Grangetown ( Welsh: usually ''Grangetown'', also Trelluest) is a district and

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

in the south 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 ...

, capital of

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It is one of the largest districts in the south of the city and is bordered by Riverside, Canton and

Butetown Butetown (or ''The Docks'', ) is a district and community (Wales), community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marqu ...

. The River Taff winds its way through the area. Adjacent to the city's

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

area, Grangetown is experiencing a period of

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

and improvements in its infrastructure. Its population as of

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

was 19,385 in 8,261 households. One of the "five towns of Cardiff", the others are

, Crockherbtown, Newtown and Temperance Town. Grangetown is a diverse and multiracial district and has a significant population of Somali, Asian and mixed-race residents. It is home to a Swaminarayan Temple and various mosques.

Etymology

The name ''Grangetown'' is the usual form in Welsh. The variants ''Y Grange'' (dating back to the nineteenth century) and ''Y Grênj'' (equivalents of ''The Grange'') are sometimes seen. Owen John Thomas has used the form ''Y Grange Mawr'' (literally, 'the great grange', though perhaps influenced by the English ''Grange Moor''). The name ''Trelluest'' (Welsh ''tre'' 'town' + ''lluest'' 'lodge') was coined by the historian John Davies, with ''Trefaenor'' (''tre'' + ''maenor'' 'manor') and ''Trefynach'' (''tre'' + ''mynach'' 'monk') also appearing to be recent coinages. ''Gwyddoniadur Cymru'', the Welsh-language version of the '' Encyclopaedia of Wales'', uses ''Grangetown'', but notes the existence of ''Trelluest''. The grange was named after the 'moor' or saltmarsh upon which it stood, giving rise to English forms such as 'More Grange' and 'Grangemoor' and French equivalents such as 'La Grange de Mora'.

History

Until the mid-19th-century Grangetown was an area of marshy land used for farming. It appears to have been granted to the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey of Margam Abbey sometime at the end of the twelfth century. The monks established a

monastic grange Monastic granges were outlying landholdings held by Monastery, monasteries independent of the Manorialism, manorial system. The first granges were owned by the Cistercians, and other orders followed. Wealthy monastic houses had many granges, mo ...

there which they held until they were expelled in around 1290 by Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan. They were restored to their lands in 1329 and held them until the dissolution of the monasteries. By the fifteenth century the grange was being farmed to

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. ...

. The last farmer was a landowner called Lewis ap Richard who is also known as a patron of the Welsh-language poet Rhys Brychan. After the dissolution, the grange remained in the hand of Lewis's descendants. Lewis's son, Edward Lewis, also a noted patron of Welsh poets, settled at the Van near

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

. The grange remained in the hands of the Lewises of the Van when they moved to St Fagans Castle during the 1610s. The Lewis estates eventually passed through an heiress into the hands of Other Lewis Windsor (1731–1771), 4th Earl of Plymouth. The grange was farmed by a succession of tenants into the twentieth century. Grange Farm Cardiff - geograph

The farmhouse, known as Grange Farm, still exists today but is now surrounded by streets of terraced brick houses, which were built to house the many workers who moved to Cardiff to work in the industrial boom of the 19th century, particularly centered on the docks. The farmhouse dates in part from the sixteenth century. Grangetown developed after 1850, the year Penarth Road and the bridges over the River Taff and River Ely were constructed, linking Cardiff with Penarth.Morgan, Dennis 'The Illustrated History of Cardiff's Suburbs' Breedon Books (2003) In 1857 Baroness Windsor (whose Plymouth Estate owned the land) obtained an Act of Parliament to build housing in the area, intending to call it The Grange. Grangetown became a suburb of Cardiff in 1875. The area was low lying and subject to flooding. In 1883 the sea flooded parts of Grangetown to a depth of five feet. Samuel Arthur Brain, the founder of Brains Brewery, was elected to Cardiff Council in 1885 to represent Grangetown. Grangetown's original public library on Redlaver Street was built 1900–1901 in the Tudor Gothic style. It has now been sold to developers and converted into flats. Grangetown was attacked in the Cardiff Blitz. On 2 January 1941, during the full moon, around 100 German World War 2 planes raided Cardiff for over 10 hours. A cellar at Hollyman Brothers Bakery on the corner of Corporation Road and Stockland Street was being used as a bunker. All 32 people in the shelter, including members of the Hollyman family, were killed. The premises continued as a bakery for about a decade before it became Clarence Hardware shop, which remains to this day. On the side of the building you can see a plaque in memory of the victims, which was erected by the Grangetown Local History Society. Cardiff's popular pastries, Clark's Pies, arrived in Grangetown in 1955 when Dennis Dutch (great-grandson of Mary and Arthur Clark) opened a shop in Bromsgrove Street. The shop still trades today.

