Maes Araul and the Little House

Looking again at my photos of the ruined cottages in Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog, I wondered whether they were originally platform houses, built on land dug into the hllside. That would have suggested an early date – but were they really? We got back there in a rare gap in the rain and splashed across the ‘improved grassland’ and the many streams in the woods.

This, the larger of the cottages

does look to have been dug into the bottom of the slope, but the house is roughly square. Rebuild on an earlier site? Possibly …

But the smaller of the cottages, which I thought at first was at right angles to the slope and this was the south gable wall

turned out to be a similarly square structure and the bit to the south was this

the traditional little house at the bottom of the garden. (In Welsh we actually call it the tŷ bach)

Back to the tithe plan – and again more confusion. The tithe map overlay at https://places.library.wales/browse/51.543/-3.279/17?page=1&alt=&alt=&leaflet-base-layers_70=on has an awkwardly-placed blot over where the second cottage ought to be, but there really doesn’t seem to be anything there. The larger cottage is described as ‘2 Cottages and Gardens’ but the two buildings are close together.

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

And another strange thing. My sharp-eyed French cousin spotted this

on one of the old broad-leaved trees below the first cottage. The number on the tag is 1681. We didn’t see any tags on other trees. Has someone been doing a bit of surveying of the old broad-leaved trees in the wood, or is this just something that someone found and randomly stuck on the tree?

Garth Cottages

I went up the Garth before the snow melted and walked back along the Pentyrch road. This

is marked on the 2nd edition OS as Mwndy, but on the tithe plan it’s Gockatt Isha, a house and just short of 8 acres of arable, pasture, meadow and garden, belonging to the Bute estate and tenanted by David John.

Steps up from the road

To be honest, the ruins look more substantial than you’d expect from a smallholding, and the area just to the north-east

is quite a substantial enclosure. The OS marks a separate building here.

Caerwen

just south of the road was a much bigger farm, over 125 a., but now a ruin.

And this

a little further along the road, must have been the Collier’s Arms. The Lan research group have done a lot of work on the deserted buildings along the road from Gwaelod-y-garth.

 

Fforest Ganol

Back to Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales. This rather undistinguished hedge-bank up in the woods on the other side of the little valley from Castell Coch

turns out to be part of the forest boundary bank of Fforest Ganol. This is at about OS Grid Ref: ST 14187 83090. Th field boundary turns south here, but the forest boundary bank continues westward under the trees.

The bank is clearer and more substantial to the east

It virtually disappears once you reach the cleared field

but with the eye of faith you can still see it.

Further down towards the stream, these are the hornbeam stools that Rackham spotted

Hornbeams are unusual west of the Chilterns – Rackham says they were briefly popular as planters’ trees in the C19 but that the size of these stools suggests they are older.

 

 

Seth and Ethan

posted in: Family | 0

When Seth first saw Ethan, a morning just before last Christmas, he put his hands on his hips and said ‘Well, I never!’

Ethan adores Seth, perhaps too much – whatever Seth is playing with Ethan wants to play too, and Seth does get very frustrated.

Seth is now in school – with the uniform and everything.

 

He goes to the Meithrin (Welsh nursery) a couple of streets away in the morning, then they walk in a crocodile to the meithrin at the local Welsh school for the afternoon session. The school is brilliant – they do really imaginative activities with the children and at first sight it looks as though they are ‘just’ playing but there is clearly a structured learning programme behind it.

 

 

Like most small boys, Seth is fascinated by trains, diggers, anything BIG that makes a Big Noise. He didn’t mind at all that the playground at the end of their lane was closed – he was quite happy watching the diggers rebuilding it.

He has been in heaven this summer as they are building a new bridge over the railway line at the bottom of our village. Dumper trucks, steamrollers … We took him on the train to Cardiff Bay for his birthday.

We thought we would have a nice afternoon in the Bay, but once we had lunch all he wanted to do was to get back on the train and go up to Cardiff Queen Street station to watch the trains coming in and out! So that’s what we did.

Meanwhile, Rachel is back at work and I look after Ethan three days a week. He relishes having uninterrupted access to the Duplo

here he is actually IN the Duplo box

but of course the toys are just there to try to distract him from what he really wants to do – using Mamgu’s desk as a climbing frame

exploring the sock drawer

and the kitchen cupboard

climbing the stairs

and – the real prize –

the washing machine!

Here’s the family earlier in the year

And here are the 2 lads deep in conversation over lunch.

what are they planning?

Maesaraul and Coedcae

Back to Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog to look for those ruins in the middle of the wood. On the tithe plan they are described as cottages and gardens, belonging to William Booker, Thomas and Elizabeth Matthews and William Gedrick and tenanted by Richard Blackmore and Co. (presumably Richard Blakemore, owner of the Melingruffydd tinplate company?). The first edition 6” OS map at https://maps.nls.uk/view/102342583 , surveyed 1872-5, does not give them a name but plans them out in some detail, with their gardens and a cleared patch to the south. The second edition OS 6” at https://places.library.wales/browse/51.54/-3.27/15?page=1&alt=&alt=&leaflet-base-layers_66=on calls them Maesaraul.

