The Rise, Llanishen.

A personal history of The Rise estate by Lionel East.

[Photograph of 10 The Rise taken about 1970.] Family History.

My parents Gilbert and Hilda East bought 10 The Rise in 1936. At that time houses were not numbered1 so they named it Ilchester after the Somerset town of that name where both Gilbert’s parents had lived before moving to Penarth in the 1890s.Gilbert was born in 1902 and lived with his family in Herbert Terrace, Penarth, until his marriage to Hilda Pitchford, who lived with her family in Plassey Street, Penarth. They married in Penarth in 1936. He was a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Land Agent and was City Valuerfoor Cardiff during the 1930s and 40s working in the City Hall. He later joinedW H Cooke & Arkwright as a partner with an office in Churchill Way. Hilda was a good pianist and was a teacher. They remained in the house 51 years finally selling it in 1987 when they moved into a home in Station Road. I was boorn in 1937 and so I saw much of the early development of The Rise.

The origin of the name ‘The Rise’.

My father told me that The Rise took its name from the large house of that name which faced Lisvane Road. The house was demolished and the pre-war development of The Rise started within the grounds of the house. These extended from the railway on the west side, almost to the brick wall at the back of the gardens of the present houses 3-11 The Rise on the east side and extended down to where the road divides.

1 It was not until well after the war that the separate roads such as West Rise were named, until then everything was The Rise and houses were named with no numbers as is shown on the 1953 Ordinance Survey map on page 8. The current street names and house numbers are used in this report for clarity. 1

The Rhymney Railway.

During the 19th century the mining of materials, particularly coal and iron ore, in the South Wales valleys increased greatly and transport of this produce became a major concern. It was the advent of the railways which solved this problem and, as will be seen on themap below,an extensive network was constructed in the valleys and connected to Cardiff. Of particular note was the opening of the direct line from Caerphilly to Cardiff in1871 shown in red in the bottom right corner. The map is extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhymney_Railway, as is the following:

On 1 April 1871 the Rhymney Railway was at last able to open its own direct Caerphilly to Cardiff line. It had a falling gradient all the way to Cardiff, where it made a junction with its own line to the Bute Docks. It was double track.

I had noticed as a boy that the heavy coal trains were headed by small tank engines and I thought that the track must be all downhill as there was no way the engines would be able to pull the loaded wagons up-hill. The main taskof the engines and guards-vanswasto provide breaking on the way down to Cardiff as the wagons themselves had no breaking while on the move. The engines could then pull the empty wagons back up to the valleys.

While the line was primarily built to transport goods it also provided quick transport to both Cardiff centre and the docks. The following extract is from page 12 of ‘Llanishen. From Village to Suburb’ byGraham Horton2

The census of 1891 records the first new dwellings close to the railway in Station Road, their owners being the principals or senior managers of Cardiff’s wealth of coal and shipping firms. Thereafter, each census shows a steady increase in Llanishen’s population as former city dwellers realised their dream of the ‘country estate’, but depended on the railway in order to ‘commute’ each day to their work in the city.

Also, on page 26, it is reported that Sir William Edgar Nicholls, Chairman of Spillers’ Milling & Associated Industries, Ltd., had lived at The Rise house.

2http://btckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/site3010/2019%20Llanishen%20From%20Village%20to%20Suburb%20Digit al%20version.pdf 2

The original ‘The Rise’ house in Lisvane Road.

The following information is taken from ‘Llanishen: a historical miscellany’ by Stan Jenkins. Llanishen Local History Society. 2014.

‘The Rise’ house on Lisvane Road was built in 1882,The photographs show the house seen from over the railway bridge and the south of the house overlooking Cardiff and the sea.

The ground floor consisted of a dining room, drawing room, smoking room, billiard room, kitchens, pantry and dairy. There were six bedrooms on the first floor, all boasting fitted grates, two bathrooms and a schoolroom. Bedrooms for the maids were located on the top floor. But it was the gardens that were the glory of the house. It was put up for sale in 1916 because Nicholls’ business commitments necessitated his living nearer to London. The description of the gardens in the sales catalogue suggests it must have been one of the finest gardens in Llanishen at that time.

‘The gardens, which are particularly attractive and well kept, are divided by tall yew and holly hedges, with box edging to the paths, comprise tennis and croquet lawns, rose gardens, pretty Dutch garden, large broad herbaceous walks, filbert grove, orchards planted with young trees in full bearing. Gooseberry and currant gardens with large and well cultivated kitchen gardens. There is also a lean-to cold greenhouse, 32 feet long, forcing house in two divisions 30 feet long. Small forcing house, 15 feet long range of eight brick frames, and a range of three ditto, potting shed, two store rooms under laundry. A range of glass roof shedding, coal and wood house, cow-shed with tiled floor and iron mangers, and large chicken house, and manure pit. The pleasure grounds are prettily planted with fine specimens of rhododendrons, azaleas and other flowering shrubs. The pasture land is of excellent quality, the whole property extending to an area of 7 ½ acres (or thereabouts)’.

