Cogan is a suburb of
Penarth
Penarth ( , ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay.
Penarth is a Seaside resort#Brit ...
in the
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...
, Wales, south of the centre of the Welsh
capital city
A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
of
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
. Cogan contains one of the vale's four major
leisure centre
A leisure centre, sports centre, or recreation centre is a purpose-built building or site, usually owned and provided by the local government authority, where people can engage in a variety of sports and exercise, and keep fit.
Typical facilit ...
s.
History
Cogan is located in the ancient
Cwmwd
A commote (, sometimes spelt in older documents as , plural , less frequently )''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales. The word derives from the prefix ("together", ...
of ''Is Caeth'' in the
Cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law.
Description
Land in medieval Wales was divid ...
of Brenhinol.
Thomas Morgan derived the name from ''Gwgan'', a personal name which he ascribes to a "celebrated Welsh personage".
Cogan Pill
The area that would become Cogan was known as Cogan Pill for much of its history. The
pil (a tidal inlet, used as a harbour) lay within the
commote
A commote (, sometimes spelt in older documents as , plural , less frequently )'' Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wales. The word derives from the prefix ("together" ...
of Dinas Powys and joined the
River Ely
The River Ely () is in South Wales flowing generally southeast, from Tonyrefail to Cardiff.
The river is about long. The Ely's numerous sources lie in the mountains to the south of Tonypandy, near the town of Tonyrefail, rising in the e ...
near today's
Pont y Werin
Pont, meaning "bridge" in French language, French, may refer to:
Places France
* Pont, Côte-d'Or, in the Côte-d'Or ''département''
* Pont-Bellanger, in the Calvados ''département''
* Pont-d'Ouilly, in the Calvados ''département''
* Pont-Far ...
footbridge.
The Pîl is no longer extant, having been developed into the
Penarth Dock
Penarth Dock was a port and harbour which was located on the south bank of the mouth of the River Ely, at Penarth, Glamorgan, Wales. It opened in 1865 and reached its heyday before World War I, after which followed a slow decline until closed ...
in the nineteenth century. The importance of the Pîl is, however, still evident by its impact on the local toponymy, with Pill Street, Cogan Pill Road and Cogan Pill House all being named after it.
Cogan Pill House

Maps of the Cogan area before the 1850s invariably mark the Cogan Pill and Cogan Pill House, but it is unclear when this house (now known as The Baron's Court) was first built. The historian David King suggested the site as a possible location for an earlier castle, but any early fortifications have yet to be identified. A house was certainly extant by the 1290s, when a
weir
A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
(''La Niwere'', New wier) is recorded as forming the boundary of ''Cogan Moor'', and a fishery is recorded as belonging to "The Lordship of Cogan" by 1492 at a place called ''Neke'' (The Neck/Nook).
The house is first mentioned in a will of 1531, but soon passed into the possession of the Herbert family. The house remained in the Herbert family for many generations, during which time it was enlarged and repurposed. The current Hall House still has many late 15th-century features, and a mid 16th-century rear wing. The Herbert family's arms are also still in situ, above the front porch.
By 1849, Cogan Pill House was recorded as "The ancient seat of the Herberts" but had been converted into a farmhouse (with the grand hall being used as a barn) sometime before. However, in the 1850s the house was acquired by an agent of the Marquess of Bute, and restored.
Industrial and modern Cogan

The building of Penarth Docks in 1865 and the town's rapid growth prompted an explosion of house building in Cogan providing mostly terraced housing, local shops and public houses for dock workers. Most of the building in the village took place over the ten years between 1859 and 1869 and Cogan contained two busy brickworks, making the local marl bricks still seen today all over Cogan and Penarth.
The majority of the many small local Cogan shops, butcher, baker, greengrocer, hardware store, chemist, barbers, newsagents and general grocery shops located on Windsor Road, down Pill Street and on almost all of the street corners in the village had been closed by the early 1950s and converted to residential housing, these former shops being identified by the angled corner facings where the shop entrance doors used to be. Since Cogan's Post Office on Pill Street closed in April 2008, only a taxi control office, a ladies' hairdressers, a Chinese fast food takeaway and a sole surviving general store remain.
Cogan railway station
Cogan railway station is a railway station serving Cogan in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It is on the Vale of Glamorgan Line south of Cardiff Central on the way to Barry Island and Bridgend.
Passenger services are operated by Transport for ...
is on the
Vale of Glamorgan Line
The Vale of Glamorgan Line () is a commuter railway line in Wales, running through the Vale of Glamorgan from Barry to Bridgend, via Rhoose and Llantwit Major.
Route
The Barry branch starts at Cardiff West and runs to Barry Island with a ...
and provides services to
Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...
,
Rhoose
Rhoose ( ; , from ) is a village and community near the sea (the Bristol Channel) in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, near Barry. The wider community includes villages and settlements such as Font-y-Gary, Penmark, East Aberthaw and Porthkerr ...
,
Bridgend
Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...
and
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
. Until 1968, Cogan had two further platforms across the other side of the main Windsor Road, on the Penarth and Sully branch line, from the Cogan Junction points down the coastline to where it rejoined the main line at
Cadoxton. The through link was closed under the effects of the
Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...
and the rail spur now terminates at Penarth.
Dingle Road Halt and
Penarth station remain open but the platforms at Cogan were closed when the line was reduced to a single track branchline. Most of the station buildings still stand and have been used by several private businesses including a
shooting range
A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue, or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice, or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by milita ...
, a
garden centre
A garden centre (American English spelling; U.S. nursery or garden center) is a retail business that primarily sells plants and related products for Home gardening, domestic gardening. Gardening centers usually revolve around outdoor home imp ...
, a second-hand car lot and a
marine chandlers. The area originally covered by the Cogan and Penarth Dock's railway sidings and engine maintenance sheds now contains a large Tesco supermarket.
Cogan used to be connected to Llandough by Andrew Road which is now closed off to all but public buses. Conversely Pill Street was a dead end until the 1970s when a connection was driven through, up the slope to the newly built Cowslip Estate housing development. Apart from the addition of a street to the garden village in the '90s, no new housing has been built in the village since the early 1970s, when the Cogan Garden Village was completed, on the site of the main Penarth brickmakers, and any further housebuilding is prevented through lack of space to develop; the village is bounded on two sides by the railway tracks, by the Cowslip slope on another, and by the ''Poets Estate'' on the fourth side. The only land now not built on is the sports fields attached to the Penarth Leisure Centre, land that originally formed the common land of the village green where small holders grazed their animals in medieval times.
Education

The only school in Cogan is Cogan Primary School in Pill Street, administered by the Vale of Glamorgan Local Education Authority. It is a
mixed school of non-denominational religion. The school building is a well-maintained Victorian structure.
Religious sites
Hebron Methodist Church, a place of worship since 1904, is on Pill Street.
Sport
Penarth's premier football club is located in Cogan and forms part of Cogan Coronation Sports Club, playing their games at the Leisure Centre's playing fields. Cogan Coronation AFC's first team, known locally as "The Coro", plays in the South Wales F.A. Senior League 1st Division and the club fielded eighteen teams of all ages during the 2007/2008 season.
Cogan Leisure Centre, serving the community of Penarth, is located within the village.
References
External links
Penarth Leisure CentreCogan Coronation AFC website1860 Ordnance Survey map of Cogan
{{authority control
Villages in the Vale of Glamorgan
Populated coastal places in Wales
Penarth