Government

The

of Grangetown does not have a

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. ...

for the area. The Grangetown electoral ward returns four local councillors to Cardiff Council. Grangetown is part of the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency which returns one MP to the UK Parliament and one MS to the

Senedd The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...

Places of worship

Grangetown has at least ten Christian places of worship including Grangetown Baptist Church and the Salvation Army citadel as well as a Hindu temple on Merches Place, mosque called Masjid Abu Bakr on Clydach Street and newly built Masjid called Markaz At-Tawheed on Penarth road. The church of St Paul, Paget Street, was built between 1889 and 1902, largely at the expense of Lord Windsor. It uses an "eccentric" palette of materials including pennant rubble, pink sandstone and Portland cement.Newman, J. ''The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan'' University of Wales Press, 1995, pp 291–292 The architect was John Coates Carter, a distinguished Arts & Crafts designer. St Patrick's Church is the Roman Catholic place of worship for the neighbourhood. St Dyfrig and St Samson, Pentre Gardens, dates from 1911.

The Welsh language

The number of Grangetown residents over three years old who speak Welsh has grown from 1,217 (8.9%) in the 2001 UK Census to 1,867 (10.2%) in the

2011 UK Census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

. This equates to over 15% of the total increase in Welsh speakers in Cardiff, despite Grangetown having only 5.6% of Cardiff's population. Grangetown was the location of the first Welsh-medium primary school class in Cardiff and the former county of

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

. This class opened in 1949 with 8 pupils in what is now Ninian Park Primary School, an event commemorated by a plaque in the school's foyer. A Welsh-medium primary school, Ysgol Tan-yr-eos, was opened on the same site in 2006. This school was closed in 2013 and children in Welsh-medium education will be schooled in either Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch or Ysgol Gymraeg Treganna, both in Canton. Plans for a new Welsh-medium school in Grangetown were withdrawn by Cardiff Council in July 2013.

Amenities

Tramshed

A Cardiff music and entertainment venue that opened in October 2015. The Tramshed is housed in a converted

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

depot, dating from 1902 and Grade II listed. The music venue has a capacity of 1000 people.

Library

The Grangetown Library opened in 2007 on Havelock Place. This has since been renovated and turned into The Hub (Yr Hyb in Welsh), this essentially provides the same services as the library but also allows residents of the area access to more council services.

Leisure centres

*The Channel View Leisure Centre can be found in the south of Grangetown off Avondale Road. Its facilities include a gym, bookable sports halls, an outdoor astro pitch, an internet cafe and a climbing wall. *The Cardiff International Sports Village is located in the far south of the area, on the south side of the junction with the A 4232 and features the Cardiff International Pool and Cardiff Arena.

Parks and gardens

Four public parks are in the district: Grange Gardens, Sevenoaks Park, the Marl and Grangemoor Park. Grangemoor Park was created on top of a rubbish tip and opened in 2000. In February 2018 the second stage of a

National Lottery Community Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for " good causes". It is the largest community funder in the UK and ...

bid was successful and the project received £1,072,692 to rebuild Grange Pavilion in Grange Gardens. This work was completed in 2020. Grange Gardens is listed at Grade II on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Public houses and clubs

There are two public houses in the district, The Cornwall and The Grange, and a number of licensed social clubs.

Shopping

The district has three post offices. A reasonable number of small local shops are centred on Penarth Road and Corporation Road. In addition, the Cardiff Bay Retail Park is home to a number of superstores.

Education

*Grangetown Nursery is a

nursery school A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin c ...

for children aged around 3. It is located in Avondale Road. *Grangetown Primary School is an old Victorian school, built in 1884. *St Patrick's School is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

with around 250 pupils and 13 teachers. *Ninian Park School has over 400 pupils and 25 teachers. It was built in 1899–1900, at which time it was the most expensive board school in Cardiff. *St Paul's School is a

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

with over 100 students enrolled

Festivals and events

Grangetown Festival take place for a week in June each year. It began in 1978 and is organised by Grangetown Community Action. The festival culminates in a parade through the streets, ending in Grange Gardens where a carnival takes place. The 'Roxe Jam' hip-hop and graffiti festival takes place annually in Sevenoaks Park, Grangetown, on the last weekend of July. The first festival was in July 2008. The event was set up in memory of a young graffiti writer, Bill Lockwood aka Roxe, who was killed in a road accident. The main highlight of the event is the legal painting of a 140 m long wall which runs parallel to the Cardiff to Penarth railway line. The festival last took place in 2012.

