Wenvoe

Wenvoe

Welcome To Wenvoe
Wenvoe
Wenvoe shown within the Vale of Glamorgan
Population 1,854 (2011)[1]
Principal area
Ceremonial county
Country Wales
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Cardiff
Postcode district CF5
Dialling code 029
Police South Wales
Fire South Wales
Ambulance Welsh
EU Parliament Wales
UK Parliament

Wenvoe (Welsh: Gwenfô) is a Welsh village and community between Barry and Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Nearby is the Wenvoe Transmitter near Twyn-yr-Odyn and the Site of the former HTV Wales Television Centre at Culverhouse Cross which is now a new housing estate in the suburbs of Cardiff. It is home to the Wenvoe Quarry and Wenvoe Castle Golf Club.

History

Maintaining a thriving farming community for centuries, Wenvoe, while still a farming village to an extent, has doubled in population in the last hundred years due to the vast amount of high-end property created by both the government and private developers.

The village originally developed around the parish church of St. Mary, which can be traced back to the twelfth century with the adjacent locality now being a conservation area. Wenvoe is recorded as having belonged to the De Sully, le Fleming and Malefaunt famililies in the later medieval periods. After being escheated to the crown the castle of Wenvoe belonged successively to the Thomas, Birt and Jenner families. Major development occurred in the 1770s but much of this was obliterated by a fire in 1910. Some medieval or earlier fortification is also known to have existed in the wooded hillside at Wrinstone.[2]

Amenities

The village has a village shop with a post office, a parish church, primary school, hotel, a part-time library, barber and three village halls.

It is home to three pubs (two that have been in the village for hundreds of years – The Wenvoe Arms and The Horse & Jockey at nearby Twyn-yr-Odyn, both of which are protected buildings – and the more recent Walston Castle) and many acres of forestry and fields. There is also another church at St Lythans.

Wenvoe village
The Wenvoe Arms

Wenvoe has a very healthy community spirit which supports a number of local community groups. Amongst these are Wenvoe Scout Group, the Village Quaffers, Ladies Choir, Youth Club and of course the Church. Wenvoe won 'Best Kept Village in the Vale of Glamorgan' in 2005 and again in 2007. It is served by its own monthly newspaper titled the Wenvoe What's On. A new venture is the annual Village Show convened every September at the Community Centre hosted by the village Scout Group. This is an opportunity for any resident to participate by submitting their art, craft, cookery or gardening successes for impartial judging. The Wenvoe Arms is also home to Wenvoe Pétanque Club – believed to be the oldest Pétanque club in Wales, it can trace its history back to the early 1970s.

Wenvoe is a popular village as it is convenient for the city of Cardiff. Despite being a commuter village unfortunately it no longer has a railway line, which was the victim of the "Beeching Axe" of the 1960s. The route of the old line remains but is now heavily overgrown, grazed by farm animals and to a great extent inaccessible. The old railway station is now a family dwelling.

Governance

An electoral ward with the same name exists. This ward includes Wenvoe but stretches to the community of St Nicholas and Bonvilston. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 2,659.[3]

Local attractions

St Lythans Burial Chamber

The St Lythans Burial Chamber (Welsh: Siambr Gladdu Lythian Sant) is only 2 km (1¼ miles) west of Wenvoe, or about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) by road, past the village of S Lythans (Welsh: Llwyneliddon). The St Lythans Burial Chamber is a single stone Megalithic dolmen, built around 6,000 BP (before present) as part of a Chambered long barrow, during the Neolithic period.

Tinkinswood Burial Chamber

The Tinkinswood Burial Chamber (Welsh: Siambr Gladdu Tinkinswood) is about 3.5 km (2½ miles) north west of Wenvoe, near the village of St Nicholas (Welsh: Sain Nicolas), or about 6 km (3¾ miles) by road towards Bonvilston (Welsh: Tresimwn). Tinkinswood is a more extensive cromlech than St Lythans, which it may have once resembled, and was constructed during the same period.

Between the St Lythans and the Tinkinswood Burial Chambers lies Dyffryn Gardens (Welsh: Gerddi Dyffryn), the estate to which both burial chambers once belonged. Dyffryn Gardens is a collection of botanical gardens located near the village of St. Nicholas. They were selected by the British Tourism Association as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.[4]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Community population 2011". Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Government record of Wrinstone Castle
  3. ↑ "Ward population 2011". Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.dyffryngardens.org.uk/

Further reading

  • Evans, C. J. O. (1943) [1938]. Glamorgan: Its History and Topography (2nd ed.). Cardiff: W. Lewis.
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