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Coordinates: 51°26'N 3°10'W? / ?51.43, -3.17
Penarth is a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales 4 miles (6.4 kilometres) south west from the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is the second largest town in the Vale of Glamorgan, next only to the administrative centre of Barry.
During the Victorian era Penarth was a highly popular holiday destination, promoted nationally as “The Garden by the Sea” and was packed by visitors from the Midlands and the West Country as well as day trippers from the South Wales valleys mostly arriving by train. Today the town and its traditional seafront continues to be a regular summer holiday destination, for predominantly older visitors, but in nowhere near the numbers that were common from Victorian times until the 1960s when cheap overseas package holidays were first introduced.
Although the number of holiday visitors has greatly declined, the town retains a substantial retired population, representing over 25% of residents, but Penarth is now predominantly a dormitory town for Cardiff commuters. The town’s population was recorded as being 23,245 in the United Kingdom Census 2001 although further growth has taken place since then. [1]
The town retains extensive surviving Victorian and Edwardian architecture in many traditional parts of the town and house prices are usually significantly higher than similar properties in nearby Cardiff.
[edit] History
[edit] Derivation of the town’s name
Penarth is a Welsh name and could be a combination of the word: pen meaning head and arth meaning bear, hence ‘Head of the Bear’ or ‘Bear’s Head’. This was the accepted translation for several hundred years and is still reflected in the town’s crest which actually depicts a bear. However it was never fully clear why a bear would be associated with the area, although it was conjectured that a bear could have lived in the once heavily wooded area during medieval times or even that Penarth Head could once have resembled a bear's head before erosion changed its profile. Modern scholars have since suggested that the derivation is more likely to have been shortened from an original “Pen-y-garth”, where garth means cliff, hence ‘Head of the cliff’ or ‘Clifftops’. [2] The true meaning is buried so far back in time that it may never be satisfactorily explained.
In 1803 Penarth is recorded as having between 800 - 900 acres (3.6 km²) of land under cultivation as several farms. Even as late as 1851 Penarth was little more than a small rural farming village since medieval times with just 24 houses and 105 residents [3] being one of five parishes contained within the Hundred of Dinas Powys, with a combined population of just over 300. Before the pier and dock were built there was a tiny fleet of local sail-powered fishing vessels based on the main town beach that tied up on the seafront quayside.
[edit] Victorian developments
Penarth viewed from the channel
The contract for the building of Penarth Dock was placed in 1859 and the dock was opened six years later. By 1861 the number of people in the five parishes had increased to 1,898 and to 3,382 by 1871. In 1875 three of the constituent parishes - Penarth, Cogan, and Llandough - were merged together into the Penarth Local Board, giving a population of 6,228 persons by 1881. This figure had doubled by 1891 with the opening of the railway and had increased even further by 1901 to 14,228 persons. [4]
The town of Penarth thus owes its development to the massive expansion of the South Wales coalfield in the 19th century. Its proximity to Cardiff, which was the natural outlet for the industrial valleys of Glamorgan, and its natural waterfront meant that Penarth was ideally situated to contribute in meeting the world’s demand for Welsh coal through the construction of the docks. [5]
The development of the town continued to be rapid and Penarth soon became self sufficient with its own local government, a thriving shopping centre and many new community facilities. Most of the town's fine architectural features owe their origin to the landowners of the time and the results of their vision can be seen by the many grand buildings and parks which make Penarth what it is today. Thanks to the generosity of those far sighted landowners, Penarth earned its wide reputation as "The Garden by the Sea" because of its beautiful parks and open spaces. Furthermore, many of the buildings and features of the town have led to a substantial part of the town being designated as a Conservation Area because of its Victorian/Edwardian architecture. Penarth's town library was donated by the famous Victorian philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. [6]
A Royal Navy minesweeper was named HMS Penarth after the town in 1918 and survived the last nine months of the First World War, but only served for twelve months when it was sunk off the Yorkshire coast in 1919, by a (probably British) mine.[7] The vessel is remembered on the Royal Navy Memorial at Portsmouth. [8]
[edit] The town today
The coal trade from Penarth docks eventually petered out during the 1950s and up until 1965 the basins were used by the Royal Navy to mothball part of the no longer needed wartime fleet of warships. By 1967, after barely a hundred years of commercial operations, the docks lay unused and derelict, and much of it was used for landfill. In 1987 the new Penarth Marina village opened on the disused docks site. This consisted of some 350 yacht berths, surrounded by extensive modern waterside homes and several marine engineering yards. The Penarth development was one of the key catalysts to the similar redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay] area.
