Grangetown (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

: usually ''Grangetown'', also Trelluest) is a district and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

in the south of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, capital of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It is one of the largest districts in the south of the city and is bordered by Riverside,

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

and

Butetown Butetown (or ''The Docks'', cy, Tre-biwt) is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose t ...

. The River Taff winds its way through the area. Adjacent to the city's

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of ...

area, Grangetown is experiencing a period of

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ...

and improvements in its infrastructure. Its population as of

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

was 19,385 in 8,261 households. One of the "five towns of Cardiff", the others are

, Crockherbtown, Newtown and Temperance Town. Grangetown is a diverse and multiracial district and has a significant population of

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

, Asian and mixed-race residents. It is home to a

Swaminarayan Temple Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampraday, established temples, known as ''mandirs'' (Devnagari: मन्दिर), as part of his philosophy of theism and deity worship. These mandirs are known as Swaminarayan Hindu temples. He ...

and various mosques.

Etymology

The name ''Grangetown'' is the usual form in

. The variants ''Y Grange'' (dating back to the nineteenth century) and ''Y Grênj'' (equivalents of ''The Grange'') are sometimes seen.

Owen John Thomas Owen John Thomas (born 3 October 1939) is a former Plaid Cymru politician who was a Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for the South Wales Central region from 1999 to 2007. Early life and education Owen John Thomas was born in Albany Road, Car ...

has used the form ''Y Grange Mawr'' (literally, 'the great grange', though perhaps influenced by the English ''Grange Moor''). The names ''Trelluest'' (Welsh ''tre'' 'town' + ''lluest'' 'lodge'), ''Trefaenor'' (''tre'' + ''maenor'' 'manor') and ''Trefynach'' (''tre'' + ''mynach'' 'monk') appear to be recent coinages. ''Gwyddoniadur Cymru'', the Welsh-language version of the '' Encyclopaedia of Wales'', uses ''Grangetown'', but notes the existence of ''Trelluest''. The grange was named after the 'moor' or saltmarsh upon which it stood, giving rise to English forms such as 'More Grange' and 'Grangemoor' and French equivalents such as 'La Grange de Mora'.

History

Until the mid-19th-century Grangetown was an area of marshy land used for farming. It appears to have been granted to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

abbey of Margam Abbey sometime at the end of the twelfth century. The monks established a monastic grange there which they held until they were expelled in around 1290 by Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan. They were restored to their lands in 1329 and held them until the dissolution of the monasteries. By the fifteenth century the grange was being

farmed Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a laype ...

. The last farmer was a landowner called Lewis ap Richard who is also known as a patron of the Welsh-language poet Rhys Brychan. After the dissolution, the grange remained in the hand of Lewis's descendants. Lewis's son, Edward Lewis, also a noted patron of Welsh poets, settled at the

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

near Caerphilly. The grange remained in the hands of the Lewises of the Van when they moved to

St Fagans Castle St Fagans Castle ( cy, Castell Sain Ffagan) is an Elizabethan mansion in St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales, dating from the late 16th century. The house and remaining medieval fortifications are Grade I listed. The grounds of St Fagans Castle now cont ...

during the 1610s. The Lewis estates eventually passed through an heiress into the hands of Other Lewis Windsor (1731–1771), 4th Earl of Plymouth. The grange was farmed by a succession of tenants into the twentieth century. Grange Farm Cardiff - geograph

The farmhouse, known as Grange Farm, still exists today but is now surrounded by streets of terraced brick houses, which were built to house the many workers who moved to Cardiff to work in the industrial boom of the 19th century, particularly centered on the docks. The farmhouse dates in part from the sixteenth century. Grangetown developed after 1850, the year Penarth Road and the bridges over the River Taff and River Ely were constructed, linking Cardiff with Penarth.Morgan, Dennis 'The Illustrated History of Cardiff's Suburbs' Breedon Books (2003) In 1857 Baroness Windsor (whose Plymouth Estate owned the land) obtained an Act of Parliament to build housing in the area, intending to call it The Grange. Grangetown became a suburb of Cardiff in 1875. The area was low lying and subject to flooding. In 1883 the sea flooded parts of Grangetown to a depth of five feet.

