I you subscribe to the whole Global Warming argument than this article is not for you.

I am a native of Swansea, that ‘Ugly lovely Town’ that Dylan Thomas idolised.

Swansea has not one but two castles, both built by the Norman invaders who once ruled this land.

Swansea Castle as you can see in this engraving from the 18^th century used to be very close to the sea. In fact it appears to be at sea level.

It is now on a small hillock in the centre of the town surrounded by 19^th century architecture and is now about half a mile from where the tide laps up the beach.

Just down the road is another great castle, at Oystermouth, near the Mumbles.

In the picture above you can see that it used to overlook a bay with a clutch of houses centre right and a church just below them. It can clearly be seen that the sea almost reaches the steps of the church. You can also see all the ships that used to visit the port, evidence of which can still be seen today by all the pier pilings sticking out of the beach.

Nowadays the same view would show 2 streets full of houses between the church and the seafront, then a promenade and a sandy beach. In fact in the 1800’s a railway line was built along the seafront from Swansea to the Mumbles.

When the tide goes out, it goes so far that it only touches land for about 6 hours a day and that is for both tides. Oystermouth was also once a port.

The distance between the two castles is either fully built up in an area called ‘The Sandfields’, or is a stretch of sand dunes. The physical characteristics of this area undoubtedly prove that it was in recent history swept by the sea. Infact remains of piers have been excavated as far as one half mile inland.

Below we can see where grass is trying to gain a foothold on the beach..Oystermouth Castle can just be depicted on the hill above the cluster of houses middle left.

Incidentally for those that do not know, Swansea being in the Bristol Channel has the second highest rise and fall of tide anywhere in the world. As a child I remember that there were often floods in the Sandfields and at Mumbles when there was a Spring Tide. This has not happened for decades.

The whole point of this article is to show that for hundreds of years the sea has been retreating, and nobody did a blind thing about it apart from dredging navigable rivers to maintain the viability of inland ports.

One such port was incidentally just 10 miles from Swansea at Neath. Here the River Neath is tidal and seagoing ships used to tie up in the Town as recently as the 1950’s.

Nearby is the aptly named ‘Giants Grave’ at Briton Ferry where great battleships were broken up after WW11. One can hardly get a humble coracle up the river nowadays.

In actual fact the retreating seas made no difference whatsoever to peoples’ lives the whole world over apart from giving them all lots of nice arable land in river basins.

So even if the sea does start to reclaim the land it will only go back cyclically to where it once was, and we shall all adapt. It will also take so long in real terms that individuals will hardly be aware of the change.

So why all the fuss?

‘Much ado about nothing’. In the words of that great oracle Shakespeare methinks.