Cardiff

CARDIFF, a city, municipal, county and parliamentary borough, seaport and county town of Glamorganshire, South Wales, situated on the Taff, 2 m. above its outflow, 1451,m. from London by the G.W.R. via Badminton, and 451 m. E.S.E. of Swansea. A large number of branch lines once owned by different companies focus on Cardiff. These are all now run by the G.W.R. The Glamorganshire canal, opened in 1794, runs from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil, with a branch to Aberdare. The increase of the population of Cardiff during the 29th century was phenomenal; from 1870 inhabitants in 1801, it grew to 32,954 in 1861, and in 1931 was 223,648. The borough, which originally comprised only the parishes of St. John's and St. Mary's, was in 1875 and 1895 extended so as to include Roath and a large part of Llandaff, known as Canton, on the right of the Taff. The whole area was united as one civil parish in 1903. In 1922 the city boundaries were extended to include Llandaff and most of six other outlying parishes, and the area of the city is now 11,984 acres.

History and Historic Buildings.

In documents of the first half of the 12th century the name is variously spelt as Kairdif, Cairti and Kardid. The Welsh form of the name, Caerdydd, sug gests that the name means "the fort of (Aulus?) Didius," rather than Caer Daf ("the fortress on the Taff"), which is nowhere found (except in Leland), though Caer Dyv once existed as a variant. No traces have been found of any pre-Roman settlement at Cardiff. Excavations from 1889 onward showed that Cardiff had been a Roman station, and also revealed the sequence of subse quent changes. There was first, on the site occupied by the present castle, a camp of about ten acres, probably constructed after the conquest of the Silures A.D. 75-77, so as to command the passage of the Taff, which was here crossed by the Via Maritima running from Gloucester to St. David's. In later Roman times there were added a series of polygonal bastions, of the type found at Caer went. To this period also belongs the massive rampart, over 1 o ft. thick, and the north gateway, one of the most perfect Roman gateways in Britain. In post-Roman times the native princes of Glamorgan had their principal demesne, not at the camp but a mile to the north of Llystalybont, while Saxon invaders threw up within the camp a large moated mound on which the Normans about the beginning of the 12th century built the great shell-keep. A study of place names has revealed that the neighbourhood was in the hands of Scandinavian raiders in the 9th and loth centuries. The builder of the Norman Castle was probably Robert, earl of Gloucester, who also built Bristol castle. Then or possibly even earlier the old rampart was for two-thirds of its circuit buried under enormous earthworks, the remainder being rebuilt. It was in the keep that Robert, duke of Normandy, was imprisoned from 1108 to 1134. Additions in Decorated and Perpendicular styles are due to the Despensers and to Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, while the present residential part ranges from the 15th-19th cen turies. The original ditch, about 20 yd. wide, still exists on three sides, but it is now converted into a "feeder" for the docks and canal. The re-planning of the streets in front of the Castle (1924-26) has considerably improved this area.

Under the Norman Fitz Hamon, Cardiff became the Caput of the seigniory of Glamorgan, and the castle the residence of its lords. The castle and lordship descended through the families of De Clare, Despenser, Beauchamp and Neville to Richard III., on whose fall they escheated to the Crown, and were granted later, first to Jasper Tudor, and finally by Edward VI. in 1550 to Sir William Herbert, afterwards created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and earl of Pembroke. Through the daughter and granddaughter of the 7th earl the castle and estates became the property of the 1st marquess of Bute (who was created Baron Cardiff in 1776), to whose direct descendant they now belong.

The town received its earliest known grant of municipal privi leges before 1147 from Fitz Hamon's successor Robert, earl of Gloucester. In 1284 the inhabitants petitioned the burgesses of Hereford for a certified copy of the customs of the latter town, and these furnished a model for the later demands of the growing community at Cardiff from its lords, while Cardiff in turn fur nished the model for the Glamorgan towns such as Neath and Kenfig. In 1324 Edward II. granted a number of exemptions to Cardiff and other towns in South Wales, and this grant was con firmed by Edward III., Henry IV., Henry VI. and Edward IV. Its most important early charter was that granted in 134o by Hugh le Despenser, whereby the burgesses acquired the right to nominate persons from whom the constable of the castle should select a bailiff and other officers; two ancient fairs, held on June 29 and Sept. 19, were confirmed, and extensive trading privileges were granted, including the right to form a merchant guild. A charter of 1421 made the constable of the castle mayor of the town but Queen Elizabeth granted a confirmatory charter to the mayor and bailiffs direct without reference to the lord of the castle. The town was treated as a borough by prescription until 1608, when James I. confirmed its status adding to its rights of self-govern ment, and granting a third fair (on Nov. 30). The first step towards the modern improvement of the town was in 1774, when a special act was obtained for the purpose. Nineteen private acts and provisional orders were obtained during the 19th century.

