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= Sketty =
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Introduction
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Sketty () is a surburban district and community in Swansea, Wales,
about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the Swansea city centre on Gower Road.
It falls within the Sketty council ward of Swansea.
Description
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The area approximates to the Vivian Road, and Sketty Green. The
village is centred on Sketty Cross, which is the junction of Gower
Road, Vivian Road, and Dillwyn Road. Directly on the cross, on the
West Gower Road/Vivian Road junction, The Vivian pub, known as The
Vivs, can be found. A second pub, The Bush, was immediately on the
east side of this junction, but is now closed.
In the immediate vicinity of Sketty Cross and the nearby Eversley
Road, a variety of businesses can be found. There are many shops which
include a launderette, two convenience stores, several
hairdressers/barbers, a hearing centre, a pharmacist, a series of
cafes, and (formerly) a sub post office (which closed in 2020). The
suburb also features two restaurants - Slice and Gilligans - and an
array of takeaways.
One of the longest-running businesses in the area is Kristy's Bakery
on Eversley Road, which was established in Sketty in the early 1940s,
after moving from a bombed-out premises in the town centre.
A small public library is located on Vivian Road to the north of the
cross. Located slightly further to the north is the Tycoch campus of
Gower College Swansea, (a further education college) on the corner of
Vivian Road and Tycoch Road.
The current site of the Bishop Gore School is on the northwestern
corner of Singleton Park. The school has been located in the area on
De La Beche Road since 1952. Also on De La Beche Road, the Sketty
Medical Practice can be found; and on the junction with Gower Road,
St. Paul's Church (Church in Wales) is situated.
Sketty comprises a mix of housing, from Victorian and Edwardian
villas, through pre- and post-war semis and detached houses, to the
council estate at Sketty Park.
Origin of the name
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Sketty is an anglicisation of the Welsh 'Sgeti,' which is also
recorded in the form 'Y Sgeti' (literally, "the Sketty"). It has been
interpreted as a corruption of "Ynys Ceti", "Ceti’s island".
In 'The Place Names of Wales', by Thomas Morgan of Skewen, an
alternative explanation is offered: Sketty as an anglicisation of the
Welsh 'Is Maen Keti', meaning "below Keti's stone". Keti's Stone is an
old name for the Neolithic burial chamber on Cefn Bryn known also as
Arthur's Stone.
Buildings
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The Sketty area includes a number of notable buildings. Sketty was
the domain of the copper magnate Vivian family of Sketty Hall and
Singleton Abbey. In the mid-19th century John Henry Vivian employed
the nationally renowned architect Henry Woodyer to design buildings
for the estate, of which three survive.
St Paul's Church was built in 1849-50 to Woodyer's design, added to in
1907 and again in 1928-9 by Glendinning Moxham. Woodyer also designed
the school opposite (now known as the Stewart Hall) in 1853. His
third building is Parc Beck, on the corner of Brynmill Lane. This
incorporates a square, late 18th century villa named Parc Wern, made
much larger, irregular and Gothic by Woodyer in 1851-3 for J. H.
Vivian's son, Henry Hussey Vivian and his wife. Woodyer's designs
were drastically compromised by later 19th-century heightening and
elaboration. The building's current name commemorates a later owner,
Roger Beck. It served as a nurses’ home before a recent conversion
into flats.
St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church, on Llythrid Avenue, was built in
1961 to a design by F. R. Bates, Son & Price. New Bethel Welsh
Congregational Church, Carnglas Road, was built in 1869-70.
Sketty Hall, Sketty Lane, is a much-altered building dating back to
the early 18th century. Also on Sketty Lane is Singleton Hospital,
two ten-storey blocks by O. Garbutt Walton for the Welsh Regional
Hospital Board, 1961, with later additions. Opposite is the
University Sports Pavilion, a late work by Glendinning Moxham,
designed 1930, built 1932.
Hendrefoelan House, on Hendrefoilan Road, is a severe grey stone
mansion in the Tudor style, built c. 1860 for Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn,
MP for Swansea, by William B. Colling. It formerly housed the Adult
Education Department of the Swansea University, but is now derelict.
Smaller domestic architecture worthy of note includes C.T. Ruthen's
29-47 Dillwyn Road (1905) and 1-11 De La Beche Road (1906); also
Coedsaeson (1893) (now 11 Parc Wern Road) and a number of large
individual houses and pairs in Gower Road (c. 1900), all attributable
to Glendinning Moxham.
Lower Sketty, or Sketty Isha, or Derwen Fawr, was long dominated by
the villas which industrialists and successful professional men
erected overlooking Swansea Bay and the Mumbles. The spread of
mid-20th-century housing estates has obliterated all but a few traces.
The most significant of the villas was Sketty Park House, built c.
1818 for the Morris family from the materials of Clasemont House
(1775), Sir John Morris of Morriston’s seat evacuated by the family
once the fumes from their copper works and the mine workings
underground became unbearable. Sketty Park House was itself
demolished c. 1973, but a large Gothic belvedere from its ornamental
grounds survives on a tree-covered mound in Saunders Way. Morris's
descendant George Lockwood Morris the Wales rugby player lived at
Machen Lodge, and his son Cedric Morris the artist and plantsman was
born there.
Farther south, in Derwen Fawr Road, three white Regency villas can
still be seen: Bible College, much heightened and enlarged; Emanuel
School on the east side; and on the west side the best-preserved of
the three, Gwern Eynon.
Sketty Park
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This area is centred on a council estate, although much of the housing
has been bought by the former tenants under the right to buy scheme.
The edges of the Sketty Park area have housing more typical of other
areas of Sketty and Derwen Fawr. A parade of shops (including a
barber's, food takeaway, and C.K.'s supermarket) and the Hen Dderwen
public house are located in the centre of the area. Parkland Primary
School and Olchfa Comprehensive School are located in the area. There
is also a large church on Parkway road,
[
http://www.parishofsketty.org.uk Holy Trinity Church], as well as
another church, [
http://www.parklandschurch.org.uk Parklands
Evangelical Church].
Derwen Fawr
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Derwen Fawr () is a district of south Sketty village, shown as 'Lower
Sketty' on Ordnance Survey maps. It is named after the principal road,
Derwen Fawr Road, which joins the village of Sketty with Oystermouth
Road. It is regarded as an up-market area, gaining its popularity
because of the proximity of the sea, Singleton Park, the centre of
Swansea, and the ease of access to Gower. It also has a number of
well-established large houses, to which have been added a large number
of more modestly sized houses.
It has a miniature model railway (open to the public on bank-holidays
in the summer), and before 2009 was home to The Bible College of
Wales. The edge of Derwen Fawr and Clyne Valley Country park is also
the location of a civic amenity site, still open to the public.
However, the attached landfill site, which was once the main facility
for the City of Swansea, closed in the 1980s when the Tir John site in
St. Thomas, Swansea took over as the Swansea's main refuse site.
A number of sporting facilities are located within the Derwen Fawr
district. These consist of the Welsh National Swimming Pool, Blackpill
Footgolf Course (formerly Blackpill Municipal Golf Links), and the
King George V playing fields.
External links
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*[
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj504cjFjV0 Video of Sketty, filmed
in the Spring of 2015]
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketty
