Penclawdd
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
which is situated in the north of the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in 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...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Penclawdd is most famous for its local cockle
Cockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
industry which goes back for many years to Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
times. It falls within the Penclawdd electoral ward
Penclawdd (electoral ward)
Penclawdd is the name of an electoral ward in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, UK. It is named after the village of Penclawdd, which falls within the ward....
. It is one of the larger villages on the Gower Peninsula. Part of the village is perched on a high location, enjoying panoramic views over the Loughor estuary and surrounding Gower countryside, while the main part of the village stretches along the edge of the estuary. Being so close to an estuary, Penclawdd is thriving with wildlife. It is plentiful in birdlife and with wild horses that roam the estuary.
Brief history
Up until the end of the 19th century Penclawdd was a thriving sea port. The village was renowned for coal miningCoal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
and its extensive tinplate, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
and brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
works. There was a time when Penclawdd had a forge, twenty grocer
Grocer
A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...
s, three butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
s, three draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
s, four fish and chip shops, eleven pubs, a cinema, the still remaining three chapels and a church and a busy railway station. The original railway platform still remains today. Also, built in 1807, a now derelict Hermon Chapel was used to help ships navigate the estuary.
Composer Karl Jenkins
Karl Jenkins
-Other works:*Adiemus: Live — live versions of Adiemus music*Palladio *Eloise *Imagined Oceans *The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace...
was born and raised in Penclawdd.
Penclawdd RFC
Penclawdd RFCPenclawdd RFC
Penclawdd RFC is a Rugby Football Club representing the town of Penclawdd, Swansea, Wales, UK. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Ospreys...
, nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
d the Donks, have a long history in rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. Penclawdd RFC
Penclawdd RFC
Penclawdd RFC is a Rugby Football Club representing the town of Penclawdd, Swansea, Wales, UK. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Ospreys...
officially formed in 1888, but rugby has been played in the village since the 1880 / 1881 season, the same year as the founding of the Welsh Rugby Union
Welsh Rugby Union
The Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales, recognised by the International Rugby Board.The union's patron is Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandson Prince William of Wales became the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union as of February 2007.-History:The roots of the...
. In its formative years the club had no permanent pitch, but played on suitable available ground in various areas of the village. Haydn Tanner
Haydn Tanner
Haydn Tanner was a Welsh international rugby union player who also played for the British and Irish Lions and the Barbarians....
is one of the club's most famous players, playing for Wales and the British Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
in 1938. Willie Davies, another famous Penclawdd international went North and played for Bradford Northern
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league....
in the 1930s, and also went on to represent Britain in rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
.
The club is still thriving today, recently celebrating 125 years of rugby being played at Penclawdd and the first team is currently competing in the Division 3 West league of the WRU, the 2nds in the Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in 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...
and district league, and the Youth play in the dragon's rugby trust leagues.
Local delicacies
Penclawdd is most famous for its local cockleCockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
industry which goes back for many years to Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
times. This is one of the only industries to survive. These cockles are collected
Gathering seafood by hand
Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters....
from the extensive sandy flats in the Burry Estuary and the cockles harvested there are sold worldwide. Samples of these famous cockles can be purchased at the stalls in Swansea Market
Swansea Market
Swansea Market situated in the heart of Swansea city centre is the largest indoor market in Wales. The market is covered by a steel arched portal frame roof clad in steel and glass. The current market was built in 1959-1960 by Percy Edwards. It is the fourth market to be built at the site in...
and locally in the village itself. Up until 1970s the cockles were gathered by women using hand-rakes and riddles (coarse sieves) with the help of donkey carts, often braving very hard conditions. Now they are harvested mostly by men, still by hand but using tractors or Land Rovers. The original small, family-owned factories in Penclawdd have been demolished and cockles are now processed in two large, modern factories in the nearby village of Crofty; the product is largely exported to continental Europe.
Other local delicacies include laverbread (laver seaweed Porphyra umbilicalis washed and boiled; it is eaten dipped in oatmeal
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is ground oat groats , or a porridge made from oats . Oatmeal can also be ground oat, steel-cut oats, crushed oats, or rolled oats....
and fried in bacon fat) and salt marsh
Salt marsh
A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
lamb. All of these and more examples of Welsh cuisine
Welsh cuisine
Welsh cuisine is the cuisine of Wales. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine. Beef and dairy cattle are raised widely. Sheep farming is extensive in the country and lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, particularly in dishes such as roast lamb...
are sold at an award winning local Penclawdd produce market.
Further reading
Several books have been published on the history of Penclawdd, including:- A Dark And Pagan Place - By R. N. Cooper
- Higher And Lower - By R. N. Cooper
- Estuary People - By Ann Roberts
- Service With A Smile - By Ann Roberts