Welsh Journals

BOOK REVIEWS HISTORIC SWANSEA: BEING THE FIRST PART OF WILLIAM CYRIL ROGERS' SWANSEA AND GLAMORGAN CALENDAR. Edited with a com- mentary by Bernard Morris. 338pp. West Glamorgan Archive Service, 2005. ISBN 0-9551703-0-3. This volume brings into print for the first time a collec- tion of leases spanning the 1530-1880 period, amassed by W. C. Rogers, Swansea historian and chartered sur- veyor, who was moved to preserve these records in an era before modern archive facilities became available. The job of editing the collection has been skilfully undertaken by Bernard Morris, himself an authority on Swansea's townscape over the centuries. He provides explanatory notes on each lease and details from con- temporary drawings and maps to help the reader identify particular buildings or parcels of land. The leases provide fascinating insights into town growth. The transformation of areas like Townhill from 1762, Greenhill from the early nineteenth century, and the Burrows, with the lease of land for the construction of 15 good dwelling-houses of brick or stone' in 1779, are each revealed as landmark moments in Swansea's urban development. The town's diverse industrial profile is evident in the lease of a coal bank and dry dock area on the Strand to Robert Morris in 1733; the 1764 lease to William Coles of a site on the Strand 'convenient for the carrying on a stone ware or earthenware manufactory'; and the lease of land adjacent to the pottery to John Gevers, for use as an iron foundry in 1793. Other leases deal with the development of facilities for local gentry and seasonal visitors, such as the site leased in 1808 for the construction of assembly rooms. Later, plots for the construction of an infirmary building and schools testify to the philanthropic efforts of some of Swansea's lead- ing townsmen to provide facilities for the education and health of the population at large. Although it offers a rich picture of Swansea's development over three centuries, use of this book is likely to be limited to the scholarly researcher the detailed nature of its content being perhaps unsuited to the more casual reader. Nevertheless the feat achieved by Rogers in amassing and calendaring these leases, and by Bernard