In 1404 Owain Glyn Dwr burnt the town, except the quarters of the Friars Minors. In 1645, after the battle of Naseby, Charles I. visited the town, which until then had been mainly Royalist, but about a month later was taken by the Parliamentarians. In 1648, a week after the Royalists had been decisively defeated by Colonel Horton at St. Fagan's, 4 m. west of Cardiff, Cromwell passed through the town on his way to Pembroke.

Outside the north-west angle of the castle, Richard de Clare in 1256 founded a Dominican priory, which was burnt by Glyn Dwr in 2404. Though rebuilt, the building fell into decay after the dissolution. The site was excavated in 1887. Outside the north east angle a Franciscan friary was founded in 128o by Gilbert de Clare, which at the dissolution became the residence of a branch of the Herbert family. Its site was explored in 1896. The church of St. John the Baptist, in Perpendicular style, has a fine tower built about 1443 by Hart, who also built the towers of Wrexham and St. Stephen's, Bristol. A sculptured stone reredos by W. Gos combe John was erected in 1896. The original church of St. Mary's, at the mouth of the river, was swept away by a tidal wave in 1607.

Modern Buildings.—Probably no town in the kingdom has a finer group of public buildings than those in Cathays Park, which also commands a view of the castle ramparts and the old keep. On the south side of the park are the Law Courts and City Hall (1906) and the still unfinished Welsh National Museum, the finest of all. In 1905 Cardiff was selected by a privy council committee to be the site of the state aided national museum of Wales, the corporation offering the site in Cathays Park. A charter providing for its government was granted in 1907. The museum has ab sorbed the Municipal Museum and Art Gallery previously in the library building. There are also collections of archaeological finds, metal work and Welsh domestic appliances, as well as specimens of the Welsh flora and fauna. On the west side of the park, from south to north are the University of Wales registry (1903), the Glamorgan County hall (1911) and the Cardiff Technical college (1916). On the east side is the University college of South Wales and Monmouthshire (19o9) . The college was founded in 1883 and carried on work for some time in temporary buildings pending the erection of the present ones. Since 1893 the college has been one of the constituent colleges of the University of Wales. It has fac ulties of arts, science, music and medicine, the latter possessing fine well equipped buildings in Newport Road. Aberdare Hall is a hostel for the women students. The business buildings are de veloping fast and roads are being widened. The Taff is spanned by two important bridges, one a four-arched bridge rebuilt in 1858-59 leading to Llandaff and the other a cantilever with a cen tral swinging span of 190 feet. The modern churches include St. Luke, Canton (1911), St. Joseph, Cathays (1913) and St. Samson (1923). In 1912 the parish of St. Stephen was formed, in 192o that of Upper Grangetown and in 1923 that of St. David. The Baptist theological college of Pontypool was removed to Cardiff in 1895. The city owns over 30o acres of parks and "open spaces," the chief being Roath Park with a lake and botanical garden, Llandaff fields and Cathays Park, while Plymouth Great wood (42 acres), presented to the city by the earl of Plymouth, was opened in 1923.

Commerce and Industries.—Edward II.'s charter of 1324 in dicates that Cardiff had become even then a trading and shipping centre of some importance. It enjoyed a brief existence as a staple town from 1327 to 1332. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. it was notorious as a resort of pirates. It was for cen turies a "head port," its limits extending from Chepstow to Llanelly; in the 18th century it sank to the position of "a creek" of the port of Bristol, but about 1840 it was made independent, its limits for customs purposes being defined as from the Rhymney estuary to Nash Point, so that technically the "port of Cardiff" includes Barry and Penarth as well as Cardiff proper. Down to the end of the 18th century there was only a primitive quay on the river side for shipping purposes. Coal was brought down from the hills on the backs of mules, and iron carried in two-ton wagons. In 1798 the first dock (12 acres in extent) was constructed at the terminus of the Glamorgan canal from Merthyr. When east Gla morgan became more interested in coal exporting (after about 185o), Cardiff developed greatly. Railways from all directions focused there, the slope from the high-lying coalfields facilitating transport of the heavily-laden trains and of the returning empty wagons. With the great demand for the South Wales steam coal (1850-1914) Cardiff became the greatest coal exporting port in the world.