Penarth is one of the most affluent areas in the Vale of Glamorgan and property prices continue to remain high. Marine Parade or 'Millionaire's row', with its grand, substantial Victorian houses or modern designer villas with views across the Bristol channel, is considered to be the finest street in Penarth. Houses in Penarth vary from imposing three storey red brick Victorian houses found on both Plymouth and Westbourne roads to compact stone terraces in Cogan and upper Penarth. Penarth Marina in direct contrast features trendy modern townhouses, apartments and designer penthouses. [9]
[edit] Governance
[edit] Town council
Penarth is split into four electoral wards. Plymouth ward and Stanwell ward are traditional locations for professional families staking a claim in Penarth’s Stanwell School. Cornerswell ward contains both the Cogan community and the Poet's Estate where residents live on roads named after Wordsworth, Milton, Tennyson and Chaucer. The St Augustine's ward does not serve a natural 'community' but extends from the Marina development, over the Penarth Head area through the town centre and old Penarth as far as the junction of Stanwell and Cornerswell Roads. [10] St Augustine's is the only 'split' ward in the town, currently represented by one Labour council member, one Conservative.
The current mayor of Penarth is a Labour Councillor who represents St Augustine's Ward, Cllr. Gwyn Roberts. The Penarth Town Council has been Labour Party controlled since 1991, the current leader is Nigel Gibbs and the deputy leader is Cllr. Rhiannon Birch. The chair of leisure and amenities is Cllr. Ms. Rhiannon Birch and the chair of Planning is Cllr. Mrs Jill Penn, who is also chair of the Vale Local Health Board.
[edit] Westminster
Cardiff South and Penarth is currently represented by Alun Michael JP MP a member of the Labour & Co-operative Party (UK).
[edit] Assembly for Wales
Lorraine Barrett represents Cardiff South and Penarth in the National Assembly for Wales (Labour & Co-operative Party).
[edit] Geography
Penarth lies four miles (6 km) south west of Cardiff and has a road infrastructure that has been much improved in recent years, together with a traditional rail link.
An imaginary line drawn between Lavernock Point, just two miles (3 km) south west of Penarth and Sand Point, Somerset marks the lower limit of the Severn estuary and the start of the Bristol Channel, hence Penarth is technically deemed to be in the Severn estuary and not on the Bristol Channel. Because of the extreme tidal range there are very strong currents or rips close inshore, with speeds that exceed 7 knots (13 km/h), for several hours at each tide. The rise and fall of the tides at Penarth are the second highest recorded anywhere in the world [11] and on occasions when certain moon phases coincide with the Spring and Autumn equinoxes the sea level can overspill the esplanade wall and flood the roadway, particularly if in conjunction with a high wind.
Strata formation - Cliffs near Penarth
The general underlying sub-strata below the land and fields surrounding Penarth is of a limestone that was laid down under a prehistoric warm sea and subsequently ground down by ice age glaciers. [12] This produced the rich, brown and dry soil that provided an ideal growing medium for cereal crops during the medieval farming history of the area. The abundance of limestone was exploited for nearly a hundred years at the Cosmeston quarry that fed the Snocem cement factory in Lower Penarth until it closed down in 1970 and the quarry was converted into Cosmeston Lake at the new country park.
The town is located at the top of cliffs that have a distinctive strata rock formation that is world known and referred to as The Penarth Group of Rocks or Penarth coeval strata wherever it appears in Britain. The Penarth cliffs are made of interspersed layers of limestone and alabaster, both of which are dry and crumbly rocks. The Penarth cliffs contain the largest known outcrop of naturally occurring Pink Alabaster anywhere in the World but, although decorative and highly prized by local gardeners to crown their rockeries, it is considered to be much inferior to the harder and hand-carvable whiter alabasters found elsewhere. [13]
The main problem associated with the dry and crumbly nature of the limestone and alabaster rocks, that make up the cliffs that border Penarth, is the continuing and relentless erosion by the sea. [14] Rockfalls are frequent and walkers using the beach should not walk too close to the base of the cliffs. The cliff has retreated many tens of metres even in living memory, with the area around Penarth Head remaining most at threat and several structures once on the clifftop already having been smashed on the beach below. A reinforced concrete and iron staircase that once led from Penarth Head to the beach, built by the war department just before the First World War, was already destroyed by advancing erosion as long ago as the early 1950s.
[edit] Demography
The latest demographic figures date from the United Kingdom Census 2001. They are now seven years out of date and this should be taken into account. The 2001 data shows: [15]
Population: 23,245
Male: 11,031
Female: 12,214
Average age: 42
Retired: 5,904
Immigrants: 2,814
Degree educated 7,457
Living in households: 22,805
Living in communal establishments: 440
Students away from home: 339
[edit] Economy
There are little in the way of major employers or substantial industry in the town with the majority of employed residents commuting to the commercial and industrial base of nearby Cardiff.
