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Oxwich
is a small seaside village situated 11 miles from Swansea off
the A4118. Turn left at the huge gates to the Penrice Estate and
take the road down to the sand dunes and marshland of the Nature
Reserve. Coming into the village you pass the shop on the right hand
side and the large car parks on the left.
Once
a port, exporting limestone quarried from the headland of Oxwich
Point, the village is now a quiet backwater except for the summer
months when it comes alive with visitors. There are several holiday and caravan
parks in the village, as well as the superbly located Oxwich Bay
Hotel almost on the beach itself. This is an ideal place to sit
awhile and watch the small boats being launched from the slipway and
the families playing on the sand. The bay is magnificent with three
miles of sandy beach, wooded cliffs at one end and backed by sand
dunes. In 1911, the beach was the venue for the first aeroplane flight in
Wales by Mr
E. Sutton in his Bleriot monoplane.
But there is much more
to Oxwich than a summer seaside resort.
The village has several fine cottages,
some thatched, which once housed the
local quarry men. The Nature Reserve is rich in wild flowers and
insects, and mountain goats graze on the scrub. There is also a very
interesting Information Centre just across the road from the shop
which is well worth a visit.
If you wander past the
Hotel and take the track up the cliff into the trees, you come to
the village church of St. Illtud, originally founded in the 6th
century. The little churchyard here is full of atmosphere - a little
eerie even. Perhaps this is due to the strange creatures that are
supposed to have shown themselves here, such as the half-man-half-horse creature seen striding down through the
woodland graves towards the foreshore. At
the rear of the churchyard stands the grave of an unknown soldier
whose body was washed ashore on the nearby beach during
World War II. The woodland setting of the ivy clad church provides a
little oasis of peace, especially in the summer when the shade
and the quiet are in stark contrast to the cheerful chatter of the
sunbathers, sailors and swimmers on the beach below.
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Continuing past the
church, the path climbs up the cliff and rewards the walker with
superb views of the coast. Take the road up the hill and you come to
Oxwich Castle, now maintained by CADW (Welsh Historic Monuments) and
open to visitors between May and September. Oxwich Castle is actually a fortified
Tudor manor house, built on and incorporating the original 14th
century castle.
 Oxwich
has a history of 'wrecking', in common with many coastal villages
and one of the best recorded wrecking incidents occurred on December
27th 1557. The Mansel family lived at the castle at the time
and apparently were not slow to take advantage of the fact that as
the Castle was so close to the beach, they could be the first to
plunder any ships wrecked on the coast. Sir Rhys Mansel plundered
the possessions of a French ship that had come to grief off Oxwich
Point during a gale despite the fact that the salvage rights
actually belonged to Sir George Herbert of Swansea, a very important
and powerful local man. Sir George and his men descended on the
Castle and a fierce argument broke out between the two sides.
Sir Rhys Mansel's daughter Anne decided to try and break up the two
sides but in the ensuing melee was hit on the head by a stone thrown by Sir George's servant. She subsequently died
six days later.
 Sir Rhys Mansel took Sir
George to court over the affair which resulted in Sir George being
heavily fined and the servant stood trial for his part in Anne
Mansel's death. However the court decided to pardon the
servant and Sir George managed to avoid paying the fine
imposed. This resulted in a feud between the two families
which lasted for many years until the Mansel family left Oxwich
Castle for their new residence at Margam. Oxwich Castle was leased
out to tenant farmers but subsequently fell into ruin.
The Gower Peninsular is
one of the most beautiful regions of Wales with wild ponies roaming
free in the interior. The sandy beaches and sand dunes of the south
coast give way to the wild and windswept Worms Head and the cliffs
at Rhossili at the end of the peninsular. This is part of the
Gower Coast National Nature Reserve. A rocky stone causeway connects
the island to the mainland and access is only possible at low
tide. There is an important colony of breeding sea birds here,
including razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes. There is an
Iron Age fort on the Inner Head on the island.
The rough timbers of the Helvetia
can be seen sticking out the sand at Rhossili Bay, witness to the
treacherous seas around Worms Head.
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