Glamorgan

All you want to know about Glamorgan

For other uses, see Glamorgan (disambiguation).
Glamorgan
Glamorganshire
Ancient extent of Glamorgan
Geography
1831 area 547,494 acres (2,215.63 km2)[citation needed]
1911 area 518,865 acres (2,099.77 km2)[1]
2007 area >523,253 acres?
HQ Cardiff
Chapman code GLA
History
Succeeded by West Glamorgan
Mid Glamorgan
South Glamorgan
Demography
1831 population
- 1831 density		 126,612[2]
0.2/acre[citation needed]
1911 population
- 1911 density		 1,120,910[1]
2.2/acre
2007 population
- 2008 density		 >2,129,728?
>2.4/acre?
Politics
Governance Glamorgan County Council (1889-1974)

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire (Welsh: Morgannwg) is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying names and boundaries until taken over by the Normans as a lordship.[3] Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three preserved counties of West Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan. The name also survives in that of the county borough of the Vale of Glamorgan.

Contents

Geography

The county of Glamorgan fell into several distinct regions: the industrial valleys, the agricultural Vale of Glamorgan, and the scenic Gower peninsula.

The county was bounded to the north by Brecknockshire, east by Monmouthshire, south by the Bristol Channel, and west by Carmarthenshire and Carmarthen Bay. Its total area was 2,100 km²,[4] and the total population of the three preserved counties of Glamorgan in 1991 was 1,288,309.[5] In 2001 it was around 1.4 million and in 2008 it is about 2.0-2.2 million[citation needed]. The historic county of Glamorgan is one of the fastest growing areas in the UK in population[citation needed]. Its highest point is at Craig y Llyn (600 m).

Glamorgan was the most populous[3] and industrialised county[citation needed] in Wales. The northern part of the county was a mountainous area, dissected by deep narrow valleys, with urbanisation typified by ribbon development. At one time the coal industry was dominant, but the last deep mine, Tower Colliery at Hirwaun closed in January 2008. A few small drift mines like Unity Mine, formerly Pentreclwydau South, near Glynneath remain. The Vale of Glamorgan, a lowland area mainly comprising farmland and small villages stretched across most of the south of the county from Porthcawl to Cardiff. Further west, beyond Swansea, lay the Gower peninsula, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.[6]

The major rivers of Glamorgan included the River Taff, the Ely, the Ogmore, the Neath, Dulais, the Tawe, the Rhymney (which formed the border with Monmouthshire), and the Loughor (which formed the border with Carmarthenshire). The main towns included Aberdare, Barry, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caerphilly, Cowbridge, Maesteg, Merthyr Tydfil, Mountain Ash, Neath, Penarth, Pontypridd, Porthcawl, Port Talbot, and Swansea.

Despite the decline in the coal industry, the area remains heavily populated with, particularly around Cardiff, a wide and diverse economic base including public administration, agriculture, light industry, manufacturing, service sector, and tourism.[7].

Places of interest

Places of special interest include:

History

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)

Initially it was founded as an independent petty kingdom named Glywysing. In the 10th century, it became known as Morgannwg after its greatest monarch, Morgan Hen. It was at times united with the neighbouring kingdoms of Gwent and Ergyng.[8] By virtue of its location and geography, Morgannwg was the second part of Wales, after Gwent, to be overrun by the Normans and was frequently the scene of fighting between the Marcher Lords and Welsh princes.[9]

Administration

After the fall of the Welsh Kingdom of Morgannwg to Robert FitzHamon in 1091, the region became the English Lordship of Glamorgan, sometimes called the Lordship of Glamorgan and Morgan because it was divided into the Norman settled Plain or Vale of Glamorgan and the Welsh upland area called Morgannwg, anglicized to Morgan. Both areas were under the control of the Norman Lords of Glamorgan (often the Earls of Gloucester).[9]

In 1535, the first Act of Union attached the Lordship of Gower and Kilvey to Glamorgan and created the historic county of Glamorgan.[10]. An administrative county of Glamorgan was created under the Local Government Act 1888, excluding Swansea and Cardiff, which were independent county boroughs. They were soon joined by Merthyr Tydfil.[11]

The county council's coat of arms, granted in 1950, was: Or, three chevronels gules between as many Tudor roses barbed and seeded proper. The red chevronels on a gold shield were the arms of the De Clare Marcher Lords, while the roses recorded the shiring of Glamorgan by Henry VIII. The crest above the shield was a Welsh dragon rising from flames, symbolising the revival of the county's industry following a period of economic depression. The dragon supported a flag bearing a clarion from the arms of the De Granville family, lords of Neath. Thesupporters of the arms were a coalminer and a steel worker. The motto adopted by the county council: A Ddioddefws A Orfu or "He who suffered, conquered" was that of the lineage of Iestyn ap Gwrgant, and was considered appropriate to an area whose wealth depended on great hardship.[12] [13]

Under the Local Government Act 1972, the county and administrative county of Glamorgan was abolished on April 1, 1974, with three new counties being established, each containing a former county borough - West Glamorgan, Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan. It has now been further subdivided into several unitary authorities. The South Wales Police force covers an area that is similar to Glamorgan.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Vision of Britain - Glamorgan population (area)
  2. ^ Vision of Britain - 1831 Census
  3. ^ a b BBC Wales: South East: Glamorgan
  4. ^ 999 Glamorgan: About Glamorgan
  5. ^ Office of National Statistics: 1991 Census County Monitor (Wales)
  6. ^ City and County of Swansea: Gower - Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
  7. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: Glamorgan
  8. ^ Wendy Davies. (1982). Wales in the Early Middle Ages. London: Leicester University Press
  9. ^ a b William Rees. (1951). An Historical Atlas of Wales. Cardiff: University College
  10. ^ Laws in Wales Act 1535
  11. ^ A Vision of Britain through Time: Relationships/Unit History of Merthyr Tudful
  12. ^ Geoffrey Briggs, Civic and Corporate Heraldry, London, 1971
  13. ^ C Wilfrid Scott-Giles, Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, 2nd edition, London, 1953
  14. ^ Your Police: Our Plan 2007-2008

External links

v • d • e
Local government in Wales
Principal areas established in 1996
Counties and districts 1974 - 1996
Counties established before 1889
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glamorgan"

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