Swansea
IT Services 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”.
