abertawe [abɛrˈtauɛ], "mouth of the Tawe"), officially known as the City and County of Swansea, is a coastal city and county in Wales. It is Wales's second largest city and the UK's twenty-fifth largest city. Swansea lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands. According to its local council, the City and County of Swansea had a population of 241,300 in 2014. The last official census stated that the city, metropolitan and urban areas combined concluded to be a total of 462,000 in 2011, making it the second most populous local authority area in Wales after Cardiff. During its 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was a key centre of the copper industry, earning the nickname 'Copperopolis'. Since 2011, Swansea has started to expand into a larger region known as the Swansea Bay City Region. After combining with other councils, it now includes Tenby and other parts of West Wales, its population including these areas an estimated 685,051. The chairman of the new region is Sir Terry Matthews

HM Prison Swansea

Coordinates: 51°36′54″N 3°56′56″W / 51.615°N 3.949°W / 51.615; -3.949

HM Prison Swansea is a Category B/C men's prison, located in the Sandfields area of Swansea, Wales. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is colloquially known as 'Cox's farm', after a former governor.

History

Swansea is a Victorian prison built between 1845 and 1861 to replace former prison accommodation at Swansea Castle. Both male and female inmates were incarcerated there until 1922, at which point all females were transferred to Cardiff Prison.

Execution site

A total of 15 judicial executions took place at Swansea prison between 1858 and 1958. All of the condemned prisoners were hanged for the crime of murder. Their names, ages and dates of execution are:

District of Swansea

Coordinates: 51°37′48″N 3°56′46″W / 51.630°N 3.946°W / 51.630; -3.946

The Swansea district (Welsh: Abertawe) was one of the four local government districts of West Glamorgan, Wales from 1974 to 1996. It was formed from the areas of the county borough of Swansea and Gower Rural District, from the administrative county of Glamorgan.

It inherited the city status of the county borough and so was styled as the "City of Swansea", and was governed by Swansea City Council. On March 22, 1982 the city was granted letters patent raising the mayor to the dignity of Lord Mayor.

The district was abolished in 1996, when it was merged with most of the Lliw Valley district to form the larger City and County of Swansea. The last leader of the council was Cllr Trevor Gordon Burtonshaw.

References