Radyr 1 Radyr Radyr Welsh: Yr Adur Radyr street sign Radyr Radyr shown within Wales Population Expression error: "4,658" must be numericTemplate:Infobox UK place/trap OS grid reference ST135804 Principal area Cardiff Ceremonial county Cardiff Country Wales Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town CARDIFF Postcode district CF15 Dialling code 029 Police South Wales Fire South Wales Ambulance Welsh EU Parliament Wales UK Parliament Cardiff West Welsh Assembly Cardiff West List of places: UK • Wales • Cardiff Radyr (Welsh: Radur) is an outer suburb of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The suburb is situated in the west of the city, although it was originally a separate village, and is located around 5 miles (8 kilometres) north west of Cardiff city centre. The population was recorded at 4,658 according to the 2001 Census. Radyr is administratively linked to the adjacent community of Morganstown, but they are now physically divided by the M4 motorway. Radyr 2 History Stone Age until the Norman Conquest Evidence of stone age occupation of the Lesser Garth Cave (located near Morganstown) was discovered in 1912 and included worked flints.[1] In 1916 excavation of a mound of 30 metres (98 ft) in Radyr Woods revealed charcoal and iron age pottery.[2] Radyr developed after the Norman invasion of Wales at the start of the 12th century and formed part of the Welsh Lordship or cantref of Miskin under the Lordship of Glamorgan created by the Norman King, William Rufus, in 1093.[2] Origin of the name Hints about the derivation of the name Radyr can be found in Lifris's writings "Life of St Cadog" written between 1081 and 1104 but relating to the earlier period around 530 AD, which mentions a croft or "tref" on the site called Aradur Hen. Lifris also tells the story of Tylyway, a religious hermit who was held to have lived on the banks of the Taff. Tylyway's cell is the most likely origin of the name Radyr; from the Welsh yr adur, meaning "the chantry", although Arudur Hen is also possible.[2] Norman occupation until the Middle Ages The Norman motte in the ‘mound field’ is a flat-topped mound 30 metres (98 ft) in diameter at the base and 3.8 metres (12 ft) high, surrounded by a ditch 7 metres (23 ft) wide. An adjoining bailey to east of the motte could indicate the boundary between Norman and Welsh land.[3] The motte was surrounded by a timber palisade around a wooden keep and formed part of a defensive line with similar mottes at Thornhill and Whitchurch.[2] The early settlement that became Radyr developed around the Norman church and manor house in what is now Danescourt. Surveys in 1307 describe an agricultural hamlet surrounded by arable fields.[2] Radyr motte and moat viewed from top The 14th century Welsh Lord of Radyr Cynwrig ap Hywel, followed by his descendants, farmed the area until it was devastated by the Black Death plague and battles between the Marcher Lords in 1300s and 1400s when the whole area was laid to waste.[2] In 1469 Thomas Mathew inherited the land through marriage and built Radyr Court, an imposing manor house on the site of what is now the Radyr Court Inn in Danescourt.[2] The house was used as a court and although it was destroyed by a fire in the 1800s, the three large dungeons survived and can still be seen at the Inn.[4] On Thomas's Sir William and Lady Mathew, Llandaff death his lands passed to his eldest son David and then to his younger Cathedral son William Mathew, who was knighted by King Henry VII at the battle of Bosworth in 1485.[2] William's successor was his eldest son Sir George Mathew who became the Member of Parliament for Glamorgan and Sheriff of the County.[2] [5] Radyr 3 Tudor legacy Successful Tudor nobles were expected to have extensive deer parks, but Sir George created a deer park that partially caused the decline of the family fortune, as it ranged so far to the north of Radyr it caused the previous income from tenant farmers to cease when they were evicted from their farms.[2] He also had twenty-four children, (eight of whom were illegitimate). Many of these children were daughters, and so a large sum of money was required to prove dowries for them.[2] On his death Sir George's lands passed to his eldest son William, who also became a Member of Parliament and invested in the Pentyrch ironworks.[2] This proved to be an astute move as the feudal system was being replaced by the beginnings of industrialisation. William's descendants however inherited a diminishing fortune and Captain George Mathew, the last of the family to live in Radyr, married Elizabeth Poyntz and the couple departed from Radyr to live on her estates at Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland during 1625.