In 1795, Swansea was described as being situated ‘near the centre of a most beautiful bay, on angle between two hills’. The southerly winds blew over a ‘vast expanse of sea rendering the air mild and the soil was to a considerable depth gravelly, making it a pleasant and very healthy situation, the adjoining country was very picturesque furnishing a great variety of beautiful rides and walks’.
An agricultural environment surrounded a town so popular as a seaside resort that it became known as “the Brighton of Wales”. However, these were not the only advantages that Swansea possessed.
The town was also on the Western side of the South Wales coalfield, its coal measures reaching right down to the sea, while the River Tawe was so accommodatingly navigable that sea-going vessels were able to enter the coalfields.
These factors, together with a geographical proximity to the copper-ore mines of Devon and Cornwall, sealed Swansea’s future.
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