Here is an introduction to local Grangetown history. We hope to add more features and would welcome any stories, articles, memories or photographs. Please email

PART ONE: Here is Grangetown history from the early days to the area's growth in the Victorian age to the first few decades of the 20th century. We hope to add more features and would welcome any stories, articles, memories or photographs. Please email us.

Go to PART TWO for 1930s and Second World War; Transport, Shops, Sport and Entertainment

We're also developing a PART THREE - an index of streets, hopefully with reference details for those interested in family history. We'll add this when it's further developed. Thanks for those far and wide who make inquiries, we try to assist when time allows.

Thanks to Peter Ransom and the Grangetown Local History Society for their help, especially with photographs and also to those members and others at home and abroad who have added memories and stories. If there are any copyright issues we are unaware of, please let us know and we will gladly give a credit/amend etc. As this section has been growing rapidly and there are more articles to publish, we've divided it up into two sections to make it a little easier to read.

For those interested in local history, the Grangetown Local History Society meets every month at the Grangetown Library, Havelock Place, on the first Wednesday of month (2.15pm-4.15pm - all welcome - bring photos along if you have them). The society also publishes popular calendars of historical scenes every Christmas. It is on sale, costing £2, from Grangetown library and other local shops. There are also two published illustrated books in the Images Of Wales series by Tempus publishing, Grangetown (compiled by Barbara Jones) and Grangetown The Second Collection (compiled by Ian Clarke). Copies can be found in the local library, bookshops and you should be able to order via Amazon. There is also a Tales Of Old Grangetown DVD, by Ian Malcolm, which is reviewed below.

'Our grange near the town of Kaerdiff'

Grangetown's oldest surviving building - Grange Farm - is a reminder that both the building and the area which took its name can be traced back 800 years to medieval times.

The Cistercian monks of Margam Abbey (near modern day Port Talbot) established a grange to farm the land in the early 13th century, off what is modern day Clive Street. It was an outpost, and legend has it that they were sent there as penance for drinking and gambling! Moor Grange was reputedly built at some time between 1193 and 1218 and ran to 100 acres. The monks had been granted land at Margam in the mid 12th century, with the abbey founded with the help of Robert, son of King Henry I and by the end of the century Henry Bishop of Llandaff had granted to the abbey all land nearby "in more de Kardif," in return for an annual rent.

According to a short history of Grange Farm, put together from local records in the 1940s by J Cleary Martin, details of the land emerge again in 1329 in the reign of Edward III. Noblemen sitting at a court at Cardiff Castle heard a land dispute involving the Abbot of Margam and the recently departed Lord of Cardiff, Gilbert de Clare, killed at Bannockburn. The abbot had a dispute with Clare over land at Kenfig (near modern day Bridgend) but the judgement in the monks' favour also mentions "the grange on the moor near Kardif."

The Grange of Luquyth (Leckwith) by the end of the 15th century had 400 sheep and 100 cattle and the abbey leased out the farm through Jasper Tudor (Henry VII's brother) to Griffith ap Meuric. The records also showed 7s 1d was paid for taking "17 loads of hay from the abbot's Grange" to the lord in Cardiff.

Lewis ap Richard was the last farmer to lease from the abbey. His agreement from the monks stated - "know ye that we have delivered to Lewis ap Richard, esquire, our grange near the town of Kaerdiff, commonly called More Grange, with the end term of 90 years. " £6 13s and 4d was payable on the feast of the Anunciation, along with 4s a year to the Bishop of Llandaff and two acres of hay to the abbot. Lewis was also responsible "to suitably repair and maintain" the grange, house, sea walls, weirs, ditches and fences.

But with the dissolution of the monastries by Henry VIII, Abbot John of Margam was pensioned off and the farm passed to the Lewis family (of Van, Caerphilly) in 1537. In 1547, Edward Llewelyns was farmer with the same rent Lewis ap Richard had paid. By 1595, rent had dropped to 44 shillings a year, showing the farm had declined somewhat - "messuage (house and outbuildings), one barn, one parcel of land, meadow and pasture called the Graing de Moore."