Samuel Arthur Brain Samuel Arthur Brain (4 May 1850 – 19 February 1902) was a brewery entrepreneur in Cardiff, Wales, founder of Brain's Brewery. He was also a JP and local councillor, becoming an alderman and Mayor of Cardiff. Background Brain was born i ...

, the founder of

Brains Brewery Brains (S. A. Brain & Company Ltd.) is a regional brewery based in Cardiff, Wales. It was founded in 1882 by Samuel Arthur Brain. The company controls more than 250 pubs in South Wales (particularly in Cardiff), Mid Wales and the West Country. ...

, was elected to Cardiff Council in 1885 to represent Grangetown. Old Library flats, Redlaver Street, Grangetown, Cardiff - geograph

Grangetown's original public library on Redlaver Street was built 1900–1901 in the Tudor Gothic style. It has now been sold to developers and converted into flats. Grangetown was attacked in the Cardiff Blitz. On 2 January 1941, during the full moon, around 100 German World War 2 planes raided Cardiff for over 10 hours. A cellar at Hollyman Brothers Bakery on the corner of Corporation Road and Stockland Street was being used as a bunker. All 32 people in the shelter, including members of the Hollyman family, were killed. The premises continued as a bakery for about a decade before it became Clarence Hardware shop, which remains to this day. On the side of the building you can see a plaque in memory of the victims, which was erected by the Grangetown Local History Society. Clark's Pies shop, Grangetown, Cardiff

Cardiff's popular pastries, Clark's Pies, arrived in Grangetown in 1955 when Dennis Dutch (great-grandson of Mary and Arthur Clark) opened a shop in Bromsgrove Street. The shop still trades today.

Government

The

of Grangetown does not have a

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. I ...

for the area. The Grangetown electoral ward returns four local councillors to

Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were establishe ...

. Grangetown is part of the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency which returns one MP to the UK Parliament and one MS to the

Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...

Places of worship

Grangetown has at least ten Christian places of worship including Grangetown Baptist Church and the Salvation Army citadel as well as a Hindu temple on Merches Place, mosque called Masjid Abu Bakr on Clydach Street and newly built Masjid called Markaz At-Tawheed on Penarth road. The church of St Paul, Paget Street, was built between 1889 and 1902, largely at the expense of Lord Windsor. It uses an "eccentric" palette of materials including pennant rubble, pink sandstone and Portland cement.Newman, J. ''The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan'' University of Wales Press, 1995, pp 291–292 The architect was John Coates Carter, a distinguished Arts & Crafts designer. St Patrick's Church is the Roman Catholic place of worship for the neighbourhood. St Dyfrig and St Sampson, Pentre Gardens, dates from 1911.

The Welsh language

The number of Grangetown residents over three years old who speak Welsh has grown from 1,217 (8.9%) in the 2001 UK Census to 1,867 (10.2%) in the 2011 UK Census. This equates to over 15% of the total increase in Welsh speakers in Cardiff, despite Grangetown having only 5.6% of Cardiff's population. Grangetown was the location of the first Welsh-medium primary school class in Cardiff and the former county of Glamorgan. This class opened in 1949 with 8 pupils in what is now Ninian Park Primary School, an event commemorated by a plaque in the school's foyer. A Welsh-medium primary school, Ysgol Tan-yr-eos, was opened on the same site in 2006. This school was closed in 2013 and children in Welsh-medium education will be schooled in either

Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch is a large Welsh-medium primary school in the Canton area of western Cardiff, in Wales. General Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch is a Welsh-medium primary school which provides education for pupils from a wide and diverse are ...

Ysgol Gymraeg Treganna Canton ( cy, Treganna) is an inner-city district and community in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying west of the city's civic centre. Canton is one of the most ethnically diverse of Cardiff's suburbs, with a significant Pakistani and I ...

