Intelligent Town

An Urban History of Swansea, 1780-1855

Louise Miskell

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780708325100
  9780708319055
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786835574
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

This is the first full-length study of Swansea's urban development from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. It tells the little known story of how Swansea gained an unrivalled position of influence as an urban centre, which led it briefly to claim to be the 'metropolis of Wales', and how it then lost this status in the face of rapid urban development elsewhere in Wales. As such it provides an important new perspective on Welsh urban history in which the role of Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil and even Bristol are better known as towns of influence in Welsh urban life. It also offers an analysis of how Swansea's experience of urbanisation fits into the wider picture of British urban history.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

¹ The Times, 12 October 1802.

² For further details of the early history of ballooning, see L. T. C. Rolt, The Aeronauts. A History of Ballooning, 1783–1903 (Gloucester, 1985).

³ J. Penny, ‘Up, up and away. An account of ballooning in and around Bristol and Bath, 1784–1999’, Historical Association Local History Pamphlets (Bristol Branch) (Bristol, 1999), pp. 7–8.

⁴ Rolt, The Aeronauts, pp. 50–1.

⁵ The Times, 19 October 1802.

⁶ J. Williams, Digest of Welsh Historical Statistics, Volume 1 (Cardiff, 1985), p. 63.

⁷ The Times, 22 October 1802.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ R. Toomey, Vivian and Sons, 1809–1924. A Study of the Firm in the Copper and Related Industries (London, 1985), p. 146.

¹¹ T. G. Davies, Deeds not Words. A History of the Swansea General and Eye Hospital, 1817–1948 (Cardiff, 1988), p. 7.

¹² Caleb Hillier Parry, MD, FRS, for example, made a name for himself with a successful balloon ascent at Bath in 1794. See Penny, ‘Up, up and away’, p. 2.

¹³ The Times, 19 October 1802.

¹⁴ Rolt, The Aeronauts, p. 185.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 198.

¹⁶ H. Carter, The Towns of Wales. A Study in Urban Geography (Cardiff, 1965).

¹⁷ S. R. Hughes, Copperopolis. Landscapes of the Early Industrial Period in Swansea (Aberystwyth, 2000); D. Boorman, The Brighton of Wales. Swansea as a Fashionable Seaside Resort, c.1780–1830 (Swansea, 1986).

¹⁸ R. Rees, King Copper: South Wales and the Copper Trade, 1854–1895 (Cardiff, 2000), p. 19.

¹⁹ R. Rees, ‘The great copper trials’, History Today, 43, no. 12 (1993), 38–44.

²⁰ E. M. Sandell, ‘Georgian Southampton: a watering place and spa’, in J. B. Morgan and P. Peberdy (eds.), Collected Essays on Southampton (Southampton, 1958), pp. 79–87.

²¹ A. Temple Patterson, A History of Southampton, 1700–1914, Volume 1: An Oligarchy in Decline, 1700–1835 (Southampton, 1966), p. 36.

²² Williams, Digest, Volume 1, p. 63.

²³ C. Evans, ‘The Labyrinth of Flames’. Work and Social Conflict in Early Industrial Merthyr Tydfil (Cardiff, 1993); E. D. Lewis, The Rhondda Valleys. A Study in Industrial Development from 1800 to the Present Day (London, 1959); B. Thomas, ‘The growth of industrial towns’, in A. J. Roderick (ed.), Wales Through the Ages, Volume 2 (Llandybïe, 1960); D. Gwyn, ‘The industrial town in Gwynedd’, Landscape History, 23 (2001), 71–89.

²⁴ E. G. Bowen, ‘Carmarthen: an urban study’, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 17 (1968), 1–17.

²⁵ Information on the growth of Newport is contained in D. Williams, John Frost. A Study in Chartism (Cardiff, 1939); C. Williams, ‘“Decorous and creditable”: the Irish in Newport’, in P. O’Leary (ed.), Irish Migrants in Modern Wales (Liverpool, 2004), pp. 54–82.

²⁶ O. V. Jones, ‘Bangor; the growth of a city during the first half of the nineteenth century’, Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society, 46 (1985), 23–43; A. H. Dodd (ed.), A History of Wrexham, Denbighshire (Wrexham, 1957).

²⁷ P. Jenkins, ‘Wales’, in P. Clark (ed.), CUHB, Volume 2: 1540–1840 (Cambridge, 2000), p. 134.

²⁸ G. Williams (ed.), Swansea. An Illustrated History (Swansea, 1990); R. A. Griffiths (ed.), The City of Swansea. Challenges and Change (Stroud, 1990); Social and Economic Survey of Swansea and District, Pamphlets 1–6 (Cardiff, 1940).

²⁹ See, for example, G. A. Williams, The Merthyr Rising (London, 1978); H. Carter and S. Wheatley, Merthyr in 1851. A Study of the Spatial Structure of a Welsh Industrial Town (Cardiff, 1982).

³⁰ See, for example, J. Davies, Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute (Cardiff, 1981); J. Davies, Cardiff. A Pocket Guide (Cardiff, 2002).

³¹ M. J. Daunton, Coal Metropolis. Cardiff, 1870–1914 (Leicester, 1977).

³² A. Croll, Civilizing the Urban. Popular Culture and Public Space in Merthyr, c.1870–1914 (Cardiff, 2000).

³³ C. Williams, Capitalism, Community and Conflict. The South Wales Coalfield, 1898–1947 (Cardiff, 1998); idem, Democratic Rhondda. Politics and Society, 1885–1951 (Cardiff, 1996).

³⁴ O. G. Roberts, ‘Sanitary reform, ci...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Editors’ Foreword
• Contents
• Preface
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables and Figures
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I. ‘Prejudicial to our ancient rights and privileges’: Urban governance, c.1780–1800
• II. ‘Many advantages not to be found in any other part of Wales’: Improvement and identity, c.1800–1820
• III. ‘A degree of commercial and manufacturing importance’: Industrialization and regional status
• IV. ‘The content and comfort of the workmen’: The Swansea populace and social relations
• V. ‘Cutting each other’s throats by our unhappy divisions’: Local government in the post-reform era
• VI. ‘There is a spirit of intelligence abroad’: Urban elites and urban culture
• Conclusion
• Picture Section
• Biographical Appendix
• Bibliography
• Notes