Sport and leisure

Baseball

Grangetown was the home of Grange Albion and Grange Catholics, two of British baseball's most successful teams. Both played their home games at Sevenoaks Park. Grange Albion celebrated its centenary in 2007 but both clubs' teams were discontinued due to lack of players, with the Welsh Baseball League suspended in the summer of 2018 with only three teams left to compete.

Cricket

Bay Dragons Cricket Club is based in Grangetown and play in South East Wales Cricket League.

Football

Grange Albion F.C. play at Coronation Park and are a member of the South Wales Alliance League.

Notable people

* John Davies, historian, lived in Grangetown in the 1960s and later between 2000 and his death in 2015. * Edgar Phillips, Welsh-language poet and

Archdruid Archdruid () is the title used by the presiding official of Gorsedd Cymru, the Gorsedd. The Archdruid presides over the most important ceremonies at the National Eisteddfod of Wales including the Crowning of the Bard, the award of the and the C ...

of Wales, educated at Ninian Park School * Elfyn Lewis, award-winning artist, lives in Grangetown. * John Pugsley Cardiff City FC & Wales national football player, born in Grangetown * Maureen Rees, British reality TV personality *

Mark Ring Mark Gerarde Ring (born 15 October 1962) played rugby union for Cardiff RFC, Cardiff, Pontypool RFC, Pontypool and Wales national rugby union team, Wales between 1982 and 1996. He was regarded as among the most gifted players of his generation ...

– Wales Rugby Union. Grange Albion & Wales

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

International * Dai Westacott – Wales Rugby Union International, born in Grangetown * Frank Whitcombe – Bradford Northern,

& Great Britain national rugby league team International.Anthony Woolford
''Whitcombe a Grangetown production line great''
South Wales Echo, 20 March 2012 (retrieved 2012-04-08). * George Whitcombe – Grange Albion & Wales

Captain, Cardiff City Footballer. * Terry Yorath – Cardiff City FC & Wales national football player and Manager * Peter Wingfield - Actor

Transport

Grangetown railway station is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line from Cardiff Central to

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 ...

via Barry, Rhoose Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major, with branch lines serving

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 ...

and Barry Island. Cardiff Bus operates the following services in the area: *1 ''City Circle'' towards Canton *2 ''City Circle'' towards Cardiff Bay *8 (Central Stn-Roath-Heath-University Hospital Wales) or (Cardiff Bay) *9/9A (Central Stn-Roath-Heath-University Hospital Wales) or (Cardiff International Sports Village) / (Channel View) *92 from Penarth Road (Penarth) *93/94 from Penarth Road (Penarth-Barry) Penarth Road ( A4160) is the main road running through the area northeastbound to

Cardiff city centre Cardiff city centre () 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 stations – Cardiff Cen ...

and southwest bound to Llandough, Dinas Powys,

and Barry. The Ferry Road Interchange on the Grangetown Link Road (A4232) links to the M4 J33 (Cardiff West).

TV and Film

The parish church of St Paul, Paget Street, was used as the location for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

series episode ''

Father's Day Father's Day is a day set aside for honoring one's father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. "Father's Day" complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day and, in som ...

''. In the story, the church is attacked by monsters called 'Reapers' while a wedding is about to commence. Filming took place on location in November 2004.

Recent changes

North Grangetown Renewal Area (2005-2013) saw 500 homes refurbished in a rolling block programme with new roofs, windows and rendering. The £9m project run by Cardiff Council with Welsh Government funding was supposed to cover 858 homes over 10 years but was curtailed due to capital funding cutbacks. There were also delays due to weather and tendering and latter work was scaled back, much to local disappointment. Improvements included planting of trees and the creation of a new public open space, Gerddi Courtmead Gardens, parallel to Hereford Street.

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

's Community Gateway scheme supports projects in Grangetown. Projects have included a youth forum, a local business/shop local project and the renovation of supporting of an old bowls pavilion at Grange Gardens.

Location within Cardiff

References

External links

Grangetown Community WebsiteGrangetown HistoryGrangetown World War project and online memorial2001 Census key statistics

blitzandblight.com / Grangetown
{{Authority control Communities in Cardiff Populated places established in the 19th century Registered historic parks and gardens in Cardiff