Morganstown ( cy, Pentre-poeth or ) is a part of the
community
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...
of
Radyr and Morganstown
Radyr and Morganstown is a Community (Wales), community (civil parish) of Cardiff which covers the areas of Radyr and Morganstown in the northwest of Cardiff, capital city of Wales. The community elects a Radyr and Morganstown community council. ...
in the north of
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
, just over northwest of
Cardiff city centre
Cardiff city centre ( cy, Canol Dinas Caerdydd) is the city centre and central business district of Cardiff, Wales. The area is tightly bound by the River Taff to the west, the Civic Centre to the north and railway lines and two railway sta ...
and separated from
Radyr
Radyr ( cy, Radur) is an outer suburb of Cardiff, about northwest of Cardiff city centre. Radyr is part of Radyr and Morganstown Community, for which the 2011 Census recorded a population of 6,417.
Morganstown is north of Radyr, on the othe ...
to the south by the
M4 motorway
The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
. It elects four councillors to the Radyr and Morganstown community council.
Early history
The earliest building that has been discovered in Morganstown is the
Morganstown Castle Mound
Morganstown Castle Mound, also known as Morganstown Motte, is a medieval motte in the community of Morganstown in Cardiff, Wales, which is a scheduled monument.
History
Motte-and-bailey castles date back to the medieval period, from 1066 to 1540 ...
from the middle ages.
Historically part of the parish of Radyr, the modern settlement of Morganstown has its origins in the late eighteenth century. At that time a small number of cottages were built on the land of Morgan William or Williams (''c''.1765–1852) of Tynyberllan farm. These were listed under the heading of 'Tynyberllan' in the
1801 census.
The Radyr
tithe map The term tithe map is usually applied to a map of an English or Welsh parish or township, prepared following the Tithe Commutation Act 1836. This act allowed tithes to be paid in cash rather than goods. The map and its accompanying schedule gave the ...
of the early 1840s shows the existence of several cottages on the west side of what is now Tŷ Nant Road, on land belonging to Morgan William(s). The censuses of
1841
Events
January–March
* January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom, and Qishan of the Qing dynasty, agree to the Convention of Chuenpi.
* January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the i ...
and
1851
Events
January–March
* January 11 – Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.
* January 15 – Christian Female College, modern-day Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly.
...
list these dwellings under the name of Tynyberllan. Most of the families relied for their living on one of the industries of the lower
Taff Valley, with many of the men being employed as colliers, iron miners, puddlers, firemen, and coke burners.
Many of the families that appear in the census also appear in the Radyr
parish records
A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...
. Records of baptisms and burials from 1840s to the 1870s do not refer to the settlement as Tynyberllan, however, but as Pentre (earliest reference 1845) and then Pentre-poeth (earliest reference 1850).
Bethel Calvinistic Methodist Chapel
![Bethel Chapel, Morganstown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Bethel_Chapel%2C_Morganstown._-_geograph.org.uk_-_61114.jpg)
There are records of a
Calvinistic Methodist
Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival and survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 1 ...
congregation in the vicinity dating back to 1817. The current building (now closed) dates from 1842, as shown by a plaque on an exterior wall (‘BETHEL. Erected by the CALV. METHODISTS A.D. 1842’). Despite the English inscription this was a Welsh-language cause: the area was overwhelmingly Welsh-speaking at the time. The chapel was built on land owned by Morgan William(s).
Morgan William(s) himself was buried in the graveyard in 1852. His bilingual gravestone (under the name ‘Morgan William’) has survived to this day. Also buried there are two victims of the 1875 disaster at the Lan colliery (
Gwaelod-y-garth
Gwaelod-y-garth (Welsh for ''Foot of the Garth'') is a village in the community of Pentyrch, Cardiff in Wales.
Location
Gwaelod-y-garth is located in Taff Valley at the foot of Garth Hill, north of central Cardiff and south of Pontypridd. T ...
), including the 13 year-old Moses Llewelyn, who worked as a door-boy at the mine.
The Welsh-language services at Bethel came to an end about 1928.
The emergence of the name Morganstown
The first known example of the name ‘Morgan’s Town’ dates from 1859. The
1861 census describes the settlement as ‘Morganstown’ (with one instance of the Welsh equivalent 'Treforgan'). The parish baptismal records continue to use ‘Pentre-poeth’ until the later 1870s. A record from 1878 refers to ‘Morganstown (otherwise Pentrepoeth)’; from then on the name Morganstown predominates. Morganstown presumably commemorates Morgan William(s), on whose land the settlement and its chapel were built.
Welsh names
Morganstown is noted for having two Welsh names, ''Pentre-poeth'' and ''Treforgan'', both recorded from the middle of nineteenth century.
Cardiff Council
Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Cyngor Sir Dinas a Sir Caerdydd) is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established ...
uses ''Pentre-poeth'' as the official form. But currently (2017) both names appear on different roadsigns in the vicinity. The earlier name of Tynyberllan (literally ‘orchard homestead’ and formerly used in both English and Welsh) has not been used to refer to Morganstown since the middle of nineteenth century.