, both in

. Plans for a new Welsh-medium school in Grangetown were withdrawn by

in July 2013.

Amenities

Tramshed

A Cardiff music and entertainment venue that opened in October 2015. The Tramshed is housed in a converted

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

depot, dating from 1902 and Grade II listed. The music venue has a capacity of 1000 people.

Library

Grangetown Community Hub, Havelock Place, Grangetown, Cardiff - geograph

The Grangetown Library opened in 2007 on Havelock Place. This has since been renovated and turned into The Hub (Yr Hyb in Welsh), this essentially provides the same services as the library but also allows residents of the area access to more council services.

Leisure centres

*The Channel View Leisure Centre can be found in the south of Grangetown off Avondale Road. Its facilities include a gym, bookable sports halls, an outdoor astro pitch, an internet cafe and a climbing wall. *The Cardiff International Sports Village is located in the far south of the area, on the south side of the junction with the A 4232 and features the

Cardiff International Pool Cardiff International Pool is an Olympic-sized swimming pool built as a public-private funded project; with a partnership between Cardiff Council (land owner), OLLC which is a partnership between Orion Land & Leisure and Explore Investments (d ...

and

Cardiff Arena The Cardiff Arena, also known as Cardiff Bay Ice Arena and also known by ice hockey fans as the Big Blue Tent, was a temporary ice rink in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales. It had a capacity of 2,500 for ice hockey and was home to the Cardiff Devils ...

Parks and gardens

Four public parks are in the district: Grange Gardens, Sevenoaks Park, the Marl and Grangemoor Park. Grangemoor Park was created on top of a rubbish tip and opened in 2000. In February 2018 the second stage of a

National Lottery Community Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to ...

bid was successful and the project received £1,072,692 to rebuild Grange Pavilion in Grange Gardens. This work was completed in 2020.

Public houses and clubs

There are two public houses in the district, The Cornwall and The Grange, and a number of licensed social clubs.

Shopping

The district has three post offices. A reasonable number of small local shops are centred on Penarth Road and Corporation Road. In addition, the Cardiff Bay Retail Park is home to a number of superstores.

Education

*Grangetown Nursery is a

nursery school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary schoo ...

for children aged around 3. It is located in Avondale Road. *Grangetown Primary School is an old Victorian school, built in 1884. *St Patrick's School is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

with around 250 pupils and 13 teachers. *Ninian Park School has over 400 pupils and 25 teachers. It was built in 1899–1900, at which time it was the most expensive board school in Cardiff. *St Paul's School is a

Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The pos ...

Festivals and events

Grangetown Festival take place for a week in June each year. It began in 1978 and is organised by Grangetown Community Action. The festival culminates in a parade through the streets, ending in Grange Gardens where a carnival takes place. The 'Roxe Jam' hip-hop and graffiti festival takes place annually in Sevenoaks Park, Grangetown, on the last weekend of July. The first festival was in July 2008. The event was set up in memory of a young graffiti writer, Bill Lockwood aka Roxe, who was killed in a road accident. The main highlight of the event is the legal painting of a 140 m long wall which runs parallel to the Cardiff to Penarth railway line. The festival last took place in 2012.

Sport and leisure

Baseball

Grangetown was the home of Grange Albion and Grange Catholics, two of

British baseball Welsh baseball ( cy, Pêl Fas Gymreig), is a bat-and-ball game played in Wales. It is closely related to the game of rounders. In the tradition of bat-and-ball games, baseball has roots going back centuries, and there are references to "b ...

's most successful teams. Both played their home games at Sevenoaks Park. Grange Albion celebrated its centenary in 2007 but both clubs' teams were discontinued due to lack of players, with the Welsh Baseball League suspended in the summer of 2018 with only three teams left to compete.

Cricket

Bay Dragons Cricket Club is based in Grangetown and play in South East Wales Cricket League.

Football

Grange Albion F.C. play at Coronation Park and are a member of the South Wales Alliance League.

