Sketty
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  Sketty Location withinSwansea | |
| Population | 14,301 (2011 census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SS626929 |
| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SWANSEA |
| Postcode district | SA2 |
| Dialling code | 01792 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
51°37′05″N3°59′10″W / 51.618°N 03.986°W /51.618; -03.986  Map of the community | |
Sketty (Welsh:Sgeti) is a surburban district andcommunity inSwansea, Wales, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of theSwansea city centre on Gower Road. It falls within theSketty council ward of Swansea.
The area approximates to the Vivian Road, and Sketty Green. The village is centred on Sketty Cross, which is the junction of Gower Road, Vivian Road, and Dillwyn Road. Directly on the cross, on the West Gower Road/Vivian Road junction, The Vivianpub, known as The Vivs, can be found. A second pub, The Bush, was immediately on the east side of this junction, but is now closed.
In the immediate vicinity of Sketty Cross and the nearby Eversley Road, a variety of businesses can be found. There are many shops which include a launderette, two convenience stores, several hairdressers/barbers, a hearing centre, a pharmacist, a series of cafes, and (formerly) a sub post office (which closed in 2020). The suburb also features two restaurants - Slice and Gilligans - and an array of takeaways.
One of the longest-running businesses in the area is Kristy's Bakery on Eversley Road, which was established in Sketty in the early 1940s, after moving from a bombed-out premises in the town centre.[2]
A small public library is located on Vivian Road to the north of the cross. Located slightly further to the north is the Tycoch campus ofGower College Swansea, (afurther education college) on the corner of Vivian Road and Tycoch Road.
The current site of theBishop Gore School is on the northwestern corner ofSingleton Park. The school has been located in the area on De La Beche Road since 1952. Also on De La Beche Road, the Sketty Medical Practice can be found; and on the junction with Gower Road, St. Paul's Church (Church in Wales) is situated.
Sketty comprises a mix of housing, fromVictorian andEdwardianvillas, through pre- and post-warsemis and detached houses, to thecouncil estate at Sketty Park.
Sketty is an anglicisation of the WelshSgeti, which is also recorded in the formY Sgeti (literally, "the Sketty"). It has been interpreted as a corruption of "Ynys Ceti", "Ceti’s island".
InThe Place Names of Wales, by Thomas Morgan of Skewen, an alternative explanation is offered: Sketty as an anglicisation of the WelshIs Maen Keti, meaning "below Keti's stone". Keti's Stone is an old name for theNeolithic burial chamber on Cefn Bryn known also as Arthur's Stone.
The Sketty area includes a number of notable buildings.[3] Sketty was the domain of the copper magnate Vivian family ofSketty Hall andSingleton Abbey. In the mid-19th centuryJohn Henry Vivian employed the nationally renowned architectHenry Woodyer to design buildings for the estate, of which three survive.
St Paul's Church was built in 1849–50 to Woodyer's design, added to in 1907 and again in 1928–9 by Glendinning Moxham. Woodyer also designed the school opposite (now known as the Stewart Hall) in 1853. His third building is Parc Beck, on the corner of Brynmill Lane. This incorporates a square, late 18th century villa named Parc Wern, made much larger, irregular and Gothic by Woodyer in 1851–3 for J. H. Vivian's son,Henry Hussey Vivian and his wife. Woodyer's designs were drastically compromised by later 19th-century heightening and elaboration. The building's current name commemorates a later owner, Roger Beck. It served as a nurses’ home before a recent conversion into flats.
St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church, on Llythrid Avenue, was built in 1961 to a design by F. R. Bates, Son & Price. New Bethel Welsh Congregational Church, Carnglas Road, was built in 1869–70.
Sketty Hall, Sketty Lane, is a much-altered building dating back to the early 18th century. Also on Sketty Lane isSingleton Hospital, two ten-storey blocks by O. Garbutt Walton for the Welsh Regional Hospital Board, 1961, with later additions. Opposite is the University Sports Pavilion, a late work byGlendinning Moxham, designed 1930, built 1932.
Hendrefoelan House, on Hendrefoilan Road, is a severe grey stone mansion in the Tudor style, built c. 1860 forLewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, MP for Swansea, by William B. Colling. It formerly housed the Adult Education Department of theSwansea University, but is now derelict.
Smaller domestic architecture worthy of note includes C.T. Ruthen's 29-47 Dillwyn Road (1905) and 1-11 De La Beche Road (1906); also Coedsaeson (1893) (now 11 Parc Wern Road) and a number of large individual houses and pairs in Gower Road (c. 1900), all attributable to Glendinning Moxham.
Lower Sketty, or Sketty Isha, or Derwen Fawr, was long dominated by the villas which industrialists and successful professional men erected overlookingSwansea Bay and theMumbles. The spread of mid-20th-century housing estates has obliterated all but a few traces. The most significant of the villas was Sketty Park House, built c. 1818 for the Morris family from the materials of Clasemont House (1775),Sir John Morris ofMorriston’s seat evacuated by the family once the fumes from their copper works and the mine workings underground became unbearable. Sketty Park House was itself demolished c. 1973, but a large Gothic belvedere from its ornamental grounds survives on a tree-covered mound in Saunders Way. Morris's descendantGeorge Lockwood Morris the Wales rugby player lived at Machen Lodge, and his sonCedric Morris the artist and plantsman was born there.[4]
Farther south, in Derwen Fawr Road, three white Regency villas can still be seen:Bible College, much heightened and enlarged; Emanuel School on the east side; and on the west side the best-preserved of the three, Gwern Eynon[citation needed].
This area is centred on acouncil estate, although much of the housing has been bought by the former tenants under theright to buy scheme. The edges of the Sketty Park area have housing more typical of other areas of Sketty and Derwen Fawr. Aparade of shops (including a barber's, food takeaway, and C.K.'s supermarket) and the Hen Dderwenpublic house are located in the centre of the area. Parkland Primary School andOlchfa Comprehensive School are located in the area. There is also a large church on Parkway road,Holy Trinity Church, as well as another church,Parklands Evangelical Church.
Derwen Fawr (English:Large Oak tree) is a district of south Sketty village, shown asLower Sketty on Ordnance Survey maps. It is named after the principal road, Derwen Fawr Road, which joins the village of Sketty withOystermouth Road. It is regarded as an up-market area, gaining its popularity because of the proximity of the sea, Singleton Park, the centre of Swansea, and the ease of access toGower. It also has a number of well-established large houses, to which have been added a large number of more modestly sized houses.
It has a miniaturemodel railway (open to the public on bank-holidays in the summer), and before 2009 was home toThe Bible College of Wales. The edge of Derwen Fawr and Clyne Valley Country park is also the location of a civic amenity site, still open to the public. However, the attached landfill site, which was once the main facility for theCity of Swansea, closed in the 1980s when the Tir John site inSt. Thomas, Swansea took over as the Swansea's main refuse site.
A number of sporting facilities are located within the Derwen Fawr district. These consist of theWelsh National Swimming Pool, Blackpill Footgolf Course (formerly Blackpill Municipal Golf Links), and the King George V playing fields.
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