Swansea Museum

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Good Vibes

T Shirt – produced by GoodVibes group, YMCA Swansea

The T shirt was designed by young people in the GoodVibes group for the Swansea Pride march in 2021.

On the 2nd October 1857, the Cambrian Newspaper carried an announcement to say that “the first meeting of the Church of England Young Men’s Association will be held on the 6th October at 6pm in the National School, Oxford St”, (now the car park opposite the Grand Theatre) where “Pascoe St Ledger Grenville had kindly consented to give a speech”.

The following week, on the 9th October the Cambrian carried a report on the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by the Rev E B squire (Vicar of St Mary’s 1846 -76). In his address Pascoe St Ledger stated:

“Associations must be the means of bringing young men together and of finding them enjoyment and pleasures which they can’t find at home – giving them opportunities of employing their talents and enabling them to form associations and friendships which they may hold valuable and dear to them to the latest moment of life. In such cases an association, was most beneficial, some of the most eminent of the day have sprung from associations of this kind”.

Not much is known about the original group and its activities. However, a report in the Cambrian newspaper on the 4th January 1861 announced that the group were having a `Soiree’ at the Assembly Rooms on the 9th January where:

“Several gentlemen will make their first appearance in public”.

The only modern equivalent today is the debutant balls at which the aristocracy present their daughters to the monarch. However, during this period, these kind of events would regularly take place and mention both young men and women being introduced to society. It is the origin of the modern term, `Coming Out’.

YMCA Swansea was established in 1868 when the above group changed its name to the usual format of YMCA.

Just over a hundred and fifty years later in 2011, another association GoodVibes was established under the auspices of YMCA Swansea.

GoodVibes is an inclusive LGBTQ+ youth group that supports young people between the ages of 11-25. It provides a safe space that reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation. Young people can build peer friendships within a community so that they belong, contribute and thrive. It is a group where young people can be surrounded by likeminded individuals in an environment that promotes respecting other people’s choices, citizenship, and cultural identity. It provides young people with the confidence to explore their own identity around people that really understand and care.

GoodVibes operates on the foundation of strong values of inclusivity and diversity. Young people can come to GoodVibes without fear of judgment, harassment, bullying or discrimination and social pre-conceived norms. They can be 100% themselves and have a safe space to explore their identity. It is a group where young people can come and introduce themselves, their names, preferred names, pronouns, and favourite things. And what they receive from each other, and youth workers is acceptance, without question.

Swansea Museum took the T shirt into the collection as part of its policy of diversifying the displays.

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History of Swansea in 20 Objects

This is a brief attempt to cover the history of Swansea via 20 objects from the Swansea Museum Collection through short blogs. This is no easy task as there are around 50,000 individual objects and photographs on the database and with a fair number to still go on, the final number will exceed 100,000. Each blog will start with a prefix starting SM usually followed by a number which indicates the unique object reference number for every museum object.  A rather difficult task which no doubt will create some debate, but here goes.

Object 1 – Fossil Tree

A fossil tree, currently on display in the museum garden was excavated from Cwm Llech, near Coelbren, Swansea Valley in 1833 by William E. Logan, a renowned geologist.

In the course of his work he discovered two fossilized trees beneath the Henryhd falls. These impressive specimens now rest outside Swansea Museum. He later became the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada and that country’s highest mountain is named in his honour.

The Swansea Philosophical & Literary Society Report 1838, (later to become Swansea Museum) mentions the donation of the fossil trees:

“There have been presented to the Society two Fossil Trees of such magnitude, that until the erection of the new building is complete, it will be impossible to exhibit them. One is thirteen and a half feet long and eighteen inches in diameter, and the other four feet long by twenty-four inches in diameter. They have been left in situ: Instead of being thrown down and flattened, as such specimens usually are, they were found standing erect at right angles to the dip of the measures, with their lower extremities planted in a bed of shale immediately above a seam of Coal, which cannot be many from the lowest in the Basin, and penetrating a deposit of sandstone, consisting of several wards or layers. The two trees removed, stood close together as if springing from one root, while those remaining were not more than thirty yards from them and from one another. And as they all started from the same bed of shale, and very little of it has been exposed, it is not extravagant to imagine, that were the sides of the dell which cuts it, cleared away a whole primeval forest of these gigantic Sigillaria, standing as they grew, would be exhibited to the wondering eyes of the beholder”.

‘Fossil Segillaria, discovered in Cwm Llech, Vale of Swansea, by Mr. Logan’. Preserved in the grounds of the Royal Institution, Swansea. The print shows two fossilised tree trunks still embedded in the rock, with a man with a pickaxe beside. Excavated under the supervision of Mr. De la Beche.

Other nice fossil samples include SM 1841.3.3, a calamite fossil, a now extinct tree closely related to a horsetail tree that could grow to more than a 100 feet tall. These types of fossils are often found in coal rich terrain.  This particular fossil can be seen on loan in the National Waterfront Museum.

The coal seams, trees and other coal fossils in the collection were laid down in the Late Carboniferous geological period roughly 300 million years ago when Wales was a part of a large tropical forest near the equator.

So why start with these fossils? The origin of Swansea as a town in the 11th Century has nothing to do with geology. The location of Swansea Castle is about geography, defence and resupply by sea if under siege. However, the modern city we now live in has everything to do with geology.

The city we live in today, is what it is, due to it being on the edge of a coalfield.