Gwaelod-y-Garth

infobox UK place
country = Wales
welsh_name= Gwaelod-y-Garth
constituency_welsh_assembly= Pontypridd
map_type=
official_name= Gwaelod-y-Garth
unitary_wales= Cardiff
lieutenancy_wales= South Glamorgan
constituency_westminster = Pontypridd
post_town= CARDIFF
postcode_district =CF
postcode_area= CF15
dial_code= 029
os_grid_reference= ST214824
population=

Gwaelod-y-Garth (Welsh for "Foot of the Garth") is a village in the parish of Pentyrch, Cardiff in Wales.

Location

It is situated approx 7 miles north of Cardiff and 7 miles from Pontypridd. Castell Coch, the Fairytale castle of South Wales, is within easy reach of the village, by car or by foot.

History

In Elizabethan times, Gwaelod-y-Garth was noted for its iron-ore mines. The ironworks were first opened between 1565 and 1625, and then re-opened in the 19th century by the Blackmoor Booker company. In the early 1990s, a campaign was held to save the works.

Amenities

Gwaelod-y-Garth has a football (soccer) team that play at the pitch next to the main road coming down from Pentyrch. Other amenities include a small Royal Mail collection point, Garth Tyres' yard and a police car park, where South Wales Police Roads Unit is run from. At the top end of the village, is the village pub, callled, not suprisingly The Gwaelod Y Garth Inn. They stock a wide range of wines, food but most importantly they usually have at least 3 or 4 real ales on tap to sample. Well worth a visit after a long walk across the mountain.Gwaelod y Garth has a strong residents'action group, Community Action, that has fought quarry extension, thus saving the ancient beech woodland on the Lesser Garth and the ironworkings deep in the mountain. Lord Pryce Davies wrote to the group saying, 'The future will be grateful to you'. The residents' group has also achieved an agreement that will lead to heavy quarry lorries being removed from the steep, narrow road to Pentrych, Heol Goch. To this end, a new tunnel has been blasted through from the quarry base to come out on the road between Radyr and Gwaelod y Garth. A planned ashphalt plant was also halted by the community group.

Residents

Famous residents of Gwaelod-y-Garth include:
*Jane Davidson, Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government;
*Harpist Catrin Finch and her husband Hywel Wigley;
*Dr. Mary Gillham, one of the first women to visit Antarctica in 1959; and
*Steffan Davis, lead guitarist of popular welsh band "Nos Sadwrn Bach".

ee also

*Garth Mountain

External links

* [http://www.gwaelod-y-garth.org.uk/ Gwaelod-y-Garth community website]
* [http://www.ccpentyrch.fsnet.co.uk/gwaelodcard.htm Pictures of Gwaelod-y-Garth]
* [http://www.ccpentyrch.fsnet.co.uk/cwlwm56/page6.html Report on the iron workings]
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=2779430 www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Gwaelod-y-Garth and surrounding area]