All that remains of Nicholls’ property are the stables which have been converted into architect’s offices on the corner of The Rise and Lisvane Road.

Architects and Developers.

The Glamorgan Archives give details of building plans for houses on The Rise as submitted to the Borough Engineer and Surveyor at http://calmview.cardiff.gov.uk/Overview.aspxand search ‘The Rise’.

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They show that Sir Percy Thomas was the architect during the early years from 1934 to 1949.Percy Thomas first went into partnership with Ivor Jones until 1937. He was then on his own and after he was knighted in 1946 his partnership became Sir Percy Thomas & Son. The developer before WWII was F& R Lewis. Thereafter many architects and developers were involved with the estate.

The site of theThe Rise development.

The 1900 Ordinance Survey map3of the area is shown below. To the left is the railway running north-south with the station in the top left corner.Lisvane road is across the top andthe Llanishen Reservoir is in the bottom right corner.

190025 inch [1:2,500] Ordinance Survey map.

There are 4 large houses on the south side of Lisvane road of which the largest is The Rise nearest to the railway. There was a track running south from Lisvane Road between The Rise house and its neighbour4[Beverley] and then through the fields to the wood5 from where presumably it was possible to go to Fidlas Road. There is a circular trees’ symbol between the 2 fields adjacent to the railway line which is the island in West Rise. Originally there were several trees [pines?] on this island. Ultimately the final estate development covered the fields between the railway and the

3This map and the following1940 map are from the National Library of Scotland website:https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=14&lat=51.53532&lon=‐3.17269&layers=101&b=1&z=1&point=51.5328,‐ 3.1729 4 This passage was about 55 feet wide and was included with The Rise garden when the estate was built. It corresponds to the low level portion of the back gardens of 5 & 9 The Rise as can be seen on the 1940 map on page 5. 5More about this later in the context of 10 The Rise on page 6. 4 reservoirs together with much of the wood as well as the land of the original The Rise house together with parts of the gardens of the other 3 large houses on Lisvane roaad.

The pre-war development of The Rise.

Building started about 1934and continued until the outbreak of war in 1939 when building stopped for the duration of the war. As shown on the 1940 OS map good progress had been made with 23 houses built. All 11 houses backing on to the railway had been built from 2 The Rise to 12 West Rise6. Most houses on the other side of the roads had been built, but there were gaps. The builder, Mr Lewis, had set up his office and yard on the sites now occupied by 1& 3 The Rise and they remained there until well after the war. Work had stopped on 7 The Rise with only the foundations and a few feet of wall in place. 17 The Rise had been built, but there was a gap between it and 13 The Rise. The pair of semi-detached houses facing up The Rise [10 The Rise & 1 West Rise] was built as were 3, 5& 7 West Rise. There was then a gap to 13 & 15 West Rise. The road surface had been tarmacked as far as 10 The Rise and 7 West Rise, but access to 17 The Rise and 13 & 15 West Rise was by unmade-up roads.

All this building had taken place during the Depression when unemployment was high and houses were difficult to sell. These were expensive houses and quality had to be high to attract buyers7. My father told me that the asking price for the 5 bedroom houses, 5, 8& 9 The Rise was £1500 and for the semis 1 West Rise and 10 The Rise it was £1250. However buyers had been put off 10 The Rise by the 2 large copper beach trees and an oak 1940 25 inch [1:2,500] Ordinance Survey map. tree close to the house and it had been on the market a year before my parents

6 The house [Oldgate] on Lisvane Road next to the railway had also been built and is includedin the 23. 7 Based on 10 The Rise these included solid oak strip sprung floors downstairs, except the kitchen, oak window frames, flush internal doors, bronze window and internal door fittings, oak front door, quality and individual fire surrounds, floor to ceiling fitted cupboards in the kitchen with a hatch to the dining room fitted with shelves for everyday crockery, all mains cabling in conduit, a large loft hatch fitted with a retractable ladder and a single garage. 5 bought it for £1150 in 1936. My father also told me that our house and the 5 bedroom houses were early examples of the use of the ‘Through Lounge’.

The war years.1939-45.

Cardiff was heavily bombed during the war. The docks were the principal target and there was some evidence that night bombers had sometimes mistaken the reservoirs for the docks, though no houses in The Rise were damaged. However 17 The Rise was hit by an incendiary bomb, which rolled down the roof and lodged in the gutter, but fortunately it did not set light to the roof. This was the intended modus operandi and my father’s family house in Penarthwas also hit and was ignited. Fortunately my father was on fire watch duty in the clock tower of the City Hall at the time. He was aware of the fire and was able to direct the fire service to put the fire out before serious damage was done. One day I found an incendiary bomb in our garden. This was very exciting for a small boy so I picked it up and rushed into the house to show my parents – theywere not amused!