After a recent reversing of the trend to fill the town's shopping area solely with charity shops, Penarth now features a growing collection of boutique stores together with traditional butchers, bakers and greengrocers, bookshops, estate agents and smaller department stores. Shoppers are finally being lured back to the town centre, but although local politicians of all parties have been keen to claim the credit for this, it is more likely to be due to the application of local traders and a general civic pride.
Penarth consequently has a town centre which serves the local community with a wide-range of goods and services. For a relatively small town, the central town area consists of a high-quality selection of food retailers ranging from quality local butchers to several long-standing ethnic food outlets. A local delicatessen owner, Mrs Sian Fox, recently won the 2008 Vale businesswoman of the year award.
The town centre also serves Penarth's many retired residents with a variety of high quality cafes and coffee houses. These cafes offer a wide range of organic and Fair Trade coffees, contributing to Penarth being established as a fair trade town after an initiative by previous mayor Councillor Mark Wilson and the Town Council. [16] The town also has many good quality restaurants featuring either English cuisine or Indian cuisine curry.
The Penarth Chamber of Trade has recently been successfully re-launched and the town centre is now looking more prosperous than it has done for a long time. However, despite town centre improvements, the past thirty years has seen many attractive and imposing seafront Victorian hotels and houses demolished in favour of bland 1960s and 1970s style apartment blocks. The theatre and bars on the town's pier were allowed to fall into neglect and disrepair, although the pier itself remains open to the public. Many of the town's residents have voiced frustration and anger at the apparent neglect of the seafront area and steer much critisism for this at the Vale of Glamorgan local authority, for not doing enough to secure the future development of the esplanade as a continuing asset to the town.
[edit] Landmarks and attractions
Cosmeston Lakes Country Park has been a popular attraction, throughout the year since it was developed in 1970. Apart from the lake and a wide range of water fowl there are acres of pleasant walks in woodlands and on the heath.
Cosmeston Medieval Village is open daily and features historical re-enactments during the summer weekends and on Bank Holidays. The reconstruction of the historical village has been described as the best of its kind in Britain. [17]
Turner House Art Gallery is located at the top end of Plymouth Road and features regular exhibitions. There is also a small art gallery located at the Washington Buildings, a tastefully converted 1930s art deco cinema.
The Paget Rooms hosts dances, occasional pop concerts and plays by local dramatic societies. The 1970s superstar Tom Jones played one of his final UK concerts at the Paget Rooms before moving to America. Top Welsh band Man once recorded a live album at the Paget Rooms, using the famous Decca mobile studio that also recorded The Rolling Stones and today pristine copies of the limited edition vinyl pressing named (incorrectly) "Man - Live at the Padget [sic] Rooms" now change hands for substantial sums of money.
The beach front promenade remains a popular draw for visitors and tourists with its Victorian Italian Garden that displays many unusual palm trees and exotic plants. The surviving element of the original Victorian pier is a summer staging point for the various pleasure steamers, that ply their trade from time to time in the Bristol Channel and the pier is used as a popular winter sea fishing venue. There is also the historic Penarth Yacht Club stood next to the RNLI lifeboat station [18] and its associated shop, together with a wide range of popular cafes and restaurants available on the seafront. The seafront remains unspoiled and uncommercialised with none of the garish and noisy amusement arcades that plague most of the other traditional Victorian holiday resort frontages.
The clifftop walks to the bays of Lavernock, St Mary's Well and Swanbridge with their beaches and the historic hut where Marconi first transmitted radio messages over open sea remain popular with residents and visitors alike. The old trackbed of the railway that once connected Penarth to Cadoxton and Barry Island and was closed by the Beeching Axe is now a rural greenway and cycle track from the Archer Road rail bridge as far as the Fort Road bridge in Lavernock.
[edit] Education
St Cyres Comprehensive School, formerly St Cyres Secondary Modern School has recently been employing a keen focus on its Welsh Baccalaureate programme, where it has led the way in delivering this new qualification, associated to the International Baccalaureate programme. Currently spread over two sites with years seven to nine located in nearby Dinas Powys, St Cyres is hoping to see building work commence soon on its brand new campus that will see all of its 1600 pupils together on a single site, subject to capital funds being provided. St Cyres is extremely competitive within the GCSE results tables, and has produced many successful past pupils including Olympic athletes, musicians, politicians, and university graduates.
