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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Gower Peninsula
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Designated in 1956 an area of outstanding natural beauty, the peninsula stretches some 24km/15m west into the Bristol Channel from Swansea. It consists of a high plateau edged by a dramatically rocky coastline. The Mumbles, two small islands off the south coast, have given their name to the adjacent promontory (Mumbles is said, not entirely convincingly, to derive from mamelles, the French for breasts). The peninsula has many traces of occupation by prehistoric man (part of a skeleton found in 1823 has a carbon-dated age of about 18,000 years) and the caves have yielded animal remains including mammoth, rhinoceros and hippopotamus.
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