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Mumbles and Gower Pubs
Mumbles and Gower Pubs
Mumbles and the Gower peninsula occupy a very special corner of Wales that has much history and folklore. The peninsula was Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and many visitors are attracted to its beautiful beaches and stunning landscape. This fascinating story of its inns and taverns encapsulates much of the area’s history and character.
Mumbles is a village by the sea once well-known for oyster fishing, limestone quarrying and the Mumbles Train. The ‘Mumbles Mile’ became famous as a pub crawl in the 1970s but it was in business a very long time before that. The Welsh Sunday Closing Act of 1881 resulted in so-called ‘travellers’ taking advantage of a loophole and flocking to Mumbles in their thousands on Sundays and doing their best to drink the pubs dry.
By picture and story, this well-researched book relates the history of the area’s pubs from back-street locals to smart hotels and will delight all lovers of ale and anecdote.
The chapel-goers were up in arms! This and many other stories are related here including those times when Dylan Thomas ‘communed with those two legendary creatures, the Antelope and the Mermaid’. Gower’s past includes many stories of shipwrecks and smuggling and its pubs played their part in this as well. The characters featured include Petty Officer Edgar Evans who accompanied Captain Scott on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole and the folk singer Phil Tanner, known as the ‘Gower Nightingale’, who married the landlady of the ‘Welcome to Town’ in Llangennith over a century ago.
Update -
The pub landscape in Mumbles and Gower has changed somewhat since I wrote my first book twelve years ago. The Licensing Act of 2003 introduced flexible opening hours and made local authorities responsible for licensing rather than Justices of the Peace. This resulted in a more liberal approach, with many more diverse venues offering alcohol for sale 'on the premises'. Some of our traditional pubs have sadly closed while other outlets such as café bars and restaurants are attracting customers 'for a drink' that once visited the pub.
I've reflected these changes in this new book,
Brian Davies,
who is a keen pub historian and a member of CAMRA
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