7 June - The Mumbles, the castle and Heyden

We'd been told by the man on the train from Bath that if we were going to Swansea, we had to go to the Mumbles which is on the Gower Peninsula. It's famous for its pier, its castle and its many restaurants and bars. We took the long bus ride to the pier, walked down to the pier and were, frankly, underwhelmed.

There's one building that houses an arcade, a gift shop and a restaurant. There's a brand new Ferris wheel which most of the natives hate. There's a long pier off the main one, but it's closed because it's unsafe. This isn't just inconvenient, it's life threatening. Let me explain. In the UK there is an organization called the RNLI, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It rescues people at sea, teaches sea safety and the incredible part is that it is mostly run by volunteers and mostly funded through donations. The old RNLI boathouse was on one arm of the pier. The new RNLI boathouse is on another. (The yellow building is the old one, the blue and white is the new one.)

The pier, no longer being safe, can no longer hold the boats used for sea rescues. The owner of the pier refuses to fix it because it will be too expensive. Therefore, when a sea rescue is needed, volunteers have to use small boats to get out to the lifeboats, adding an enormous amount of time and jeopardizing lives at sea. The battle between the pier owner and the government continues.

There is also a lighthouse nearby, which sits on the outer of two small islands off Mumbles Head and which dates to 1794.

We walked down the pier and along the shore toward town.

We stopped at a pub, The Pilot, and Bruce had a beer brewed there while we enjoyed listening to the conversation of the locals and the bartenders. We walked on for a bit looking for a place to eat and finally settled on another pub. Afterwards, we headed up the hill to Oystermouth Castle.

When we entered we met a lovely fellow named Hayden who said that he would be starting a tour of the castle in 20 minutes if we were interested. We said we were and he told us to go up the stairs and check out the chapel in the meanwhile. The chapel affords a picture postcard shot through one of the windows.

Climbing back down the stone steps, we made our way to the meeting point for Hayden's tour,

stopping for some silliness along the way.

We started outside the castle walls where Hayden pointed out how thick they were (around 4 feet thick). Additionally, the walls are thicker at the bottom. This was so that the battering rams couldn't get close to the castle walls. We walked up the ramp to the entryway of the castle. Because the castle sits on solid limestone, a moat could not be dug. There's a portcullis (a door that could be lowered from above) about 15 feet up the ramp. He explained that when the enemy would storm the castle, they would start up the ramp toward the castle and the portcullis would be lowered. Above their heads would be a small hole in the floor above, called the Murder Hole. The soldiers above would pour hot oil and sand into the murder hole, killing the enemy below. Yikes!

Hayden told us that most people think that Oystermouth refers to the fact that there are lots of oysters in Swansea Bay, but that's not correct. The Welsh name for the castle is Ystumllwynarth. The English couldn't pronounce the Welsh name and it came out something like yusternouth. That wasn't much easier so they added an O to the beginning and "smoothed it out" to become Oystermouth.

Hayden took us into what was the original part of the castle which was built in the early 12th century, though there is evidence that there were earlier forts on this site. The castle would once have been the property of a marcher lord; that was a noble appointed by the King of England to guard the the border between England and Wales known as the Welsh Marches. The first castle was founded by William de Londres soon after 1106, following the capture of Gower by the Normans. This space would have been pretty much the entirety of the castle at that time. The space is open, but originally there would have been two floors. The part we were in would have been where meals were prepared and servants lived. The second floor would have been the living quarters.

The de Londres family finally died out in 1215 when Gower was again taken by the Welsh under the leadership of Llywelyn the Great. In 1220 the Welsh were expelled from the peninsula and the government of Henry III of England returned the barony of Gower to John de Braose. Wanting to show off his great wealth, he enlarged the castle. This is why some of the windows look out onto other walls. With walls of that thickness, you don't knock down and enlarge, you build rooms next to the existing ones. De Braose had a daughter Alina aka Alice, whom he married off at age 7 to John de Mowbray, aged 12. Clearly it was a political marriage, but they eventually had a son, John. King Edward II confiscated Gower and de Mowbray and the other barons revolted. De Mobray was captured in a battle against the king and hanged in York. For good measure, Alice and her son John were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Eventually Alice was released; she returned to the castle, built the chapel and led a quiet life. It's said that her ghost often appears, though Hayden said he's never seen it. The castle passed to several other families before ending up in the hands of Duke of Beaufort. Over the years rooms were added, and "plumbing" too. The plumbing was actually just a hole that would vent out of the castle. It was called a garderobe. Hayden explained that lice and other bugs were a big problem in those days and it was thought that the stink from feces would kill the bugs, so garments were stored in the toilets. Garderobe is derived from the French garder meaning to keep, and robe meaning dress.

There were a couple of rooms with rounded ceilings that were rumored to be where prisoners were held, but which were more likely used as barracks or for storage. (The coffin has no significance; it's just a prop they use at Halloween.

Another room had a stone pillar in the center where it is rumored that prisoners were tortured. Hayden says that's unlikely because in order to have prisoners, you would need guards and you'd have to feed them and that would be an unnecessary expense. It's more likely that the post was simply added as a support to the ceiling.

Hayden then took us up to the top of the castle from which you get the best views of the bay,

He said that when the castle stood, there was no bay. The topography has changed over time. There's also a good view of the town around the Mumbles.

Hayden drew our attention to the poppies cascading down the side of the castle. This is a piece of art that is usually displayed on Remembrance Day, November 11. It was on display at this time to mark the 80th anniversary of D-day.

The piece was made by a local group called the Swansea Yarnbombers and is composed of thousands of crocheted poppies. They are predominantly red, but there are also other colors. The black poppies commemorate the contributions of black, African and Caribbean communities to the war effort - as servicemen and servicewomen, and as civilians.

The purple poppies represent animals killed in WWI. Animals like horses, dogs and pigeons were often drafted into the war effort, and their service can be seen by some as equal to that of human service. The white poppy commemorates people who died in conflict, but focuses on achieving peace and challenging the way we look at war.

In case you didn't know, the symbol of Wales is the dragon, it's even on their flag,

so I was particularly intrigued on the way home on the way home, when we passed this sign outside a butcher shop.

Where did they find the meat?!