[6] Stuart period The new owner of Radyr was wealthy landowner Sir Edward Lewis,[7] who was knighted by King James I. Sir Edward was the owner of St.Fagans Castle and its surrounding lands,[8] scene of the Battle of St Fagans during the English Civil War. The Lewis fortune finally went to Elizabeth Lewis, who married the 3rd Earl of Plymouth, the principal landowner in Cardiff, Penarth and Barry.[2] A survey in 1766 shows that the Plymouth family owned the freeholds in most of Radyr and continues to do so today. Twenty two acres of residential land within Radyr were sold by Plymouth Estates in 2007.[9] Development from the 18th century Built in 1749, the Melingriffith Tinplate Works just across the River Taff from Radyr was built on or near the site of an old corn mill that had operated as far back as the late 1100s. Melingriffith was the largest working tin factory in the UK, until the much later construction of the Treforest Tin Works. People in Radyr would set their watches by the sound of the works hooters, which were also sounded to see in the new year.[10] The tinplate works became the major employer for workers from Radyr and would remain so for nearly two hundred years. The tin mills were powered exclusively by water drawn from the River Taff down the Melingriffith feeder stream, a water course that doubled as a canal that carried raw iron ore from the Pentyrch Iron Works until around 1815, when the Pentyrch tramroad was completed.[11] The tramroad crossed the River Taff over the Iron Bridge. The feeder’s lock was permanently closed in 1871 when it was bridged over, but traces of it still remain. The tin works closed in 1957,[12] and today the only signs that the Melingriffith Feeder works ever existed at all are the mostly dry bed of the original Melingriffith feeder stream that still runs down from the River Taff from just above the Radyr weir, and the recently restored water pump standing opposite Oak Cottage. The works site itself has been completely cleared, and is now a modern housing estate. Radyr 4 The Melingriffith feeder stream made its way to the original Glamorganshire Canal, where they ran in parallel through the Tin Works and out the other side at Melingriffith Lock. Where they had come together north of the Tin Works, any overflow from the Canal was originally designed to empty into the feeder. This point is now at the southern end of the Glamorganshire Canal Local Nature Reserve and all the water from the canal runs into the feeder before disappearing into a piped water course that passes under the modern housing estate.[13] Melingriffith water pump At the southern end of the housing estate, the feeder re-emerges at the point where the Melingriffith water pump stands, the pump originally designed to lift water from the bottom of the feeder back into the Canal at Melingriffith Lock.[14] Today, the Glamorganshire Canal has been almost totally overbuilt. Ty Mawr Road has replaced the route of the canal from Melingriffith all the way to Whitchurch.[13] Samuel Lewis says in his 1849 "Topographical Dictionary of Wales" says of Radyr:[15] "A parish, in the poorlaw union of Cardiff, hundred of Kibbor, county of Glamorgan, in South Wales, 3½ miles (N. W. by W.) from Cardiff; containing 279 inhabitants. This parish probably derives its name, signifying "a cataract," from the rushing waters of the river Tâf, by which it is bounded on the north-east. It was formerly comprehended within the hundred of Miskin, but has been recently separated therefrom. It comprises about eleven hundred acres of arable and pasture land, inclosed and in a profitable state of cultivation: the surface is in some parts elevated, and in others flat, but no where subject to inundation; the soil is a strong brown earth, favourable to the production of good crops of grain of all kinds, potatoes, and hay. The substratum is partly a hard brown stone, and partly limestone of very good quality. Radyr Court, formerly the seat of the family of Matthew, ancestors of the late Lord Llandaf, has been partially taken down, and the remainder has been modernised, and converted into a farmhouse. The turnpike-road leading from Cardiff to Llantrissent passes a little to the south of the parish; and the Tâf-Vale railway runs through it, nearly parallel with the river, which is crossed by the line in this vicinity. Some of the inhabitants are employed at the iron-works in the parish of Pentyrch. The living is a vicarage, endowed with £200 royal bounty; patron and impropriator, the representative of the late Earl of Plymouth, who is lord of the manor: the tithes have been commuted for £113.