Stanwell School, formerly Penarth County Grammar School, is a popular, oversubscribed co-educational comprehensive school for 11 - 18 year olds and benefits from a consistently impressive set of examination results, as well as hosting several large musicals in its imposing modern theatre auditorium. The school has been subject to a substantial investment of several million pounds in new buildings, facilities and equipment in the last few years. Specialist teaching accommodation has been provided for Science (featuring eleven modern laboratories), drama, music, media studies, P.E. (including sports halls), Information Technology, Art and Design Technology. The school currently has approximately 1600 pupils including a thriving sixth form. Exam results are consistantly higher than the national average and most sixth formers continue onto further education at university or college.
Westbourne House Public School is a private preparatory school for ages 7 to 16, but will open its new sixth form department during 2008. Located on Hickman Road the school benefits by having visiting teachers and lecturers from several Cardiff educational establishments.
Primary schools include All Saints Church in Wales Primary, Cogan County Primary, Ysgol Pen-y-garth, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary and Nursery School, Fairfield County Primary, Victoria Road Primary, Albert Road Primary, Evenlode Primary and Llandough Primary School.
[edit] Religious sites
Local church sites are : All Saints Church in Wales is located in Victoria Square. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church is on Wordsworth Avenue. St Augustine's church is just off Church Place on Penarth Headland. Trinity Methodist church is in Woodland Place Tabernacle Baptist Chapel is in Plassey Street Hebron church is on Pill Street, Cogan
[edit] Sports and recreation
Penarth Cricket Club was founded in 1851 and plays in the Premier League.They originally played their home matches at the site where the Masonic Hall now stands on Stanwell Road. The club have now played at their current site at The Athletic Ground on Lavernock Road since 1924 when the site was gifted to the town by the Earl of Plymouth and shares the facilities with Penarth Rugby Club, Penarth Hockey Club, and in recent years, Penarth Lacrosse Club. The cricket club operates 4 regular league sides on a Saturday. The first XI currently plays in the South Wales Premier League. A number of current and former players have played for Glamorgan CCC, and Wales MC, and there have been many players who have gained junior representative honours.
The once-renowned Penarth Rugby Football Club is based at The Athletic Ground, Lavernock Road, Penarth, where it played in the Wales and West Country premier clubs until a league reorganisation in the mid 1980s. Penarth RFC used to host the world-famous Barbarians Football Club each Easter Good Friday, until 1986. This fixture was the start of the "Baa-Baas" annual South Wales tour from the team’s spiritual home of Penarth, which also encompassed playing Cardiff on the Saturday, Swansea on Easter Monday and Newport on the Tuesday. Easter Sunday would see the Barbarians "playing" golf at the Glamorganshire Golf Club, in Penarth, while the grand (but now demolished) Esplanade Hotel, formerly located on the seafront at Penarth would host the gala party for the trip. Penarth has a second and more recent rugby union club Old Penarthians RFC, originally formed out of 'old boys' from Penarth County Grammar School, but no longer applying that restrictive membership criteria.
Penarth currently has two football (soccer) clubs. The longest established is Cogan Coronation AFC, known locally as the ‘Coro’ that was founded in 1960, playing their home games at the Penarth Leisure Centre recreation fields. The senior team currently features in the South Wales F.A. Senior League 1st Division and their best season was 2000/2001 when they finished the year in second position. The club will field eighteen teams at various age groups in the 2007/2008 season. Cogan Coronation players Mark Eley, Liam Beddard and goalkeeper Stewart Owadally have been selected to represent the Football Association of Wales on a number of occasions.
Penarth Town AFC was founded only a handful of years ago and currently plays in Division 2 of the Vale of Glamorgan Senior Football League.
The picturesque Glamorganshire Golf Club is located in Lower Penarth and is considered to be one of the finest golf courses in the Principality. The club regularly hosts the Welsh Open Golf Classic tournament.
Penarth has two tennis clubs. Windsor Lawn Tennis Club is situated in Larkwood Avenue in a residential area. It has 7 hardcourts and a grass court area. Penarth Lawn Tennis Club in Rectory Road is the oldest tennis club in Wales (established 1884) and has 3 hard courts plus grass court area. Both clubs compete regularly in the Tennis Wales South Doubles Leagues and have junior representation in the National Junior Club League and Vale of Glamorgan Mini Tennis Club League.
Cogan Leisure Centre is a modern leisure centre sports venue that provides the town with a full range of sporting facilities including a leisure pool and extensive playing fields. The new Cardiff Sports Village is just under two miles (3 km) from the town centre.
