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These photographs taken in Mumbles, invite us to gaze into the world of our ancestors.
Oystermouth Castle and the Tivoli, 2011
The Tivoli Cinema & Fortes in The Dunns, 1960s
It is the 1960s and 'times they are a-changing'. The Mumbles Train has ceased to be part of our lives. The Tivoli cinema, once our much loved 'Tiv', is now an amusement arcade. Fortes Ice Cream Parlour and the seaward side of The Dunns is soon to be demolished.
Oyster Wharf, June 2017
Tivoli Entertainments viewed from the promenade, June 2006
The Mill, Mill Lane, Blackpill
Taken two miles away at Mill Lane, Blackpill, these photos show a community going about its daily business near the medieval flour mill, now the site of Mumbai Indian Restaurant, just one indication of how life today has changed.
An undated photo by Anon
The Mumbles Train at Norton
At the same spot, near Ripples Cafe, on the promenade, now used for leisure.
On 26 August 1890 the Mumbles Steam Train is near Norton, during its inaugural journey on the new track beside the seashore.
Rotherslade 'Little Langland,' with new flats and sea defences
Rotherslade Bay
This postcard shows the huge shelter which Swansea Council erected in 1926-7 to shore up the cliffs above the bay. It included new steps down to the beach, proper refreshment rooms and a promenade where visitors could sit and look across the bay to the Bristol Channel.
It was demolished in the 1990s.
This photograph taken c. 1910, shows the original access to the beach by steps and a steep slope. Over the next few years, the cliffs crumbled and fell, the steps became dangerous and, after several attempts to prop up the cliff, Swansea Council decided major repairs were needed and that the beach refreshment rooms and shops should also be replaced.
Langland Bay
Rotherslade and The Osborne Hotel
Caswell Bay, by William Harvey Barton, c1880
Caswell Bay, 2016
Mumbles Train leaving the Pier Station
This photograph taken during the Edwardian era, the heyday of travel on the Mumbles Railway, shows crowds dressed in their Sunday best, complete with hats, leaving for home on the steam train following an exciting summer's day out visiting the new Pier and its attractions, as well as perhaps visiting the nearby Bracelet and Limeslade Bays.
Mumbles Head during peacetime and war
A collection of articles
Mumbles Pier Beach, post 1922
This photo, taken shortly after 1922, (the year the red-roofed Lifeboat Station opened) shows children enjoying playing on the sheltered public beach. The Pier itself had become very popular during the summer season, for promenading, as a venue for band and choral concerts and for trying one's luck on the amusement stalls.
Mumbles Pier
There were 'Dodgems' and fairground attractions on the end of the pier, 1950s
c1955- The electric Mumbles Train was waiting at the terminus. The end of the Mumbles Pier was home to 'Dodgems' and fairground entertainments and was the embarkation point for trips on a White Funnel Paddle Steamer to Tenby, Western-Super-Mare or Ilfracombe.
'The Prettiest Pier in the Bristol Channel', c. 1910
c1905- The Steam Train had brought crowds to the pier and Winter Gardens, perhaps to listen to one of the many popular concerts held at the bandstand at the pier end. A paddle steamer was approaching the landing stage and notice the absence of the lifeboat station, which has yet to be built,
More: Mumbles Pier
Oystermouth Castle, All Saints' Church and the new Oyster Wharf development, August 2017
Is Mumbles a type of speech defect?'
'Mumbles . . . is not a type of speech defect,
Mumbles is a place and a very pretty one too.'
These days the name ‘Mumbles’ is given to a district covering the electoral wards of Oystermouth with its eponymous castle ruin, Newton, West Cross and Mayals.Apart from being very pretty and a fun place to visit in its own right, Mumbles marks the beginning of the Gower Peninsula’s coastline, one of the most exquisite areas of natural beauty in Europe . . .
If you have any twentieth-century photographs, taken within the Old Parish of Oystermouth,
which you would like to share, please contact the Editors
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