Caswell Bay
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Caswell Bay or Welsh Bae Cas-wellt (meaning straw fortress), is a beach on the south east of the
Gower Peninsula Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...
,
Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
,
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. It is a sandy beach popular with families, holiday makers and surfers, and it regularly achieves Blue Flag status.


Facilities and access

There is good access to Caswell Bay by car and public transport by
First Cymru First Cymru is an operator of bus services in South West Wales. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup with its headquarters in Swansea. History In 1987, South Wales Transport was sold during the privatisation of the National Bus Company in a m ...
from
Swansea Bus Station Swansea City bus station is a bus station serving Swansea, Wales. It lies immediately to the west of the Quadrant Shopping Centre. The station has 20 stands for local bus services with three more serving national coach services. Coach services ...
. There is a large pay and display car park and buses go to the nearby village of
Oystermouth Oystermouth (a corruption of the Welsh name ''Ystum Llwynarth'' or ''Ystumllwynarth'') is a village (and former electoral ward) in the district of Mumbles, Swansea, Wales. It is part of the Mumbles community (civil parish). Description The wa ...
and the
Mumbles Mumbles ( cy, Mwmbwls) is a headland sited on the western edge of Swansea Bay on the southern coast of Wales. Toponym Mumbles has been noted for its unusual place name. The headland is thought by some to have been named by French sailors, ...
. To the east is a well maintained coastal path leading to the neighbouring
Langland Bay Langland Bay is a popular coastal holiday resort in Gower Peninsula, Gower, Swansea in south Wales. It is a popular surfing beach which regularly meets the European Blue Flag beach, Blue Flag award for quality. History Langland Bay - together ...
. To the west is a more rural path leading to Brandy Cove and
Pwlldu Bay Pwlldu Bay or Pwll Du Bay ( cy, Bae Pwll Du) is a small beach on the south Gower Peninsula coast in south Wales. It is one of the more remote beaches and is not easily accessible by car, but there are several good footpaths leading to it. The ...
. Caswell Bay has a cafe, which is open all year round, and a beach shop. The Surfside Cafe suffered severe storm damage in January and February 2014, but reopened in the spring following repair and refurbishment. There are also public toilets and outdoor public showers. Swansea City Council operate a Lifeguard service 7 days a week from early May to the beginning of September. The bay is a popular surfing location and is home to a surf school offering lessons all year round. It has a fully adaptive and inclusive surf centre, which opened in 2020 next to the public car park. It is also a renowned
rock pool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...
ing location. The
Bishop's Wood Bishop's Wood (Welsh: ''Coed yr Esgob'') is a nature reserve in the Gower Peninsula, south Wales. The area consists of 46 acres (19 hectares) of limestone woodland and grassland. Part of the wood is classified as ancient woodland. The 1673 surv ...
nature reserve sits behind the bay, a rare example of a limestone woodland. The nature reserve is open to the public for unaccompanied visits at any time. Educational tours can be arranged through the Bishop's Wood countryside centre.


History

Between 1829 and 1840 much of the land around Caswell Bay was bought by John James, a former Curate of Bishopston, for his daughter and his son-in-law, Charles Morgan.Morgan, P. (1981) Caswell - The Making of a Landscape. Gower journal of the Gower Society, Vol.32 (1981), pp. 6–10. In 1846, The Morgans sold a piece of land on the eastern side of the bay to 19th Century pioneer photographer
John Dillwyn Llewelyn John Dillwyn Llewelyn FRS FRAS (12 January 1810 – 24 August 1882) was a Welsh botanist and pioneer photographer. Early life He was born in the parish of Llangyfelach, Swansea, Wales, the eldest son of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and Mary Dillwy ...
who was a regular visitor to the bay. Llewelyn built a holiday home, Caswell Cottage, which stood until around 1960 on the site of what is now the Caswell Bay public car park. In 1854 images of two of his photographs of Caswell Bay were requested by Prince Albert. In August 1878 Llewelyn's thirteen-year-old grandson drowned whilst swimming in the bay, with the inquest held at the Caswell Bay Hotel. After the death of Mrs Charles Morgan in 1877, her Caswell Estate was divided amongst her six children. Soon afterwards, a portion of the land on the western side of the bay was sold to the Davenport family who built a large house on the land. The house was called Redcliffe, named after Redley Cliff which bounds the western side of the bay. In the late 1920s Redcliffe was the family home of poet
Vernon Watkins Vernon Phillips Watkins (27 June 1906 – 8 October 1967) was a Welsh poet and translator. His headmaster at Repton was Geoffrey Fisher, who became Archbishop of Canterbury. Despite his parents being Nonconformists, Watkins' school experiences ...
, a contemporary and close friend of
Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...
. The house stood until the 1960s when it was demolished to make way for the Redcliffe apartments that now overlook the west side of the bay. The three daughters of Mrs Charles Morgan, Emma, Agnes and Alice made Caswell Bay their home from 1877 and built many of the houses which remain to this day, including their own home, Bay House which stands above the centre of the bay. The sisters also planted many of the bay's distinctive pine trees. In 1879, the religious poet and hymn writer
Frances Ridley Havergal Frances Ridley Havergal (14 December 1836 – 3 June 1879) was an English religious poet and hymnwriter. ''Take My Life and Let it Be'' and ''Thy Life for Me'' (also known as ''I Gave My Life for Thee'') are two of her best known hymns. She also ...
died of
peritonitis Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and cover of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One part or ...
in a house near Caswell Bay. A memorial plaque commemorates this. In 1883 a wind pump was built at the peak of Redley Cliff to pump water to nearby houses. The wind pump was badly damaged in a gale less than five years later and had ceased to be used by 1900. It remained a landmark until it was destroyed for safety reasons in 1930 having been badly damaged in a suspicious fire. On top of Redley Cliff there is also evidence of the existence of a defended
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
. In the 1890s a large concrete water tank was built at the base of the cliff, which remains to this day. The water tank was used to collect water from a small spring during the late 19th century. Around the same time a pump house was built on the eastern side of the bay. The sea soon smashed it and a replacement was built near the road consisting of two buildings built a short time apart. By the end of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the pump house was no longer required and for a time it was used as a café. The newer of the two buildings remains to this day alongside the base of the older building. For more than forty years in the 20th century, Caswell Bay played a central role in a murder mystery. Less than 2 years after settling in a house overlooking Caswell Bay, George Shotton and his wife Mamie Stuart mysteriously disappeared before Christmas 1919. When police tracked down Shotton in 1920 they feared he had murdered Mamie Stuart, but were unable to find the evidence. On 5 November 1961 a sack of human bones was found in a disused mine at the nearby Brandy Cove. A coroner's inquest determined the remains were those of the missing Mamie Stuart. After an extensive manhunt George Shotton was traced to a cemetery in Bristol, having died just 3 years earlier. On the cliff top above the centre of the bay are the Caswell Bay Court apartments which were built in the 1990s on the site previously occupied by the Caswell Bay Hotel. The hotel was expanded from a simple Victorian villa built in the 1850s. In 2006 Caswell Bay was named as one of the top 50 beaches in the UK by ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper. In 2020 the world's first purpose-built, fully adaptive surf centre was built at Caswell Bay. The centre was built by a team of volunteers as part of a special episode of the television programme DIY SOS for BBC Children in Need.


References


External links


surfing school at Caswell Bay

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Caswell Bay and surrounding area

Surfing and beach pictures of Caswell bay, Mumbles, Swansea
{{Gower Peninsula Bays of the Gower Peninsula Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Glamorgan Tourist attractions in Swansea