Glamorganshire
- Eleanor Conlon
- Feb 16
- 7 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Where is Glamorganshire?
In our episode about Glamorganshire, we talked about lots of interesting places and things, so here are some pictures and links to find out more!
Gower Peninsula
The Gower Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Gŵyr), or simply Gower (Gŵyr), is a peninsula in the south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards the Bristol Channel. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Until 1974, Gower was administered as a rural district. It was then merged with the county borough of Swansea. From 1974 to 1996, it formed the Swansea district.Since 1996, Gower has been administered as part of the unitary authority of the City and County of Swansea.
The Red Lady of Paviland
In 1823, geologists excavating the remains of mammoths in Goat’s Hole Cave (also known as Paviland Cave), South Wales, made an intriguing discovery: a partial human skeleton covered in red ochre, accompanied by shell beads and carved ivory.
The find was made by William Buckland, Oxford University's first Reader in Geology. The presence of the beads and other ornaments led him to conclude that the bones were of a woman, and the find quickly became known as the 'Red Lady of Paviland'. Buckland also assumed that the 'Red Lady' was from the Roman period, around 2,000 years ago.
We now know that they are the remains of a young man, and far more ancient.
In 2008, scientists used improved radiocarbon-dating techniques, which showed that the bones are around 33–34,000 years old (from a less cold episode during the last glaciation), making the 'Red Lady' one of the oldest examples of a ceremonial burial in Western Europe. Stone tools and burned animal bones show that he could have been one of the hunters that used the cave over many thousands of years. How he died remains a mystery, but the evidence indicates that he was buried ceremonially.
Scientists are looking to extract DNA from one of the leg bones to find out more about who he was and where he came from.
Cardiff Castle
he Romans first built a fort at Cardiff at the end of the 50s AD, occupying a strategic river crossing that afforded easy access to the sea. Archaeological excavations have indicated that a series of four forts, each a different size, occupied the site at different times.
The final fort was an impressive stone construction and remains of these Roman walls can still be seen here today. While the fort may have been abandoned after the Roman withdrawal, the nearby settlement remained and came to be known as Caer-Taff, meaning fort on the Taff.
After the Norman Conquest, a wooden motte and bailey castle was established within the footprint of the old Roman fortification. The imposing keep and high walls created a powerful stronghold, symbolising control over the surrounding area and the local population.
A succession of noble lords expanded the site over several centuries, rebuilding in stone and adding both domestic and defensive structures to suite the tastes and needs of the time. Many of these features still define the castle today.
During the 19th century, Cardiff Castle underwent perhaps its most dramatic change. Fuelled by incredible mineral wealth from his Welsh estates and a burning passion for history, the 3rd Marquess of Bute collaborated with genius art-architect William Burges.
Together, they transformed Cardiff’s medieval fortress into a lavishly decorated Gothic revival residence, blending history, imagination and craftsmanship on an extraordinary scale.
National Museum of Wales
The National Museum of Wales was founded in 1905, with its royal charter granted in 1907. Part of the bid for Cardiff to obtain the National Museum for Wales included the gift of the Cardiff Museum Collection, then known as "Welsh Museum of Natural History, Archaeology and Art," which was formally handed over in 1912. The Cardiff Museum was sharing the building of Cardiff Library, and was a sub-department of the library until 1893.
Construction of a new building in the civic complex of Cathays Park began in 1912, but owing to the First World War it did not open to the public until 1922, with the official opening taking place in 1927. The architects were Arnold Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer, although the building as it now stands is a heavily truncated version of their design.
The sculpture scheme for the building was devised by Sir W. Goscombe John and consisted of the groups Prehistoric Period and Classic Period by Gilbert Bayes as well as Learning, Mining, and Shipping by Thomas J Clapperton, Art by Bertram Pegram, Medieval Period by Richard Garbe, Music by David Evans, and others. D. Arthur Thomas was commissioned to produce a model for the dragons, and A. Bertram Pegram to produce a model for the lions that were placed around the base of the dome.
Caerphilly Castle
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd didn’t build Caerphilly Castle. In fact he twice tried to knock it down before it was finished. But he was certainly its inspiration.
