Uplands, Swansea

Coordinates: 51°37′N 3°58′W / 51.62°N 03.96°W / 51.62; -03.96

Uplands is a suburb of Swansea, Wales. It lies about a mile (2 km) to the west of Swansea city centre, and falls within the Uplands electoral ward. It is centred on the A4118 road, which links Swansea city centre and Sketty. The main road begins as Walter Road from the east, and becomes Sketty Road towards the west. Much of the area is hilly.

The area

Uplands' main shopping area is located on and around Uplands Crescent, where small businesses mix with fast-food outlets and high-street heavyweights like Boots, Sainsbury's and Tesco. The western side of Bryn-y-Mor Road also has a number of convenience stores, hairdressers, fashion boutiques, pubs and restaurants.

The area is becoming increasingly well-known amongst the people of Swansea for its night-life, with a number of late-night bars and restaurants having opened their doors during the early 2010s. The Uplands Tavern pub, however, has long been a popular venue, and was once frequented by Kingsley Amis and Dylan Thomas, although the two writers were never residents of Uplands at the same time. The latter's childhood home on Cwmdonkin Drive has a blue plaque marking it as his birthplace, and in June 2012 it was reported that a statue of Thomas would be unveiled in Uplands during the centenary of his birth in 2014, although the exact location of the statue has not yet been revealed. In 2012 the annual Do Not Go Gentle Festival was launched, hosting live music and literature across various venues, it aims to be "a festival Dylan Thomas might have liked".

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