Both are described as cottages but the one to the east is more substantial

with what looks lilke an enclosed yard

 

and some hefty beech trees around it.

The one to the west is smaller.

They might at one time have been farmhouse and labourer’s cottage, but by 1840 I am guessing that they would have been occupied by coal miners or iron workers, employees or subtenants of the Blakemores. As well as the early bell pits, there is plenty of evidence for later coal mining in the wood – including at least one pit big enough to need fencing off.

Time to look at the census.

The biggest mine was of course the Lan mine, down at the bottom of the hill with a good interpretation board. This was the place of the great Lan colliery disaster in 1875. The children of Gwaelod school had added their contributions to a memorial to those who lost their lives.

The tithe map is if anything confusing rather than helpful. The cottages are listed but are surrounded by what are described as fields (one arable, one meadow, a couple of pasture and one of 52 acres described as being ‘wood & pasture) part of a farm called Coedcae, belonging to the same group of owners as the cottages. Coedcae seems to cover the full extent of what is now Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog, but the only patch of land actually called Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog (or actually Coed rhiw Cylog) is the wooded area west of Bethlehem Chapel, part of the Dynevor estate. On the first edition OS 6” the whole wooded area seems to be what is called Coed y Rhiw-Ceiliog. The woods on the tithe plan are patchy. On the first 6” OS they are mixed conifer and broadleaf, on the second edition OS 6” they are all broadleaf. On the 1964 revision they are still broadleaf and the name for the cottages has vanished. Later 1” and 1:25,000 maps also show it as broadleaf. This is misleading, as the conifers are old and decaying – possibly planted in the great push for self-sufficiency in wood after WWII?

There is plenty else of interest in and around the wood. Once you start looking for house sites, you see them everywhere – is this, for example

at about ST 11509 83359 some sort of structure, or just the upcast from a pit?

The Lan history group have been working on the housing north of the road – several cottages, and a pub, the Colliers’ Arms. There are the remains of houses below the road as well, along the track that leads to the woods. This one, at ST 11407 83558,

is quite substantial, with a separate little annex to the north

with its own chimney, and accessible only from outside. A wash house, maybe? The other, at ST 11415 83588

is completely inaccessible but seems from the OS map to have been roughly the same size. Neither is on the tithe map so they can’t have been farm houses.

Trying to get at the second house from below, I walked past this

 

 

just below the house, at ST 11421 83600 – another of the many adits.

This is outside the boundary of the ancient woodland, but ironically in the patch of wood that is called Coed rhiw Cylog on the tithe plan. Luckily, that is part of the Dynevor estate, whose estate papers presumably survive … somewhere …

Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog

More discoveries in Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales. Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog is on the southern slope of the Garth mountain, just north of Cardiff. Looking from the Pentyrch road,

it is now a rather decayed conifer plantation, though with a few large beech trees

peeking over the edge. Rackham has however identified it as an ancient woodland, complete with boundary bank. There are more large beech trees

down the slope from the northern entrance. (There is a splendid detailed map in the book.) And yes, the bank is there – and along the northern edge it looks like a bank and ditch.

Yes, the ditch has turned into a stream in the recent rain. And yes, I did fall into the stream. But by this stage I was so excited by Rackham’s findings that I plodded on regardless, dripping mud and grateful that my phone is waterproof.

The bank going westward is quite clear, once you know what you are looking at

and here is the beech tree which Rackham noted at the north-west corner.

He describes it as a stub – a tree which has been cut off and allowed to regrow. A stub has been cut rather higher than a coppice but not as high as a pollard, and it’s typical of woodland boundary banks.

From here the bank turns south,

and what may once have been a ditch is now quite definitely a stream. There are a number of bell pits in the wood, early forms of coal mining. The Garth is near the southern edge of the South Wales coal field and the coal seams are fairly near the surface. Bell pits were one of the earliest forms of mining: you dug down to the coal then widened out the hole into a bell shape, got out as much coal as you could and (ideally) got out before the sides collapsed. They were an inefficient method of mining, and by the eighteenth century they had largely been replaced by drift mines and adits. The bell pits in Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog could be medieval or early modern. This one

cuts into the boundary bank at OS ref ST 11125 83227 so is clearly later than the bank. Another a little further down

at about ST 11226 83077 would also have encroached on the bank.

There is a lot more to find out – back to the wonderful Places of Wales web site. The 1900 OS map marks buildings in the middle of the forest and gives the area the name Maesaraul, though the 1840 tithe plan says it’s part of a farm called coedcae (a place name about which Rackham has quite a bit to say). There was also a cottage down at the south-east corner, called Maes-gwyn on the OS map but on the tithe plan described as part of Coedcae.

Rackham was only concerned with the ancient woodland, though he does mention later features like mining and tramways when they affect things like woodland banks.

The bank turns north and runs up to the road at ST 11321 83507.

Early maps show settlement at this north-east corner of the wood, now ruined or lost. This

must have been a cottage, but it can now only be identified  by the shrubs which would once have been the garden hedge, lonicera nitida and privet.

There were once houses all along the road, a pub (the Collier’s Arms), and a bigger house (or possibly a farm) below the road – but it’s difficult to tie these up with the tithe plan. More work needed.

