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The Mumbles Way & Linked Walks

The Mumbles Development Trust, with help from Cydcoed, have been enhancing a series of woodlands extending from Mumbles Hill to Clyne Valley, since 2005. Sites within the scope of the Mumbles Cydcoed Woodlands project are linked, mainly by 5 short circular walks. The woodlands are joined by one longer north to south The Mumbles Way [compare The Gower Way]. The Mumbles Way had its first public prototype on 12/6/07 as part of the Gower Walking Festival, before an official opening by Iolo Williams on 17/9/07.

Join us on Saturday October 27th 2007, when walk creator Neil Thomas will lead us through the whole 10km - or part of if you can't make the whole distance. Call 01792 361012 for details.

The start is at 10am in the Clyne Valley car park, Blackpill.

Bring a packed lunch and sturdy boots.

Participation is at own risk.

First versions of the walks have been shown on the web site www.mumblesmatters.org. The 5 shorter walks, plus an additional Whitestone Newton walk near Whitestone School, are:

Town & Country walk - Clyne Valley Country Park & West Cross Park
Washinghouse Brook walk - Washinghouse Brook & Woodland Avenue
Castle Rock walk - Colts Hill & Oystermouth Castle
Lovely Limestone walk - Underhill Park Woodland & Peel Wood
Ridge War walk - Mumbles Ridge & Mumbles Hill Local Nature Reserve
Whitestone Newton walk - Clyne Common & Newton Village

In addition 3 special walks suitable for school children have been tested & presented to 3 of the local schools – St. David’s, Whitestone & Mayals.

The reasons we have developed these walks are:

To encourage local & visiting people to look after & value our surroundings
For better health - [Japanese research (29/1/07) Walking in woods reduces blood pressure & improves the immune system.
To increase the quality of our environment’s flora & fauna.

Some of the main features of our iconic walk are listed below:

The Mumbles Way

This is the Way; walk in it.

A longer green walk, from Black Pill into Clyne Country Park, Clyne Gardens, West Cross including Washinghouse Brook, Oystermouth Castle, one Wildlife Reserve wooded quarry [a “secret place”] climaxed on the Mumbles Halo, with an amazing sea panorama right around Swansea Bay & across to Devon.

START ** Grid Reference SS 619 908 (@ 7 metres above sea level).(B4436) car park (pay & display) to Clyne Valley Country Park just across & north of The Junction on Mumbles Road A4067 near The Woodman.

Turnpike Road
33% of the South Wales Association for the Improvement of Roads were merchants from Swansea. They were keen to confront the old established gentry such as the Duke of Beaufort who were against improved communications because they saw no profit in them and they did not like the changes that improved transport would inevitably bring.

Landowners and magistrates violated Turnpike laws by setting up illegal gates. The magistrates even imposed fines on people who refused to pay tolls at illegal gates.

A Rebecca Riot against Turnpike Gates -; Sarah Williams, Toll Keeper at Hendy Toll House murdered in 1643.

LMS Railway
A colour Picture Postcard. by R. Tuck & Co. for the LN&NW Rly. (1904) - “His Majesty's Sleeping Compartment. "New fast train from Swansea to the North & North Eastern Ports”.

Clyne Valley
Stream, lake, woods, rocks & old workings – God’s creation opened up by man.

Clyne Castle

Giant Redwood & Monterey Cypress / Wellingtonia

Dogs’ Graveyard

Joy Cottage

Clyne Forest

Japanese Bridge
The red Japanese Bridge overhung by a Pocket Handkerchief,or Ghost tree - Davidia involucrata with heart shaped leaves.

West Cross Community Centre

Washinghouse Brook
In 1811 to 1825, “marble” [quality limestone] for chimney breasts, was washed, driven by a water wheel, in “Washing Lake”, near the West Cross Inn?

Amy Dillwyn & Ty Glyn
Amy, the World’s first female Industrialist, a philanthropist, was daughter of the MP, & a cigar smoker. She died aged 89, 29 years at Ty Glyn, now Mumbles Nursing Home.

West Cross Inn

Tides Reach Guest House
Built as Bath House Hotel from 1855, first it offered - warm (1s 6d) & cold sea water baths (6d), then in 1869 - plain teas (1s. 3d) & lodging (£1 per week including rail ticket to Swansea}. All changed in 1925, it then became West Cross Private School, Kindergarten department.

Information from: Wendy Cope archivist OHA.

Broadleaf Woodland Enterprise Centre
Created in 2006, this Centre will focus on the importance of native woodlands to provide a sustainable livelihood for our local community. Appropriate woodland products & conservation should co-exist here. It aims to be centrepiece of the Mumbles Development Trust Cydcoed woodlands project.

Oystermouth Castle
From the Gatehouse & telescope viewpoint see an intricate panorama - All Saints Church & tower; “Leaning Tree (Tower) of Mumbles, the Baptist Church spire; Southend front with Verdi’s, Mumbles Pier & lighthouse.

The Beaufort Arms
1802 it was The Ship on the Beaufort Estate by 1903 it “was not fit for a public house… in a dilapidated & filthy condition” then renovated. In 1940 ladies toilets were provided. Information - Mumbles & Gower Pubs Brian Davies (2006).

Mons Cottages

Norton Lime WorksThe wall running east to west in Prospect Terrace is approximately the boundary of the old Lime Works. The "Cambrian Visitor" of 1813 refers to limestone in Glamorgan being capable of being worked as marble and particularly mentions the beds at Mumbles worked by Mr Wallis who had a mill for sawing and polishing near Norton village.

Oystermouth Cemetery

Peel Wood / Callencroft Quarry
This is the very epitome [part that represents the whole walk in miniature] of The Mumbles Way – natural & man-made; wild yet open.

Underhill Park & Billy Johns

Mumbles Hill & Command Post
Mumbles Hill (77m) has an amazing panorama, limestone & iron ore were quarried. Uncovered sites of anti-aircraft gun locations from World War 2 are described at the Command Post.

Mumbles Hill House

Dickslade & The George
Behind the houses & shops fronting the beach at Southend are Village Lane & Hill Street, George Bank & the Clovellian Dickslade - neat rows of fishermen’s cottages.

In 1826 the road from Swansea, the Turnpike Road, stopped at the [now blue] Beaufort Inn and the George & Dragon, now called The George. Beneath DickSlade steps is the 1935 black stone showing where the Turnpike road stopped.

   


 

Broadleaf Woodland Enterprise
Ty Hanes Local History Centre
4 Dunns Lane, Mumbles
Swansea
SA3 4AA
Tel: 01792 361012



Email: mdtmumbles@btopenworld.com

 

 

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