The history of the suburb of Pentyrch

Pentyrch, which includes the hamlets of Creigiau and Gwaelod-y-Garth, has been inhabited for over three millenia when Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers scratched a living from the light upland soil. St Catwg (or Cadoc), one of the most famous of the Welsh saints, founded a monastic colony in Pentyrch. Set around a spring, known as Ffynnon Catwg or Catwgs well.

Its associated stream is named Nant Gwladys or Gwladys stream after St Catwgs mother. St. Catwg chose to build his church near the well which was for hundreds of years, the only source of water in the village. The church of St Catwgs has been rebuilt from time to time and the present Victorian Gothic church replaced a simple structure consisting of a nave and chancel. The areas potential for coal and iron extraction began to be exploited from the 17th century onwards.

This emerging industry resulted in workers cottages being constructed on the rural settlements of Gwaleod y Garth and Radyr during the 19th century. Pentyrch managed to retain its character as a rural settlement however. Drift mines provided high-quality steam coal, nearby quarries produced limestone and there was an abundance of timber.

Iron ore was transported to the furnaces by mules and donkeys from the mines in Little Garth and Fforest Goch. As the population increased, most of the miners and iron workers lived in or around Gwaelod-y-Garth, formerly known as Lower Pentyrch, while the farming community centred around the old village and Creigiau. Following a merger with the Melingriffith Company in Whitchurch, production dramatically increased during the mid 1800's.

However, the Pentryrch works declined as it lacked the ability to compete with steel being produced by the Dowlais Iron Company in Merthyr Tydfil, as well as the steelworks in Tremorfa. Both these companies were using the Bessemer process (an inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel). In 1888, the furnaces at Pentyrch were closed down When Pentyrch became the city's newest suburb in 1996, the district had a higher proportion of Welsh speakers than elsewhere in Cardiff, and the City boundaries reached to the edge of the coalfield on which Pentyrch's prosperity was based.

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