The Woollen Mills

If you were asked to produce a list of industries in the village over the past couple of hundred years, you’d probably include the tin works at Melingriffith, the College Ironworks behind the Common or perhaps the industries in Llandaff North and Tongwynlais associated with the canal and the railways

How many, I wonder would include the woollen mills in Ty’n-y-Parc Road?

Who even knows there were two woollen factories alongside the stream by the Masons Arms in the 1870s-80s in this corner of the village?

According to the Tithe Map of 1841, there was a small hamlet of houses and cottages along Ty’n y Parc Road and around the stream, Rhyd-Waelyd. There was a detached farmhouse (later to become Ty’n-y-Parc), a farm on the north side of the road (Glanynant) and Elm Cottage on the south side (later Elm Farm). Around these houses were a few small cottages and an early pub

One of the local landowners at the time was John Homphray, who not only owned land at Tyn-y-Parc, but also around Old Church Road and on the main road from the Vicarage southwards. Terry has discovered that John Homphray had married a daughter of the Marquis of Bute’s land agent and by 1846 had acquired the Penllyn Castle estate in Cowbridge. Perhaps that’s where the name Penlline Road comes from

By 1869, the Cardiff Times newspaper reported that John Homphray was said:
‘to have decided upon building a woollen factory on his own land in Whitchurch which, when completed will give employment to 60-80 men, women and children’

Eleven years later, the 1880 OS map shows that the hamlet had expanded with two woollen factories and a row of semi-detached worker’s cottages (probably single-storey) fronting the main road. They were called Tyn-y-Parc Row. Further buildings nearer the stream look more substantial and might have been manager’s houses, offices or stores

The woollen industry in Whitchurch didn’t last long though. By the 1900 OS map, Tyn-y-Parc Row was still there, but the eastern woollen factory had been replaced by cottages. Additional terraced cottages had been built adjacent to Elm Cottage. By 1921, Tyn-y-Parc Row had disappeared and replaced by the 14 terraced houses we see today on the main road. The buildings behind were intriguingly called Tyn-y-Parc Square!

Census information is fascinating too. In 1861, the local population consisted of workers from Melingriffith with a few agricultural workers. And the local pub was called ‘The Swan’. The local cottages were called ‘Queens Square’ and ‘Park Street’; were these local corruptions from ‘Tyn-y-Parc’?

By 1871, the census refers to ‘The Square, Tyn y Park Road’, and the local population were mainly woollen workers; weavers, spinners (and a dress maker). There were still a few mill workers too

There’s a lovely online article by Dave Hilling, listing his own researches. He tells that the two factories produced flannel, a soft woven fabric. He believes that the western factory (close to where the Masons Arms is now) was the first; it could have been converted from farm buildings, followed by the eastern factory built c1860

By the end of the century, the eastern factory had finished and had been converted into six small cottages, each with a long rear garden with an outside privy at the end. The cottages are still there today as Upper Tyn-y-Parc Terrace. Dave Hilling and his wife lived there in the early 2000s

It’s hard to understand the layout of the area in 1880s, as so little now remains. The wonderful photograph of 1911 from Edgar Chappell’s book shows the view eastwards along Ty’n-y-Parc Road. Today you’d be queuing to turn into the Tesco Garage!

Is the Masons Arms a survivor of that time? The Rhyd-Waelyd brook from the photograph has been re-routed, and Manor Way confuses everything. Glanynant Farm is now the site of the Toby Carvery, with Elm Cottage replaced by the Tesco Garage. Even Tyn-y-Parc (home of Antonio de Lucovich and later the Cory’s) is no more

What happened to the families of woollen weavers and spinners; the Powell’s, the Wilde’s or the Morgan’s? Even Philip Norton with his 2 children and 5 step-children? Did they move away, or did they simply change employment more suited to the changing times?

Are you part of one of these families? Or, does anyone have any information to help grow the lost history of this part of our village?

We’d love to hear from you

 

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