''Treforgan'' (in meaning the exact equivalent of Morganstown) is first recorded in 1855, a few years earlier than its English equivalent. Neither can be shown to pre-date the death of Morgan William(s) in 1852. The use of Treforgan appears to have been particularly associated with Bethel chapel in Welsh-language sources, built as it was on land given by Morgan William(s) and later the location of his grave. As noted above, the chapel's Welsh-language services came to an end about 1928. It may be significant that Evan Jones, who was appointed curate of Radyr in 1853, called the settlement 'Pentrepoeth' in memoirs published in 1897 (he was of course an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
rather than a Methodist).
''Pentre-poeth'' is recorded before both Morganstown and Treforgan, and is commonly found in the Radyr parish records (which were kept in English). The name Pentre-poeth is known from several areas where Welsh is or was commonly spoken, including
Bassaleg
Bassaleg ( cy, Basaleg) is a suburb on the west side of Newport, Wales. It is in the Graig electoral ward and community.Bassaleg is located two miles northwest of Newport city centre. Bassaleg is bounded by the A467 road (A4072) to the east, the ...
,
Gelligaer
Gelligaer ( cy, Gelli-gaer ) is a community in the County Borough of Caerphilly, Wales, in the Rhymney River valley. As well as the village of Gelligaer, the community also includes the small towns of Hengoed and Ystrad Mynach. The population of ...
,
Llangyfelach
Llangyfelach is a village and community located in the City and County of Swansea, Wales. Llangyfelach is situated about 4 miles north of the centre of Swansea, just west of Morriston. It falls within the Llangyfelach ward. To the west is open ...
,
Machen
Machen (from Welsh language, Welsh ' "place (of)" + ', a personal name) is a large village three miles east of Caerphilly, south Wales. It is situated in the Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly borough within the Historic counties of Wales, ...
,
Oswestry
Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads.
The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...
,
Pwllheli
Pwllheli () is a market town and community of the Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn) in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011 of whom a large proportion, 81%, are Welsh language, Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the pl ...
, and
Tywyn
Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the loc ...
. The Welsh noun ''pentre'' refers to a small settlement without a church and in place names the adjective ''poeth'' generally refers to an area of land that has been cleared by fire. So Pentre-poeth probably means ‘settlement cleared by burning’. The example of Pentre-popeth from Pwllheli has been translated as 'a burnt area near the boundary of a township' (Morganstown is at some distance from the parish church of Radyr, now in
Danescourt
Danescourt is an outer suburb of western Cardiff, just over northwest of Cardiff city centre. Danescourt is part of the Llandaff Community.
History
Danescourt is built around Radyr's Church in Wales parish church of St John the Baptist and th ...
).
In official English-language records, Morganstown had largely replaced Pentre-poeth by the end of the 1870s. Pentre-poeth continued to be used in Welsh, however. An article by the Rev.
Edward Matthews (1813–1892), then living at
Canton near Cardiff, in the Calvinistic Methodist magazine ''Y Cylchgrawn'' (1874), suggests that some of the residents were annoyed at the continuing use of Pentre-poeth and considered Treforgan to be a more suitable name. It may be that the possible interpretation of Pentre-poeth as 'hot village' was in part responsible for a desire to replace it with the new name of Treforgan.
Nevertheless, Pentre-poeth continued to be used in Welsh. The ''Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales'' states that Pentre-poeth'' was the dominant form among W
lsh
lsh is a free software implementation of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol version 2, by the GNU Project including both server and client programs. Featuring Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) as specified in secsh-srp besides, public-key au ...
speakers down to the late 19th century'. The Welsh language declined markedly in the area in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, it appears that Pentre-poeth remained the name favoured by local Welsh speakers. In a study of the native Welsh dialect of the lower Taff valley, Ceinwen Thomas (1911–2008) of
Nantgarw
Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, near Cardiff.
From an electoral and administrative perspective Nantgarw falls within the ward of Taffs Well, a village some south, but historically fell within the boundari ...
records ''Pentre-poeth'' as the local Welsh name of Morganstown and makes no reference to the use of ''Treforgan''.
In a Welsh-language memoir about his up-bringing in Radyr (alongside his brother
Rhodri Rhodri is a male first name of Welsh origin. It is derived from the elements ''rhod'' "wheel" and ''rhi'' "king".
It may refer to the following people:
*Rhodri Molwynog ap Idwal (690–754), Welsh king of Gwynedd (720—754)
* Rhodri Mawr ap ...
),
Professor Prys Morgan (b. 1937) refers to Morganstown as ''Pentre-poeth''.
Although ''Pentre-poeth'' is the official form used by Cardiff Council, the local community council uses ''Treforgan''.
Radyr and Morganstown Community Council
References
{{reflist
External links
Radyr and Morganstown Community Association
Radyr
Districts of Cardiff