Singleton Abbey ( cy, Abaty Singleton) is a large, mainly 19th-century

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Today, the buildings are used to house administration offices for

Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...

. They can be found at the eastern end of the Swansea University

Singleton Park Singleton Park ( cy, Parc Singleton) is the largest urban park in the city of Swansea. It is located in Sketty. The park comprises 250 acres of land. An ornamental garden is located to the south, near the entrance to Swansea University, and a w ...

campus. The nucleus of the house is a neo-classical villa, octagonal in plan, erected in 1784 under the name of Marino by Edward King, a customs official. In 1817 this was bought by the industrialist

John Henry Vivian John Henry Vivian FRS (9 August 1785 – 10 February 1855) was a Welsh industrialist and politician of Cornish extraction. He was a member of the Vivian family. Vivian was the son of John Vivian (1750–1826), of Truro, Cornwall, and his wi ...

, who added rectangular one-bay extensions to either side. In 1823 Vivian commissioned the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

P. F. Robinson to re-model the house in the

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. Work started in 1827, and a decade later Robinson published ''Domestic Architecture in the Tudor Style'', a monograph in all but name on Singleton Abbey. The house then served as residence of the

Vivian family Vivian may refer to: *Vivian (name), a given name and also a surname Toponyms * Vivian, Louisiana, U.S. * Vivian, South Dakota, U.S. * Vivian, West Virginia, U.S. * Vivian Island, Nunavut, Canada * Ballantrae, Ontario, a hamlet in Stouffville, ...

for several years. -SeneddSwansea (22089804614)

The house survives, with limited losses, much as it appears in the engraved plates of the book. The back stairs, on the axis of the south front, and the ground-floor room in the centre of the south front, with a bowed inner end, survive from the original house of 1784. In 1919 the 2nd Lord Swansea sold Singleton Abbey to Swansea Corporation. In 1920 the Corporation rented and in 1923 sold the house and the nucleus of the estate to the University College of Swansea, which made the Abbey its headquarters.Newman (2004)

References

External links

Gathering the Jewels: Singleton Abbey, SwanseaSwansea University: Singleton Abbey

Reading

* Houses completed in 1784 Swansea University Grade II listed buildings in Swansea Houses in Swansea Country houses in Wales Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales Grade II listed houses in Wales {{wales-struct-stub