The rise of the powerful Prince of Wales persuaded Marcher lord Gilbert de Clare that he needed a fortress in double-quick time. And it had better be truly formidable.
So from 1268 de Clare constructed the biggest castle in Wales — second only to Windsor in the whole of Britain. Massive walls, towers and gatehouses were combined with sprawling water defences to cover a total of 30 acres.
That’s three times the size of Wales’s modern-day stronghold and home of Welsh rugby, the Principality Stadium.
On the death of Llywelyn this frontline fortress was transformed into a palatial home with a hunting park and northern lake. It passed into the hands of Edward II’s ruthless and greedy favourite Hugh Despenser, who revamped the great hall in ornate style.
By then Caerphilly must have appeared like some mythical castle floating in an enchanted lake. An effect oddly enhanced by the Civil War gunpowder that left the south-east tower at a precarious angle.
In fact Wales’s very own Leaning Tower — even wonkier than that of Pisa — is probably the castle’s best-loved feature.
St Donat's Castle
St Donat's Castle (Welsh: Castell Sain Dunwyd), St Donats, Wales, is a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 16 miles (26 km) to the west of Cardiff. Positioned on cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel, the site has been occupied since the Iron Age, and was by tradition the home of the Celtic chieftain Caradog. The present castle's origins date from the 12th century when the de Haweys and later Peter de Stradling began its development. The Stradlings held the castle for four hundred years, until the death of Sir Thomas Stradling in a duel in 1738.
During the 18th century, the castle's status and condition declined and by the early 19th century it was only partly habitable. The later 19th and early 20th centuries saw several restorations. In 1852, it was purchased by John Whitlock Nicholl Carne, who claimed descent from the Stradlings but whose efforts at reconstruction were not well regarded. More enlightened improvements were made by its subsequent owner, the coal magnate Morgan Stuart Williams.
The castle's transformation occurred after its purchase in 1925 by William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper tycoon. Hearst undertook a "brutal" expansion, including the incorporation of elements from other ancient structures such as the roofs of Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire and St Botolph's Church in Lincolnshire. His approach to architectural reclamation was controversial and the destruction of Bradenstoke was opposed in a vigorous campaign organised by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Bernard Shaw described the castle after Hearst's reconstruction as "what God would have built if he had had the money". Despite spending vast sums of money on St Donat's, Hearst rarely visited and in 1937, with the Hearst Corporation facing financial collapse, the castle was put up for sale, but with war looming, the castle was instead requisitioned for use by the army.
In 1960, some nine years after Hearst's death, it was purchased by the son of the businessman and educational philanthropist Antonin Besse and donated to the trustees of Atlantic College, the first of the United World Colleges. Today the castle is home to some 350 international students and, with a history of occupation extending back to the late 13th century, is among the oldest continuously inhabited castles in Wales. Both the castle and the grounds are of historical and architectural importance, and have Grade I listed status.
Castell Coch
Castell Coch, or the ‘Red Castle’, rises up from the ancient beech woods of Fforest Fawr like a vision from a fairy tale. Yet these great towers with their unmistakable conical roofs only hint at the splendour within.
Given free rein by the third Marquess of Bute, architect William Burges didn’t hold back. The highly decorated interiors and rich furnishings of Castell Coch make it a dazzling masterpiece of the High Victorian era.
But it’s no exotic folly. Underneath the mock-medieval trappings you can still trace the impressive remains of a 13th-century castle, once used as a hunting lodge by the ruthless Marcher lord Gilbert de Clare.
Castell Coch has been a plaything of the rich and powerful for over 700 years. Having lavished huge sums on it neither Gilbert de Clare nor the Marquess of Bute spent much time here.
But it remains a magnificent vision of an imaginary medieval world – regularly voted by the public as their favourite building in Wales.
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas was born on October 27th 1914 and died on November 9th 1953 at the age of 39. He lived in Wales and England and travelled to Ireland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Iran and America.
Though his life was short he completed a wealth of work including: hundreds of poems, surreal short stories, beautiful broadcasts about his childhood, a novel and a play-for-voices… all of which were written before he was forty.
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