- published: 27 Aug 2016
- views: 22434
Swansea (/ˈswɒnzi/ SWON-zee; Welsh: Abertawe [abɛrˈtauɛ], "mouth of the Tawe"), officially known as the City and County of Swansea, is a coastal city and county in Wales. It is Wales's second largest city and the UK's twenty-fifth largest city. Swansea lies within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands. According to its local council, the City and County of Swansea had a population of 241,300 in 2014. The last official census stated that the city, metropolitan and urban areas combined concluded to be a total of 462,000 in 2011, making it the second most populous local authority area in Wales after Cardiff. During its 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was a key centre of the copper industry, earning the nickname 'Copperopolis'. Since 2011, Swansea has started to expand into a larger region known as the Swansea Bay City Region. After combining with other councils, it now includes Tenby and other parts of West Wales, its population including these areas an estimated 685,051. The chairman of the new region is Sir Terry Matthews
If you want to come on down,
Down with your bones so white,
And watch the freight trains pound
Into the wild, wild night
How I would love to gnaw,
Gnaw on your bones so white,
And watch as the freight trains paw,
Paw at the wild, wild night.
All these ghost towns, wreathed in old loam
(Assateague knee-deep in seafoam)-
Ho Swansea! Buttonwillow!
Lagunitas! Ho Calico!
And all these beastly bungalows
Stare, distend, like endless toads -
Endlessly hop down the road.
Borne by wind, we southward blow.
While yonder, wild and blue,
The wild blue yonder looms.
'Till we are wracked with rheum,
By roads, by songs entombed.
And all we want to do
Is chew, and chew, and chew!
Dear one, drive on,
When all we want to do
Is chew, and chew, and chew.