Wenvoe () is a village,

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and electoral ward between

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 ...

and

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

in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

, Wales. Nearby are the

Wenvoe Transmitter The Wenvoe transmitting station, officially known as Arqiva Wenvoe, is the main facility for broadcasting and telecommunications for Cardiff and South Wales. It is situated close to the village of Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, in the Uni ...

near

Twyn-yr-Odyn Twyn-yr-Odyn () is a hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan, southeast Wales, just beyond the territorial border of western Cardiff. It lies just southwest of Culverhouse Cross, very close to Wenvoe and St Lythans. The Wenvoe Transmitter The Wenvoe tr ...

and the site of the former

HTV Wales ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchisee in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to broadcast by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales and Wes ...

Television Centre at

Culverhouse Cross Culverhouse Cross () is a district straddling the boundary between Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, in the Community (Wales), community of Wenvoe. The district is centred on a major traffic roundabout that links West Cardiff to the M4 m ...

which is now a housing estate. It is home to the

Wenvoe Quarry Wenvoe Quarry is a quarry located on the eastern edge of the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales, approximately southwest of Cardiff city centre. It is situated on Alps Quarry Road, in an area known as "The Alps", between Wenvoe, Culverhouse Cross and ...

and

Wenvoe Castle Golf Club Wenvoe Castle Golf Club is an 18-hole golf course near Barry and Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan off the A4050 road, situated to the south of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The club was founded in 1936 around Wenvoe Castle, a mansion that was the ...

History

Maintaining a thriving farming community for centuries, Wenvoe, while still a farming village to an extent, has doubled in population in the last hundred years due to new housing developments. The village originally developed around the parish church of St. Mary, which can be traced back to the twelfth century with the adjacent locality now being a conservation area. Wenvoe is recorded as having belonged to the De Sully, le Fleming and Malefaunt famililies in the later medieval periods. After being escheated to the crown the castle of Wenvoe belonged successively to the Thomas, Birt and Jenner families. Major development occurred in the 1770s but much of this was obliterated by a fire in 1910. Some

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

or earlier fortification is also known to have existed in the wooded hillside at Wrinstone. On August 15, 1952, the

Wenvoe transmitting station The Wenvoe transmitting station, officially known as Arqiva Wenvoe, is the main facility for broadcasting and telecommunications for Cardiff and South Wales. It is situated close to the village of Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, in the UK ...

broadcast television to Wales for the first time.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

with the same name exists. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 2,659, though in 2022 the neighbouring community of

St Nicholas and Bonvilston St Nicholas and Bonvilston is a community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Formed in 1982, it includes the villages of St Nicholas, Bonvilston, and four properties in Dyffryn. In August 2020, St Nicholas had 294 dwellings and 451 electors. ...

was transferred to a new ward.

Schools

Mary Immaculate High School is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school in Wenvoe, although it is administered by the neighbouring Cardiff

local education authority Local education authorities (LEAs) were defined in England and Wales as the local councils responsible for education within their jurisdictions. The term was introduced by the Education Act 1902, which transferred education powers from school bo ...

, and most of its pupils are from the city. Gwenfo

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () 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 position is currently held b ...

Primary School is located in Wenvoe.

Landmarks and attractions

The village has a village shop with a post office, a parish church, primary school, hotel, a part-time library, barber and three village halls. It is home to three pubs (two that have been in the village for hundreds of years – The Wenvoe Arms and The Horse & Jockey at nearby Twyn-yr-Odyn, and the more recent Walston Castle) and many acres of forestry and fields. There is another church at St Lythans. A village show is held every September at the Community Centre hosted by the village Scout Group. The

St Lythans burial chamber The St Lythans burial chamber () is a single stone megalithic dolmen, built around 4000 BC as part of a chambered long barrow, during the mid Neolithic period, in what is now known as the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It lies about half a mile (1& ...

is 2 km ( miles) west of Wenvoe, or about by road, past the village of

St Lythans St Lythans () is a hamlet and former parish in the Vale of Glamorgan, southeast Wales, just outside western Cardiff. It lies southwest of Culverhouse Cross, west of Wenvoe and southwest of Twyn-yr-Odyn and is also connected by road from Dyffryn ...

. It is a single stone

Megalithic A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

, built around 6,000 years ago as part of a

chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

, during the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period. The Tinkinswood burial chamber is about 3.5 km ( miles) north west of Wenvoe, near the village of

St Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

. Near Tinkinswood burial chamber lies

Dyffryn Gardens Dyffryn Gardens, also spelt Duffryn Gardens (), is a collection of botanical gardens located near the villages of Dyffryn and St. Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The gardens were selected by the British Tourist Authority as one of ...

(partially in the Wenvoe community), to whose estate both burial chambers once belonged. Dyffryn Gardens were selected by the British Tourism Association as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.

Notable people

Robert Francis Jenner Robert Francis Jenner (13 January 1802 – 8 April 1860) of Wenvoe Castle was High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1828. Family The name "Jenner" is said to be the same as Genor or Genore. The Jenners of Wenvoe traced their ancestry back to Thomas Jen ...

(1802–1860),

High Sheriff of Glamorgan This page is a list of High Sheriffs of Glamorgan. Sheriffs of Glamorgan served under and were answerable to the independent Lords of Glamorgan until that lordship was merged into the crown. This is in contrast to sheriffs of the English shires w ...

in 1827 * Edmund Thomas (1633–1677), politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1654 and 1656 and sat in

Cromwell's Upper House The Other House (also referred to as the Upper House, House of Peers and House of Lords), established by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Humble Petition and Advice, was one of the two chambers of the parliaments that legi ...

* Sir John Godfrey Thomas, sixth baronet of Wenvoe (died 1841) * Sir Godfrey-Vignolles Thomas, 9th Baronet (1856–1919) * Simon Cox,

PGA European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

golfer.

References

External links

www.geography.co.uk : photos of Wenvoe and surrounding areaWenvoe OnlineWenvoe Pétanque Club
{{authority control Villages in the Vale of Glamorgan Communities in the Vale of Glamorgan Vale of Glamorgan electoral wards