The Mumbles
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Mumbles viewed from Oystermouth castle |
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The Mumbles shown within Swansea | |
Population | 16,600 (2011 census) |
Principal area | |
Ceremonial county | |
Country | Wales |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | SWANSEA |
Postcode district | SA3 |
Dialling code | 01792 |
Police | South Wales |
Fire | Mid and West Wales |
Ambulance | Welsh |
EU Parliament | Wales |
UK Parliament | |
Welsh Assembly | |
Mumbles is a district of Swansea, Wales located on the south east corner of the unitary authority area. It is also a local government community of the same name. At the 2001 census the population was 16,774, reducing slightly to 16,600 at the 2011 Census. The district is named after the headland of Mumbles which is located on the southeast corner of the district.
Archaeological evidence indicates that an ancient submerged forest was located on what is now the foreshore of Mumbles Bay The bones of bears, wolves, hyenas, deer, rhinoceros and mammoth have been discovered there. A bone cave at the western tip of Caswell Bay was excavated in 1832 but has since been destroyed by the sea. Another cave, at the Inner Sound, Mumbles Head, was blown up by quarrymen in 1838 but not before elephant bones had been found. Also scattered around the bays of Mumbles and Gower are the bones of sixteen Ice Age mammals, including a mammoth tooth measuring ten centimetres across, which is on display in Swansea Museum.
The first human crop growers arrived in the area over 5,000 years ago. However, evidence of human habitation is much older and possibly dates as far back as 30,000 years ago - established by the dating of the famous Paviland skeleton located in a cave some 10–15 miles along the coast from Mumbles Head. The skeleton is kept in the Oxford Museum of Natural History, having been excavated by Rev William Buckland, who was Professor of Geology at Oxford University at the time. However, Swansea Museum has two well-finished flint axe-heads, one from Newton and one from an allotment on Mumbles Hill. Much of what we know about the first metalworkers, in the Bronze Age, has been learned from their tombs: pieces of pottery, a cairn and remains of a hut were found. The cliffs above the Redcliffe flats at Caswell Bay contain the ridged remnants of a Redley Cliff Iron Age hill-fort.