Fifty Years a City: Swansea's Successful Quest for City Status

The events to celebrate Swansea's 50th anniversary as a City effectively came to a conclusion this afternoon with a fascinating lecture from former City Archivist, Dr John Alban outlining the historic quest to achieve city status, going back nearly 60 years before it was eventually granted.

Dr Alban is honorary senior lecturer in the school of history at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He was County Archivist of Norfolk between 1997 and 2013 and before that City Archivist of Swansea from 1974 to 1996. He taught continuing education courses in local history, medieval Latin and palaeography for many years at the Universities of Swansea and Cardiff.

The original grant of city status was made in 1969 but it had to be regranted in 1974 after local government reorganisation and again in 1996 for the same reason. The illustrated lecture took a detailed look at all the shenanigans and lobbying behind the scenes from 1911 onwards before we were finally successful. I also learnt a few things about the chain of office.