Amy Dillwyn Park, Swansea
On International Women’s Day 2024, this park was named in honour of the Victorian businesswoman, novelist and philanthropist Amy Dillwyn (1845-1935). The park is above the car park alongside Swansea Arena, which opened in 2022. A Purple Plaque commemorating Amy was nominated by members of Women’s Archive Wales, commissioned by Swansea Council and unveiled on 7 March 2025.
Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn was born to Lewis and Elizabeth Dillwyn (nee De La Beche) of Hendrefoilan. Lewis was a scientist, Liberal MP and industrialist. One of Amy’s great-grandfathers, William Dillwyn, had campaigned against slavery in the USA.
As a young society lady, she was expected to marry. She was engaged to a man, but he died before the wedding. She had been in love for years with Olive Talbot, from another wealthy local family. She later regarded Olive as her wife, long before same-sex marriages were permitted.
Feminist messages and lesbian themes often featured in Amy’s novels, which were successful in the 1880s. She also smoked cigars!
When Lewis Dillwyn died in 1892, Amy had to leave Hendrefoilan, which passed to her brother Harry. Remarkably, she inherited her father’s spelter works in Llansamlet, which produced zinc but by then was nearly bankrupt. Despite inheriting a large debt with the factory, she protected hundreds of jobs by reviving the business, which she eventually sold at a profit in 1905. This was pioneering work for a woman at the time, and she had to overcome negativity from male industrialists.
As well as campaigning for better education and votes for women, she also supported workplace improvements. In 1911 she called for a boycott of the Ben Evans department store in Swansea, where seamstresses were on strike in protest at their working conditions.
Among the many local causes she supported was construction of the Ragged School, for poor children, in Pleasant Street. You can still see her name, carved into a commemorative stone, at the building.
The photos, courtesy of West Glamorgan Archive Service and the family of Amy Dillwyn, show Amy with her father, with her brother Harry, and much later in life with her dog Pango.
Postcode: SA1 3BX
Purple Plaques website – celebrating remarkable Welsh women