There was a severe shortage of iron for building warships, tanks etc. during the war so the government requisitioned all metal features that were not essential for structural or safety reasons. Teams went out and took whatever they could find. The story goes that they came along Lisvane road, looked down The Rise and seeing no metal work such as railings continued on along Lisvane road. Fortunately the top houses never did have any form of front fence or wall and it is for this reason that the chain fencing fronting the houses lower down survived.

Since before the war and until The Rise was developed to the east, probably about 1950, the fields were used by a riding school. I spent a lot of time there, learning to ride and generally helping out.

The post-war period. 1945 - present

The 1953 map8 on page8 shows that by then West Rise had been extended to the wood and terminated by a turning circle. The Rise had also been extended to the wood on its west side and some further houses built to the east. It will also be noted that the houses still had names without numbers and the whole road was still named The Rise. All the available names have been extracted from the 1953 map and are given in the table on page 9

There was a shortage of materials to build housesafter the war ThearchitectSir Percy Thomas designed the semi-detached houses 16 & 18 West Rise to demonstrate what could be achieved with the available materials. These were show houses and visited by many people including me.Later the 3 pairs, 20 – 30 The Rise, were built to the same design.

Of particular note in respect to 10 The Rise is that the path running down to the wood had gone. The path ran between two hedges and together they were probably about 15 feet wide. This land had been given to the adjacent gardens when it was decided to develop the adjacent field.The houses in West Rise gained extra length to their back gardens and the garden of 10 The Rise was significantly widened enabling a second garage to be built as shown in the 1968 map on page 10 and in the photograph on page 1.

8This and subsequent maps are from the Old Maps.co.uk website https://www.old‐ maps.co.uk/#/Map/317349/181923/10/100632 6

As mentioned previously the sites of 1 &3 The Rise had originally been used by Mr Lewis, the builder, for his office and yard. It can be seen by comparing the 1900 and 19440 maps that he made use of an existing long narrow building in the garden of The Rise house, which had been the stables, for his office and store room. After the war the area was divided up. The Rise Cottage was built within the passage with a frontage onto Lisvane Road andn a house was built on 3 The Rise. Mr Lewis was joined after the war byy Jean Lewis his daughter, who was an architect, and she designed and subsequently lived in 3 The Rise. The remaining part of 1 The Rise was used as an office for many years and recently flatshave been built there.

The 1953 map illustrates that West Rise could have been extended further south through the wood to join up with Fidlas Road, which was the main road to Cardiff used by both the Llanishen [No 28] and Lisvane [No 37] buses. This possibility caused great concern at the time as The Rise would then become a short cut to Cardiff for traffic from Lisvane and the houses being built from Mill Road to Caerphilly Mountain. In the event this did not happen and South Rise was developed as shown in the 1968 map on page 10. However the wood was cleared and the development from Fidlas Road was connected to South Rise by a pedestrian path, illustrating just how easy it would have been to have put in a road. The 1968 map shows that South Rise had been extended to provide a second access from Lisvane Road and that building on the east side of the road was almost complete. Building continued on the west side of the road for many years and included the development of North Rise as shown in the 1993 map on page 11, which appears to indicate that the development had byy then been completed. Finally, a current aerial view of the estate is on page 12.

Lionel East. August 2020 [email protected]

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Side view of 10 The Rise after the large copper beach tree and other bushes and trees had been removed. Also shows the extended kitchen. Goodge Earth.

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1953 1:1,250 Ordinance Survey map

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Original House Names The Rise West Rise Current Current House Number Original Name House Number Original Name

4 Conwyl 1 Runymede 5 Melrose 2 West Orchard 6 Glasfryn 3 Ynys-Y-Coed 7 Precelly 4 Netherleigh 8 Y Berilan 5 Sherbrook 9 White Wings 6 Ellesmere 10 Ilchester 7 Glynde 13 Y Goedwig 8 Wentwood 17 Hartrow 9 Marsham 20 GodreCoed 10 The Garth 22 Long Dale 11 East Water 24 Briar Dene 12 Hyfrydle 26 AwelDeg 13 Eskadale 27 White Cottage 14 South Bank 28 Naunton 15 Cheriton 29 Durwen 17 Tall Trees 30 Nethermead 18 Thistleway 32 Llyn Gwyn 19 Fitbeck 34 Roundbay 20 Ty Nant 21 Sweet Briar 22 Woodcambe 23 Green End 24 Damum Cottage 26 Witchemtree 28 Denmead 30 Hythyn 32 Trelyn

The house names have been extracted from the 1953 map.

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1968 1:1,250.

Ordinance Survey map of The Rise estate and showing Fidlas road in the bottom left corner.

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1993 1:10,000 Ordinance Survey map

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A current aerial view of the estate taken from Google Earth.

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