Swansea, Welsh Abertawe, city (1981 pop. 172,433) and county, 146 sq mi (378 sq km), S Wales. Located on Swansea Bay at the mouth of the Tawe River, the city of Swansea is a metallurgical center with sheet-metal mills, foundries, and smelting works. Other industries are engineering, shipbuilding, and oil refining (at the suburb Llandarcy). Crude oil, metals, timber, grain, and rubber are imported. Swansea ware, of rich blue coloring with decorative painting, was made at the Swansea potteries in the first half of the 19th cent. The Royal Institution of South Wales, a Univ. of Wales campus, and a medieval castle on the site of an old ruined Norman castle are points of special interest. The poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea.

Swansea, town (1990 est. pop. 15,500), Bristol co., SE Mass., a suburb of Fall River, on an inlet of Mount Hope Bay; founded 1667, inc. 1785. Once a vast farmland, it has become chiefly residential. Many of its inhabitants were massacred in King Philip's War (1675), but the town was later rebuilt and prospered.

Welsh Abertawe

Seaport and county (pop., 2001: 223,293), southern Wales. Lying along the Bristol Channel, it is the second largest city in Wales. It dates from the 12th century. Until the early 18th century it was a small market town and coal port; thereafter it grew steadily with industry, and by the mid-19th century it was the focus of the world copper trade. The city centre was almost totally destroyed by German bombing in 1941 but has been redeveloped, and Swansea is now the chief shopping and service hub for southwestern Wales. The poet Dylan Thomas was born there.

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