The devastation caused to the Lower Swansea Valley by the density of industry it housed between the early eighteenth and early twentieth centuries left behind the largest area of industrial dereliction in Europe.
The Lower Swansea Valley Project began in the early 1960’s with the aim of seeking to reclaim the land. Over the next twenty years volunteers, local schoolchildren, the Territorial Army, in fact, the entire community of the area became involved in restoring the land.
The site now houses the South Dock and Maritime Quarter, the Parc Tawe shopping complex, the Morfa Stadium sports complex, the enterprise zone industrial park and the riverside cycling trail.
Derelict buildings were cleared, others of historic interest preserved, pollutants cleared from the ground so that trees could be planted. The Lower Swansea Valley Project has been a unique collaboration resulting in an area of reclaimed land that has been utilised by an entire community.
Find out more…
Read more about the history of Swansea… Swansea – a brief history