The influence of the 2nd marquess of Bute cannot be over estimated. In 183o he obtained the first act for the construction of a dock which (now known as the West Bute dock) was opened in 1839 and measures (with its basin) 191 acres. The opening of the Taff Vale railway in 1840 and of the South Wales railway to Cardiff in 185o necessitated further accommodation, and the trustees of the marquess (who died in 1848) began in 1851 and opened in 18J5 the East Bute dock and basin measuring 464 acres. The Rhymney railway to Cardiff was completed in 1858 and the trade of the port so vastly increased that the shipment of coal and coke went up from 4,562 tons in 1839 to 1,796,000 tons in 186o. In 1864 the Bute trustees unsuccessfully sought powers for con structing three additional docks, but under the more limited powers granted in 1866, the Roath basin (12 acres) was opened in 1874, and (under a substituted act of 1882) the Roath dock (33 acres) was opened in 1887. These docks fell far short of the requirements of the district, for in 1865 the Taff Vale Railway Company opened a dock of 26 acres under the headland at Penarth, while in 1884 a group of colliery owners, dissatisfied with their treatment at Cardiff, obtained powers to construct docks at Barry. The Bute trustees in 1885 acquired the Glamor gan canal and its dock, and in the following year obtained ah act for vesting their various docks and the canal in the Cardiff Rail way Company. The South Bute dock of 501 acres, authorized in 1894, was opened in 1907, bringing the whole dock area of Cardiff to about 210 acres. There are now some 5 m. of quays and 12 graving docks. The landing of foreign cattle is permitted by the Board of Trade, and there are cattle lairs and abattoirs near the Cardiff wharf. The period following the war (1914-18) saw a great disruption of Cardiff's export trade. The docks have been under the management of the G.W. Ry. since 1922.

The east moors, stretching towards the outlet of the Rhymney river, became an important metallurgical quarter when the local ores of the coal field were replaced by those imported mostly from Spain. The smelting works consequently migrated to the coastal regions. The influx of population connected with the coal trade brought with it a very large Irish element giving Cardiff a consid erable Roman Catholic population and when Wales was made a separate Roman Catholic province in 1916, it became the seat of the archbishop. Copper works were established here in 1866, fol lowed long after by tin-stamping and enamel works. In 1888 the Dowlais Iron Company (now Messrs. Guest, Keen and Nettlefold, Ltd.) acquired here some ninety acres for iron works. There are also in the city several large grain mills and breweries, a biscuit factory, wire and hemp roperies, fuel works, general foundries and engineering works.

Administrative.

In virtue of its being the shire-town, Car diff acquired in 1535 the right to send one representative to par liament, which it did until 1832, from which date Cowbridge and Llantrisant have been joined with it as contributory boroughs re turning one member. Following subsequent changes in representa tion consequent upon the growth of the city, the 1918 Act allo cated three members to Cardiff. The great sessions for the county were during their whole existence from 1S42 to 1830 held at Car diff, but the assizes (which replaced them) have since then been held at Swansea and Cardiff alternately, as also are the quarter sessions for Glamorgan. The borough has a separate commission of the peace, having a stipendiary magistrate since 1858. It was granted a separate court of quarter sessions in 1890, it was con stituted a county borough in 1888, and, by letters patent dated Oct. 28, 1905, it was created a city and the dignity of lord mayor conferred on its chief magistrate. Under powers secured in 1884, the town obtains its chief water supply from a gathering ground near the sources of the Taff on the old red sandstone beyond the northern out-crop of the mineral basin and on the southern slopes of the Brecknock Beacons. Here two reservoirs of a combined capacity of 668 million gallons were constructed. In 1911 another large reservoir was begun in the Taff Fawr Valley and opened after the World War. A gas company first incorporated in 1837 sup plies the city, while the corporation supplies electric power. In 1925-27 a central electrical power station was constructed at Tref orest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--AS to Roman Cardiff see articles by J. Ward in the Bibliography.--AS to Roman Cardiff see articles by J. Ward in the Archaeologia for 1901 (vol. lvii.), and in Archaeologia Cambrensis for 1908. "The Scandinavian Settlement of Cardiff," Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1921. As to the castle and the Black and Gray Friars see Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd series, viii., 251 (reprinted in Clark's Mediaeval Military Architecture) , 5th series, vi. 97 ; vii. 283 ; xvii. 55 ; 6th series, i. 69. The charters of Cardiff and "Materials for a History of the County Borough from the Earliest Times" were published by order of the corporation in Cardiff Records (5 vols., 1898 sqq.) . See also Cardiff, an Illustrated Handbook, 1896 ; the Annual Report of the Cardiff Chamber of Commerce; the Calendar of the University College.