A Land Set Apart - Gower - page 9

Most of these sites and the associated species are also easy to reach, one of the significant features of
Gowerbeingtheamountofaccessland,consistingofregisteredcommonlandandlandownedbytheNa-
tional Trust and Forestry Commission. In total these holdings amount to 2,470 hectares or 12 per cent of
the AONB . This area was considerably increased when the Access Maps were published under the Coun-
tryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. It remains to be seen what impact this improved legal access will
have on the number of visitors to Gower, given that there was already de facto access over most of the
peninsula.
Because of these attractions over three million people visit Gower each year, the peninsula being a
major water-sports and family holiday destination for urban South Wales and indeed much further afield.
Many of these visitors are drawn to the area by the extensive sandy beaches, which range from the pop-
ular and easily accessible beaches such as Limeslade and Caswell, to larger beaches such as Oxwich and
Rhossili. In addition, for the past fifty years Gower has been a popular area for schools and colleges un-
dertakingenvironmentalfieldwork,asitisclosetothelargeurbanpopulationsinSwanseaandNeathand
thereisasufficientsupplyofsuitableresidential accommodation forgroupsofstudentsvisitingfromout-
sidethelocalarea.Overthepasttenyearstherehasbeenasignificantincreaseinparticularinthenumber
of youth groups carrying out organised and challenging adventure and leisure activities on the cliffs and
inshore waters.
Gower was not always so accessible, however, and the peninsula was isolated from the rest of Wales,
both geographically and socially, for centuries. Although it may be hard to appreciate today, before the
Edwardianperioditwasnotaneasyareatocross.Theroadsweresouneventhatuntilabout1830wheeled
carts were not utilised, packhorses being used instead. Even in the late nineteenth century, when horse-
buses first ran from Port-Eynon to Swansea, the journey would take about four hours, the roads that exis-
tedbeingpoorlysurfacedandbadlyaffectedbyweather.Thepassengerswerenotabletoridealltheway:
they had to get out and walk up the steeper hills. Only in the 1920s were the roads improved sufficiently
to allow motorised vehicles into the peninsula. The area, however, was not as remote as this description
would suggest, as for centuries there was a busy trade in limestone, dairy goods and livestock across the
Bristol Channel to North Devon, and at one time it is said that there were stepping-stones from Whiteford
across the inlet to Carmarthenshire. As late as the nineteenth century there was more trade with Cornwall
than with Swansea. Even so the majority of the population never travelled very far from home and led
much the same lives as their ancestors. C. J. O. Evans in 1953 noted, 'It has always been an inaccessible
district and has suffered in many ways for its isolation.'
Lady Blythswood, the owner of the Penrice Estate from 1920 until 1949, who has been described as
a 'benevolent despot of two-thirds of the Gower landscape', saw no reason to change the situation. It was
only after her death and that of Admiral Heneage-Vivian in 1952 that the large estates of Penrice, Clyne
and Le Breos were broken up. One of the founders of the Gower Society, David Rees, recalled that in the
1950s'thepeninsulawasingeneralisolatedanddesertedinawaythatseemsalmostunimaginabletoday'.
Gower therefore remained unspoilt well into the twentieth century, not because of any positive moves to
conserve the peninsula, but because of a deliberate policy of stagnation by the major landowners.
Despite the many pressures on Gower half a century later, and the large number of visitors, it still
manages to retain an atmosphere of isolation and remoteness. The area had a major influence on Dylan
Thomas and he often spent whole days 'walking alone over the very desolate Gower cliffs, communing
with the cold and the quietness'. In the two years between his job as a local journalist and his move to
Londonhere-exploredmuchof'oneoftheloveliestsea-coaststretchesinthewholeofBritain',whichhe
had known as a boy. Gower's spectacular landscape and seascape permeates his early writing, especially
the two stories Extraordinary Little Cough and Who Do You Wish Was With Us? Rhossili in particular
was a favourite destination. His friend Vernon Watkins lived at Pennard for much of his life and wrote