Mumbles – the healthiest seaside resort by Beverley Rogers   

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Mumbles has been recently featured at the top of the list of 52 Places to Love in 2021 in the New York Times. It has also appeared in the Sunday Times’ Best Places to live for three years in a row. This is a glowing accolade for our lovely seaside village.

Unsurprisingly, Mumbles has been a popular destination for tourists since the late 19th century when the virtues of its clean air and low death rate made it ‘most satisfactory’ in terms of health. In 1899 it was reported:

‘The air of Mumbles is absolutely pure and full of ozone and other health-giving properties. The scenery is remarkably picturesque and varied. The accommodation for health and pleasure-seekers is the best. The health record will compare favourably with that of any watering resort in the kingdom’.[2]

The easy accessibility to Mumbles via train or motorbus brought visitors from all over Swansea and the outlying areas. Some came for a day trip, whilst others who came from much further afield chose to stay in the pleasant hotels and guest houses of Mumbles and the nearby bays. The arrivals of visitors staying in establishments such as the Langland Bay Hotel, the Osborne Hotel, New Windsor House, Upper Villa in Langland, the Temperance Hotel in Southend, The Mermaid Hotel, or Park Villa, would be posted weekly in the newspapers with the names of the guests staying and where they had come from.

The ‘delightful village of Mumbles’ was advertised as a place for recreation and amusement whose ‘attractions as a holiday-land’ were ‘unsurpassable’.[3] Like today, Mumbles had much to offer visitors. There was boating, fishing and cycling for those who wished to be active. Walks along Mumbles Pier could be undertaken to take in the views and listen to the bands that would regularly play there. There was also the lighthouse to visit and a castle with superb views from the top. A variety of venues were available in which to enjoy refreshments such as The Kiosk Café where a cup of coffee and a cream roll and butter could be bought for the ‘very moderate charge’ of 4d in 1893.[4] There was also the opportunity to take a boat trip on the ‘Brighton” to Worm’s Head.

A steady stream of visitors also enjoyed ‘enchanting’ walks along the cliffs where they visited the ‘firm and wide’ sands at Langland and Caswell nearby. The bathing - considered excellent - and ‘Pierrot troupes’ provided popular entertainment.[5] Regular donkey rides were available to those who wished to take a more leisurely journey to the beaches - the donkey season would begin in April and finish around the end of October.

The tourist season for Mumbles began in earnest at Easter. After the opening of Oystermouth Cemetery in 1883, visitors began arriving in Mumbles to take a walk around the cemetery and enjoy the beautiful vision of colour and scents which accompanied the Easter tradition of dressing the graves. By 1915, the management of the Mumbles Railway had to increase their staff to cope with the throng of passengers who arrived on the Sunday eager to see the ‘magnificent display of flowers’.[6] A rush was also expected in the first week of August. In 1904, it was reported that Mumbles was completely full up with visitors - no hotels or lodging houses were to be found with vacancies anywhere.

Mumbles tourist season extended to the end of September, when numbers were still on the high side. In 1916, ‘because of an abundance of sunshine’ on a Thursday and Friday, large numbers of visitors came to the village, and such was the increase in water usage, that a portion of Mumbles was without a water supply for a whole day. ‘This state of things is not calculated to advertise the place as a health resort’ wrote the Cambria Daily that week.[7]

This summer, with staycations still likely to be a popular and necessary choice for many of us, Mumbles will welcome its visitors in large numbers once more. With a beautiful bay, clean beaches, excellent leisure activities, historic landmarks and great places to eat and drink, they will enjoy much of the pleasures previous generations have enjoyed. Aside from the donkey rides that is…!

 Acknowledgements

[1] Anon. (6 October 1899), ‘Mumbles’ in The Cambrian, p8.

[2] Anon. (6 October 1899) ‘Mumbles’ in The Cambrian, p8.

[3] Inquirer (16 September 1875), ‘The Mumbles’ in The South Wales Daily News, p6.

[4] Anon. (25 May 1893) ‘Mumbles’ in The South Wales Daily Post, p3.

[5] Anon. (20 July 1906) ‘Mumbles’ in The Cambrian, p2.

[6] Anon. (3 April 1915) ‘Mumbles’ in Herald of Wales and Monmouthshire Recorder, p8.

[7] Anon. (1 September 1916) ‘Mumbles’ in The Cambria Daily Leader, p6.

Photos courtesy of The History of Mumbles website.