On this date in 1969 Swansea was granted city status to mark Prince Charles's investiture as the Prince of Wales. 10 things you might not know about Swansea:
The Welsh name for the city is Abertawe, which translates as "mouth/estuary of the Tawe".
The name Swansea is derived from the name of a Viking trading post located here, founded by King Sweyn Forkbeard. It was his name, 'Svein' or 'Sweyn', with the suffix of '-ey' ("island"), which might simply refer to the mouth of the river.
It’s known historically for the production of Coal. From 1600, the Swansea area shipped out more coal than any other UK district, except for Newcastle and Sunderland.
Copper was also produced here, and from the late 18th century until well into the Victorian era, Swansea was nicknamed ‘Copperopolis’.
Underneath the River Tawe, there’s a secret tunnel connecting one side of the river with the other. The 125 metre tunnel is used by utilities companies to run cables, and to access rock anchors that help support the river barrage. It’s just about big enough for a person to ride a Bicycle through it.
There were several Apple shaped kiosks placed around Wales over 80 years ago. The only one still standing is in Mumbles and is now an ice cream stand nicknamed The Big Apple.
In 2004 the MET Office named Swansea Britain’s wettest city.
Famous people from Swansea include Dylan Thomas, Sir Harry Secombe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Heseltine, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, 18th-century dandy Beau Nash, writer Russell T Davies and rock musician Spencer Davis.
There’s also a famous Dog called Swansea Jack, a flat-coated retriever, was born in 1930, and who belonged to a man named William Thomas. At first, Jack was terrified of Water, but since his owner lived and worked near the sea, Thomas would throw Jack to some boys in the water to get him used to it. It clearly worked as from 1931, Jack rescued 14 people and any number of animals who’d fallen into the sea.
Swansea is twinned with Cork in Ireland, Mannheim in Germany, Pau in France and Bydgoszcz in Poland as well as having friendship links with Nantong, China.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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