[edit] Public services and facilities
Penarth railway station serves the town and is the terminus of the Penarth branch of the Vale of Glamorgan Line from Cardiff. It is on an extension of the line originally built by the Taff Vale Railway in 1865 to serve the newly-created docks. All services on this line are operated by Arriva Trains Wales as part of the Valley Lines portion of the National Rail network. Dingle Road station is also close to the town centre. The Barry branch of the Vale of Glamorgan line passes through Cogan railway station, near Cogan Leisure Centre.
Penarth is linked to west Somerset and North Devon seaside resorts such as Minehead, Ilfracombe and Lundy Island by the Paddle Steamer Waverley and MV Balmoral, which have sailed from Penarth pier for over 150 years. It is thought that Devon's tourist trade began in the 19th century when the paddle steamers spent weekends cruising the Bristol Channel taking the expanding population of Cardiff from here to places such as Lynmouth, Ilfracombe, Bideford and Clovelly.[citation needed]
[edit] Twin towns
Penarth is twinned with:
 St Pol-de-Leon Brittany, France [19] The town's twinning committee remains very active and many cultural exchanges or joint civic events take place each year. The chair of Penarth's twinning committee is Cllr Mrs Janice Birch.
[edit] Notable people
[edit] Politics
- Clive Jenkins (2 May 1926 – 22 September, 1999) - the British trade union leader who stated in ‘Who’s Who’ that his whole life was dedicated to "Organising the middle classes", which summed up both his sense of humour and his achievements in the British trade union movement, had a second home in the town.
- Amanda Haswell - the Welsh Commonwealth and British Olympic high diver in the 1960s was born in Penarth and attended Penarth Grammar School.
[edit] Entertainment
- Colin McCormack (born December 1941 - died 19 June 2004) - Actor and member of the Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company, famous for his stage, television and film roles over fifty years including Macbeth (1988), The Tempest (1988), Two Gentlemen Of Verona (1999) and Julius Caesar (2002). He was also in the RSC's production of A Clockwork Orange (1990). His TV roles were numerous but included Dixon Of Dock Green (1955 and 1974), Z Cars (1966), Please, Sir (1970), The Sweeney (1975), The Good Life (1978), Yes Minister (1980), Martin Chuzzlewit (1994), Inspector Morse (1987), Casualty (2000) and Longitude (2000). He appeared in several films the latest ones being Let Him Have It (1991) and First Knight (1995). Colin will probably best be remembered by television audiences for his recurring role as Alan in the 1984 science fiction series Chocky and his 1991 stint playing Kevin Masters in Eastenders. He also tutored at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and his students included Ewan McGregor, Alistair McGowan and Daniel Craig. Colin died of cancer aged 63. He was born in Penarth and attended Penarth Grammar School. [20]
- Ross Lovegrove (born 1958) – the internationally known industrial designer, best known for his pioneering work on the Sony Walkman and Apple computers, was born and educated in the town and returns home frequently to visit local family members. [21]
- Paul 'Legs' Barrett - was manager of Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets for ten years until October 1977 and is well known countrywide as a rock and roll promoter, agent and impressario. He has also managed Jerry Lee Lewis's younger sister Linda Gail Lewis. Paul has lived in Penarth all his life and is married to Lorraine Barrett, the town's Welsh Assembly member.
- The Sunsets - Shakin' Stevens's original backing band was formed from mostly Penarth resident musicians, including the long serving bassist David 'Batman' Goddard. The renouned 1950s purist rock and roll band still performs and is still based in the town.
- Danny Chang - the Oscar and BAFTA nominated film music composer, former hit recording artist and pop concert promoter has his home and recording studio on Beach Road in Penarth.
- Phil Jones - the professional bass player and electronics genius that founded the international company, with its headquarters in America, that bears his name Phil Jones Bass and makes expensive high end amplification for artists like 'Sting', 'Pino Palladino' and 'Jimmy Page' was born and brought up in Penarth [22]
- David 'Fingers' Land - original bass player with 1970s chart band Racing Cars who had a top twenty hit with "They shoot horses, don't they?" has lived in Penarth all his life
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- , Census Data
- , Name derivation
- , http://journalism.cf.ac.uk/2005/Student/sjogfh/Portfolio/ward%20profile.html
- , Penarth Historical Data
- , Penarth past and present
- , Carnegie
- , HMS Penarth
- , RN Memorials
- , Penarth Marina website
- , Penarth Wards
- , Tide Information
- , East Glamorgan geography
- , Penarth Group coeval rocks
- , Penarth cliff erosion
- , Census Info
- , Penarth Fair Trade
- , Cosmeston Medieval Village
- , RNLI Penarth
- , Twinning record
- , Colin McCormack obituary
- , Ross Lovegrove
- , Phil Jones Bass
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |
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