Notable people

* John Davies, historian, lived in Grangetown in the 1960s and later between 2000 and his death in 2015. * Edgar Phillips, Welsh-language poet and Archdruid of Wales, educated at Ninian Park School * Elfyn Lewis, award-winning artist, lives in Grangetown. * John Pugsley Cardiff City FC & Wales national football player, born in Grangetown *

Maureen Rees Maureen Rees (born 25 February 1942) is a British television personality from Cardiff, Wales, who was Britain's first reality-television star. She became prominent in the late 1990s after her appearances in two series of the BBC One docuserie ...

, British reality TV personality * Mark Ring –

Wales Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; cy, Undeb Rygbi Cymru) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, o ...

. Grange Albion & Wales

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

International * Dai Westacott –

International, born in Grangetown * Frank Whitcombe –

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is pre ...

& Great Britain national rugby league team International.Anthony Woolford
''Whitcombe a Grangetown production line great''
South Wales Echo, 20 March 2012 (retrieved 2012-04-08). * George Whitcombe – Grange Albion & Wales

Captain,

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

Footballer. *

Terry Yorath Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albritton (1955–2005), ...

– Cardiff City FC & Wales national football player and Manager * Peter Wingfield - Actor

Transport

Grangetown railway station Grangetown railway station is a railway station serving the Grangetown district of Cardiff, Wales. It is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line 1 mile (1.5 km) south west of Cardiff Central towards Bridgend via Barry, Penarth and Barry ...

is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line from Cardiff Central to

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Og ...

via

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...

, Rhoose Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major, with branch lines serving Penarth and Barry Island. Cardiff Bus operates the following services in the area: *1 ''City Circle'' towards Canton *2 ''City Circle'' towards Cardiff Bay *8 (Central Stn-Roath-Heath-University Hospital Wales) or (Cardiff Bay) *9/9A (Central Stn-Roath-Heath-University Hospital Wales) or (Cardiff International Sports Village) / (Channel View) *92 from Penarth Road (Penarth) *93/94 from Penarth Road (Penarth-Barry) Penarth Road ( A4160) is the main road running through the area northeastbound to

Cardiff city centre Cardiff city centre ( cy, Canol Dinas Caerdydd) is the city centre and central business district of Cardiff, Wales. The area is tightly bound by the River Taff to the west, the Civic Centre to the north and railway lines and two railway st ...

and southwest bound to Llandough,

Dinas Powys Dinas Powys (; also spelt "Dinas Powis" in English) is a small town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Its name means "fort of the provincial place" and refers to the Iron Age hillfort which overlooks the village. Dinas Powys i ...

, Penarth and

. The Ferry Road Interchange on the Grangetown Link Road (A4232) links to the M4 J33 (Cardiff West).

TV and Film

The parish church of St Paul, Paget Street, was used as the location for the BBC's

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

series episode '' Father's Day''. In the story, the church is attacked by monsters called 'Reapers' while a wedding is about to commence. Filming took place on location in November 2004.

Recent changes

North Grangetown Renewal Area (2005-2013) saw 500 homes refurbished in a rolling block programme with new roofs, windows and rendering. The £9m project run by Cardiff Council with Welsh Government funding was supposed to cover 858 homes over 10 years but was curtailed due to capital funding cutbacks. There were also delays due to weather and tendering and latter work was scaled back, much to local disappointment. Improvements included planting of trees and the creation of a new public open space, Gerddi Courtmead Gardens, parallel to Hereford Street.

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

's Community Gateway scheme supports projects in Grangetown. Projects have included a youth forum, a local business/shop local project and the renovation of supporting of an old bowls pavilion at Grange Gardens.

Location within Cardiff

References

External links

Grangetown Community WebsiteGrangetown HistoryGrangetown World War project and online memorial2001 Census key statistics

blitzandblight.com / Grangetown
{{Coord, 51, 28, 03, N, 3, 11, 07, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Communities in Cardiff Populated places established in the 19th century