Pencoed
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Pencoed ( cy, Pen-coed) is a urbanised
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 ...
and town in the
county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...
of
Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge ...
,
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. It straddles the M4 motorway north east of
Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge ...
and is situated on the
Ewenny River The Ewenny River ( cy, Afon Ewenni) is a river in South Wales. For most of its length, it forms the border between the Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend. It is a major tributary of the River Ogmore, which it joins near its estuary. Course The riv ...
. At the 2011 census it had a population of around 9,166.


Early habitation

The earliest evidence of habitation in the area is the nearby Ogof y Pebyll ("Tents Cave") or Ogof Coed-y-Mwstwr ("Hubbub Wood Cave")),(, Grid Ref: SS951807) which is a
scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
and appears to have been inhabited during
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
or
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
periods. Worked flint flakes have been found, along with the teeth of numerous mammals of many different species.


Spelling, pronunciation and etymology

In Welsh, the correct spelling is Pen-coed. Often, in English, spellings now superseded in the Welsh language are used as the official name (i.e. spellings regarded as obsolete since the publication of ''Rhestr o Enwau Lleoedd / A Gazetteer of Welsh Place-Names'' in 1967). Thus "Pencoed", without a hyphen, is usually used in English, but is considered misleading in Welsh as it suggests that "pen" bears the stress rather than "coed" (the hyphen shows that the stress falls on the final syllable). The spelling "Pencoed", when used in Welsh, is considered to be, strictly speaking, incorrect. The basis of the name is "''pen y coed''" ("head, top, end (of) the forest"). The linking definite article (''y'') is often lost in place names, hence places called ''Pen-y-coed'' as well as the shorter ''Pen-coed''. There are various pronunciations of the name to be heard. The standard Welsh pronunciation is or . The diphthong 'oe' in a monosyllable is generally reduced to a long vowel 'o' :in South Wales, and so the pronunciation of the town has traditionally been . This local form is spelt as "Pen-côd" in texts written in the Gwentian dialect (that is, south-eastern Welsh). One pronunciation used in English is an approximation of the standard Welsh form but with stress shift . A poor pronunciation in English heard from outsiders and often on the English media is a spelling pronunciation as if the name were in English orthography – (as if the second element were "co-ed", the short form of the adjective "co-educational"). Local signage shows the use of the two forms (Pen-coed, Pencoed) in English contexts but also in Welsh contexts, with Pencoed predominating. Thus one sees Pencoed Primary School in English, and ''Ysgol Gynradd Pencoed'' in Welsh, on the sign on the school façade. The library sign reads Pencoed Library and ''Llyfrgell Pencoed''. The railway station sign has Pencoed. Roadsigns show Pencoed Cemetery and ''Mynwent Pencoed''. However, other signs are Pen-coed Technology Park and ''Parc Technoleg Pen-coed'', and the roadsign on ''Heol Pen-y-bont'' / Penybont Road at the entrance to the village half a mile from the centre shows "Pen-coed ½", whereas a sign just across the road indicating the entrance to the village has Pencoed.


Present town

Pencoed as a town developed in the late 19th century, around the
coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
industry; the coal mines have now closed. The town is in the Ewenny Valley and is divided by the M4 motorway near Junction 35, although almost all of the town lies to the north of the M4. About two miles north of the town, the upland relief of the South Wales Valleys starts. To the south are the rolling countryside of the
Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol C ...
and the rugged north coast of the Bristol Channel. The town consists of three distinct areas, which were once four small hamlets. To the north is
Penprysg Penprysg is a residential area of the town of Pencoed in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Governance Penprysg is a community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, ...
("copse end"), which lies at the end of the low ridge (100 m) of ''
Cefn Hirgoed Cefn Hirgoed is a ridge in Bridgend county borough in South Wales. The ridge extends for about 5 km east from the village of Sarn just north of Bridgend to Pen-prysg north of Pencoed. At the point where it reaches its highest elevation o ...
'' ("long wood ridge"). To the west is ''Hendre'' ("lowland winter homestead", literally "old settlement") which rises gently from the railway line in the centre of the town towards the common land at ''Ystadwaun'', on older maps as ''Ystad y Waun'' and ''Gwastadwaun'' ("level moor"). The central and eastern part of the town, which lies on the valley floor near the railway, consists of Pencoed itself and ''Felindre'' ("mill settlement"). There are numerous streams rising and running through the town, and two main rivers, the ''Ewenni Fawr'' (Great Ewenny) and the ''Ewenni Fach'' (Little Ewenny). At the centre of the town, close to the station, is the war memorial (known locally as the Monument), the shopping centre and the local Community Hall (Pencoed Miners' Welfare Hall). The town is well provided with sports facilities, schools, pubs and clubs. A new development, Earlswood Parc, was announced in 2002 and now has been completed, incorporating various Westbury built homes and Bocam business park. The current
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
is
Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
Bridie Sedgebeer. Pencoed hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1998. The
Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
single-board computer is manufactured at the Sony Technology Centre in Pencoed, which produces 44,000 every week.


Twinning

Pencoed has twinning arrangements with: *
Waldsassen Waldsassen (Northern Bavarian: ''Woidsassen'') is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria. Geography Waldsassen is the northernmost municipality of the Upper Palatinate region. In the northeast, it borders ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
*
Plouzané Plouzané () is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. History The shores south of Plouzané are in a strategic location for the defense of the Goulet de Brest strait and were fortified by Sébastien Le Pr ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...


References


External links


Pencoed Town Council websitewww.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pencoed and surrounding area2426 (Pencoed) Squadron - Air Training Corp
{{authority control Towns in Bridgend County Borough Communities in Bridgend County Borough