Forest boundaries

Another discovery in the late great Oliver Rackham’s Ancient Woods of South-east Wales (edited from his manuscript by Paula Keen with David Morfitt, George Peterken and Simon Leatherdale). It seems that this

which I thought (if I thought about it at all) was just a hedge bank, is actually the boundary bank of Fforest Fawr, one of the medieval forests just north of Cardiff, above Tongwynlais. Here it is as the boundary between the woods and the golf course. You can follow it along – here the trees have spread over it

and here

it is visible again under the trees. Here

it turns to the north and is visible under an outgrown hedge. It’s more worn down but still there when you know what it is, bordering the farmland to the north

and running up to the viewing point

 

ItI must have stood here literally hundreds of times without realising what it was

it’s a bit eroded at the viewing point but still …

and it continues westward

 

and eventually turns north and runs down to Ty Rhiw.

Who knew? Well, Oliver Rackham, obviously – but I used to call myself a landscape historian and I had no idea.

There’s lots more to discover from the book as well. Given a few dry days …

John Gwin’s Commonplace Book

posted in: Heritage (General) | 0

John Gwin lived at Llangwm near Usk in the middle years of the seventeenth century. One of the county’s lesser gentry, he worked for the high-profile Catholic Marquess of Worcester: but he had friends and relatives among the county’s leading Puritans. He was insatiably curious, a keen fruit farmer, interested in scientific and medical developments, a devoted family man, an energetic churchwarden. All this is reflected in his commonplace book, the notebook in which he jotted down things he wanted to remember.

The book has now been edited by three local academics and is being published by the South Wales Record Society. An introduction describes Gwin’s life and background and provides more information on some of his interests. The commonplace book is a treasure trove of medical remedies, snippets of local and family history, notes on the management of the Worcester estates, poetry by the leading Puritan William Wroth, advice on the choice of marriage partners, records of his experiments in grafting fruit trees, tips on good husbandry, and details on the ownership of church pews and the repair of the churchyard wall. It offers us an unparalleled insight into the cultural and intellectual world of south-east Wales in a period of civil war and continuing religious and political upheaval.

The South Wales Record Society will be launching its edition of the book in the Llangwm Village Hall from 2.30 on Saturday 10 December. There will be introductory talks by two of the editors and a chance to buy copies of the book at a special reduced price of £12 for the paperback (cash or cheques only). Members of the Society can also pick their own copies up. The Village Hall is on the B4235 Usk-Chepstow road and there is a car park a little further along the road to Chepstow, at postcode NP15 1HQ.

Hardback copies are all now spoken for but the book is available in paperback, xii + 212 pages, illustrated. Copies can also be ordered through the Society’s web site at http://www.southwalesrecordsociety.co.uk/ or by post: £18 for the paperback,  for addresses in the UK.

Click here gwin_flyer_revised  to download a flyer with order form

Back to the deserted farms …

posted in: Heritage (General) | 2

I hadn’t been up the Lesser Garth for some time. Nelly the spaniel and I seemed to spend more time on the Cefn Onn side of the valley. Nelly has now gone to the happy hunting grounds and I’m getting back to walking on my own – and finding things have changed. Trees have fallen across paths, and three summers of staycationing have worn new routes. So it was that I found myself quite by accident here

 

at grid ref. ST 11377 82418, just off the access road to the Garth quarry. Back to the National Library’s wonderful Places of Wales web site and I find it was once a farm called Ton-mawr. On the 1840 tithe plan it was a substantial farm of over 51 acres, owned by Lord Dynevor and tenanted by a Mary Thomas. It was a mixed farm, mainly pasture but with several arable fields and some meadow. Most of the land was to the west of the farmhouse but there were a few fields between the farmhouse and Garth Wood. The fields were still there on the 2nd edition OS map (c 1900) but the wood has now spread to envelop the farm house. Presumably the land is now part of Cefn Colstyn farm. Most of the wood has of course been quarried away. I still need to find the two wells marked on the modern OS map, Ffynnon Gruffydd and Ffynnon Wen.

There are more deserted farmsteads on the other side of the Pentyrch road, in Coed Rhiw’r Ceiliog and the slopes of Garth Hill. Something for the winter, maybe, when the brambles and nettles have died down?

Rees John of Cefn Llwyd

posted in: Family | 0

Some more of our family history has turned up in the papers of my late cousin David Morris. My mother’s reminiscences (downloadable at https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2017/11/betty-john-cefn-llwyd/ ) described how her family moved from Michaelston-le-Pit to Cefn Llwyd in Michaelston-y-Fedw in 1908, and I noted that I had found her father’s tenancy agreement for the farm in the Kemeys-Tynte estate papers. Well, Rhys John’s copy of the agreement has now surfaced in David’s papers, so here it is.

As a tenant by year, my grandfather had to promise in detail how he would manage the land. One thing that wasn’t specified but that my mother remembered was that he was not allowed to use barbed wire in his fences. After the war, the farm came into the hands of the Morgans of Tredegar Park. They retained the right to humt over my grandfather’s fields and they did not want their horses being injured if they jumped the fences.