Glamorgan

Glamorgan
/gleuh mawr"geuhn/, n.
a historic county in SE Wales, now part of Mid, South, and West Glamorgan. Also called Glamorganshire /gleuh mawr"geuhn shear', -sheuhr/.

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▪ historical county, Wales, United Kingdom
Welsh  Morgannwg 

      historic county, southern Wales, extending inland from the Bristol Channel coast between the Rivers Loughor and Rhymney. In the north it comprises a barren upland moor dissected by narrow river valleys. Glamorgan's southern coastal section centres on an undulating plain known as the Vale of Glamorgan and extends into the Gower Peninsula. The historic county comprises the following administrative units: Swansea city and county, Vale of Glamorgan county, the county boroughs of Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot, most of the county of Cardiff and the county boroughs of Rhondda Cynon Taff (Rhondda) and Merthyr Tydfil, and part of the county borough of Caerphilly.

      The earliest traces of people in Glamorgan are Paleolithic human remains that were discovered in caves on the southern coast of the Gower Peninsula. The Silures inhabited the area at the time of the Roman conquest, about AD 75. The Romans later built roads throughout the region to link their fortifications, and they founded Leucarum, a military station at Loughor, a strategic river crossing on the western edge of Glamorgan. Important centres of Celtic Christianity in Glamorgan in the 6th century include Llandaff, associated with St. Dubricius (Dyfrig) and St. Teilo, and the great monastic settlements of Llancarfan, Llandough, and Llantwit Major.

 The region derives its Welsh and later English names from Morgan, a 10th-century Welsh prince (Gwlad Morgan means “The Land of Morgan”). At the end of the 11th century the Normans conquered Glamorgan under Robert FitzHamon, earl of Gloucester, who built Cardiff Castle on a ruined fort. Glamorgan became a lordship of the Welsh Marches (the frontier district along the English-Welsh border), with its centre at Cardiff Castle. Attacks from Welsh nationalists, with local or even wider support, characterized the turbulent history of medieval Glamorgan. The Normans built a castle at Loughor, which the Welsh prince Gruffudd ap Rhys destroyed in 1115 and which the Normans rebuilt in 1215. Caerphilly Castle, another of the county's many castles, was built in 1271 to counter a threat to English rule in Glamorgan by Llywelyn Ap Gruffudd, the only Welsh ruler that the English officially recognized as prince of Wales; its importance declined a few years later, however, with the loss of Welsh independence in 1283. The Normans built substantial fortifications at Cardiff and Cowbridge, and in the Vale of Glamorgan they practiced the manorial system. In the early 15th century Welsh forces led by Owen Glendower (Glendower, Owen) ravaged the region. The Act of Union created the county of Glamorgan in 1536.

      Coal (coal mining), which underlies almost the whole surface of the Glamorgan uplands, began to be worked on a large scale toward the mid-18th century. Also during the 18th century copper and lead smelting had begun in the lower valleys of the Neath and the Tawe, using the local timber and ores brought by sea from Cornwall and North Wales. The region's industrialization provoked social unrest. Pontardulais, on the western edge of Glamorgan, was the centre of the bloody Rebecca Riots during the agrarian troubles of the 1840s. However, the prosperity of much of Glamorgan quickly came to depend on coal mining, and Cardiff grew from a small coastal town into the world's largest coal port by 1913. Glamorgan became the most industrialized county of Wales, with nearly half the principality's total population. The collapse of coal mining and heavy industry in Glamorgan during the late 20th century ushered in a period of economic hardship and restructuring, but growth in light manufacturing and service activities had begun to improve the region's prospects by the end of the century.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Glamorgan — Glamorgan …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Glamorgan — →↑mid glamorgan →↑South Glamorgan →↑West Glamorgan …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Glamorgan — [glə môr′gənshir΄glə môr′gən] former county of SE Wales, on the Bristol Channel: now divided into three counties: MID GLAMORGAN, SOUTH GLAMORGAN, and WEST GLAMORGAN: also Glamorganshire [glə môr′gənshir΄] …   English World dictionary

  • Glamorgan — (spr. Glämorgänn), Grafschaft im englischen Fürstenthum Wales, 371/4 QM., grenzt an die Grafschaften Caermarthen, Brecknock, Monmouth u. an den Bristol Kanal des Atlantischen Oceans, zahlreiche Buchten (die bedeutendste die [374] Swansea Bai);… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Glamorgan — (spr. glämmohrgĕn), Grafschaft in Wales, 2092 qkm, (1901) 860.022 E., reich an Bergwerksprodukten; Hauptstadt Cardiff …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Glamorgan — For other uses, see Glamorgan (disambiguation). Glamorgan Welsh: Morgannwg Motto: A Ddioddefws A Orfu (He Who suffered, conquered)[1][2] …   Wikipedia

  • Glamorgan — 51°40′N 3°40′W / 51.667, 3.667 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Glamorgan — /gləˈmɔgən/ (say gluh mawguhn) noun 1. a former county of south eastern Wales; in 1974 divided into West Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and Mid Glamorgan; these replaced in 1996 by several unitary districts. 2. See Vale of Glamorgan. Also,… …  

  • Glamorgan — or Glamorganshire geographical name former county SE Wales capital Cardiff; divided 1974 into Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan, and West Glamorgan …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Glamorgan — Gla•mor•gan [[t]gləˈmɔr gən[/t]] n. geg a historic county in SE Wales, now part of Mid, South, and West Glamorgan. Also called Gla•mor′gan•shire [[t] ˌʃɪər, ʃər[/t]] …   From formal English to slang

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