Gower (Lordship)
Encyclopedia
Marcher Lords
A Marcher Lord was a strong and trusted noble appointed by the King of England to guard the border between England and Wales.A Marcher Lord is the English equivalent of a margrave...
of Deheubarth in south-west Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The district, prior to the Norman invasion
Norman invasion of Wales
The Norman invasion of Wales began shortly after the Norman conquest of England under William the Conqueror, who believed England to be his birthright...
, was the commote of Gŵyr, a part of Cantref Eginawc.
It consisted of the country bounded by the rivers Loughor
River Loughor
The River Loughor in Carmarthenshire, Wales has its source at an underground lake at the Black Mountain. It flows past settlements like Ammanford and Hendy in Carmarthenshire and Pontarddulais in Swansea. The river divides Carmarthenshire from Swansea for much of its course and it separates Hendy...
, Amman
River Amman
The River Amman is a river of south Wales, which joins the River Loughor at Pantyffynnon. The river gives its name to the town of Ammanford and the villages of Pontamman, Glanaman, Brynamman and Rhosaman. Garnant and Betws also lie in the Amman Valley....
, Twrch
Afon Twrch
The Afon Twrch is a river which rises in the Black Mountain in south Wales. It forms the boundary between the counties of Powys and Carmarthenshire and, downstream of Ystradowen, between Powys and Neath Port Talbot county borough.The headwaters arise on the southern slopes of Bannau Sir Gaer and...
and Tawe
River Tawe
The River Tawe is a river in South Wales. It flows in a principally south-westerly direction for some from its source below Moel Feity in the Old Red Sandstone hills of the western Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel at Swansea. Its main tributaries are the right bank Upper and Lower Clydach...
. Its capital and chief castle was Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, and it extended westward to the end of the Gower Peninsula and northward to Ystalyfera
Ystalyfera
Ystalyfera is a former industrial village in the upper Swansea Valley, on the River Tawe, about north-east of Swansea. It is an electoral ward and a community in the unitary authority of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, comprising a resident population of just over 3,000 people, approximately 60% of whom...
and Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen
Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen is a village in Neath Port Talbot, south Wales. Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen is also a parish made up of the electoral wards of Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen and Lower Brynamman.-Location:...
. Soon after the Norman invasion the southern part was colonised by English speakers, and the lordship was formally divided into Welsh Gower and English Gower. The parish of Betws
Betws
Betws is a small village on the River Amman, some 15 miles north of Swansea, Wales; it is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Betws and Ammanford...
was detached from the lordship in the 13th century.
In the first Act of Union
Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542
The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 were parliamentary measures by which the legal system of Wales was annexed to England and the norms of English administration introduced. The intention was to create a single state and a single legal jurisdiction; frequently referred to as England and Wales...
(1535), it was transferred, along with the Lordship of Kilvey (roughly, the parish of Llansamlet
Llansamlet
Llansamlet is the name of an electoral ward and a coterminous community City and County of Swansea, Wales, UK. Llansamlet does not have a community council....
on the east bank of the Tawe), to the historic county of Glamorgan
Glamorgan
Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...
, when the north-eastern part became the Hundred of Llangyfelach and the south-western part became the Hundred of Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
. However, the district (except for the parish of Bishopston- historically dependent on Llandaff) remained part of the Diocese of St David's
St David's
St Davids , is a city and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lying on the River Alun on St David's Peninsula, it is Britain's smallest city in terms of both size and population, the final resting place of Saint David, the country's patron saint, and the de facto ecclesiastical capital of...
, until the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon
Diocese of Swansea and Brecon
The Diocese of Swansea and Brecon was established as a Diocese of the Church in Wales in 1923 with Brecon Priory as the Cathedral. The Diocese has a border with five other Welsh Dioceses, as well as with the English Diocese of Hereford....
was formed in 1923.
The rights of Marcher lords were formally abolished by the Act of Union, but considerable powers were still exercised de facto in Gower, and the claimed rights and privileges of the Lord (then a Duke of Beaufort
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort KG was the only son of Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort and his wife, Elizabeth Berkeley. Styled Marquess of Worcester from 1746, on his father's death on 28 October 1756, he succeeded him as Duke of Beaufort.He succeeded to the title of 13th Lord...
) were described in detail in Gabriel Powell's Survey of Gower in 1746.
The name of the area has continued in use since 1885 in the name of the parliamentary constituency
Gower (UK Parliament constituency)
Gower is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....
which consists of all the lordship other than Swansea city, but today the name Gower is commonly incorrectly applied only to the south-western, peninsular part of the district (see Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
).
The medieval division between English and Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
-speaking areas continues today, the peninsula and the coastal part of Swansea city being English-speaking, while Welsh is spoken further north, and places such as Ystalyfera and Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen remain bastions of the Welsh language. The boundary shown on the map is that of D T Williams (1931). It had changed little in several centuries.