By 1638, "the manor land they called the Grange Marshes," was 300 acres, each with a yearly value of 4d. It was "bounded by the higher lands of Penarth in the west, the Severne shore on the south, and the River Tave on the east, and the common lands of Leckwith in the north."

Forward a couple of centuries and the land passes onto the Earl of Plymouth and a long association with one family. The Morgans started running the farm for the Plymouth estate in about 1835. In 1851, the tenant farmer was Thomas Morgan, then 39, who had been born at St Fagan's. He lived there with his wife Mary 44, and their four daughters Eleanor, Jane, Ann and Mary and two sons the eldest William, 14, and one-year-old Thomas. They also had a teenage girl servant and 15-year-old agricultural worker living at the farm.

By 1881, we find the 120-acre dairy farm being run by the Morgan's third daughter Ann and husband Samuel Burford. The Grange Dairy provided milk locally, while the farm also kept animals and a coal business. Not long before her death, Doris Burford, who still lived at the farm in 1987 recalled her 78 years born and bred there. As a girl, she got up at 4am to start the milk round, first in a horse and cart, eventually in a van. "It used to be dark getting the horse out of the stable - I was a bit frightened," she recalled to the Echo. "We used to sell the milk straight from the shed - now a garage - until the rules came in that it had to be pasteurised."

"Everyone would come to the house - it was the only one for miles. It used to be the life and soul of the place," said Doris. The farm was taken over by her nephew Peter Farr, who in 1996 made a deal with relatives to make sure the property would stay in the family and its importance to local heritage be preserved. Despite the terraced streets built on its old land, the farm building still survives today, with some original features inside. It is Grade II listed. The Victorian library building, set to be preserved as converted flats in 2008, is a pleasant neighbour.

Full steam ahead for king coal and Cardiff

Cardiff was a fairly insignificant market town until the 19th century. Its population was barely 1,900 - and at the start of the industrial revolution, it was still dwarfed by the iron town of Merthyr Tydfil and copper town Swansea. Under successive Marquesses of Bute, who inherited estates and land, Cardiff's importance grew as its docks and railways were built and it became the world's pre-eminent port for coal for steam ships. The population rapidly grew to 165,000 by 1901, with 20,000 new homes built in the last two decades of the Victorian age.

Rapid growth

In the first few decades of the 19th century, Grangetown would have been a few houses but it also had pockets of industry. The David and Sloper tannery opposte the site of the present Sevenoaks Park, a brick yard (Durham-born Samuel Stubbs, the brickyard engineer, lived in the house there with his family in 1861), and a rope works.

The railway was a predecessor of today's suburb and along with the river Taff defines its boundary. Some say this enclosure helps modern Grangetown retain something of its old "village" atmosphere.

The village of Lower Grangetown was first to grow (with Clive Street, Holmesdale Street, Kent Street, Worcester St, Amherst, Bromsgrove, Knole, Sevenoaks and Hewell Streets) and was well established between the 1860s and 1880s. The Grange National School opened in 1864.

An Estate Act of 1857 had allowed Lady Windsor to mortgage farmland to raise money for new roads and what was regarded as the city's best drainage and sewage system. Long leases on land were sold to a patchwork of builders and speculators to develop new housing for workers. There was originally hope of developing Grangetown as an industrial area, with workers living close by, but this never really took off and it became a commuter area for the Docks. M J Daunton's study of the Windsor records between 1857 and 1875 found that Grangetown's progress was hit by a city-wide housing slump at one point, with the developments taking a long time to break even, with suitable returns for the builders and landlors. He said it was piecemeal progress involving "many hands over many years." Between 1873-74, he lists 10 different builders in Holmesdale Street and Amherst Street alone.

Upper Grangetown - known for years too as Saltmead - was slower to develop. A few streets, chiefly North Street and Thomas Street off Penarth Road, were built by the start of the 1860s and home to many Irish immigrants. The majority of streets, off Cornwall Street and North Clive Street and to the railway, were constructed for the thousands of migrant workers in the late 1880s and 1890s, as Cardiff expanded.

These two distinct areas of Grangetown were linked by Clive Street and crossed by Penarth Road. The old Moors Road (later Clare and Corporation Roads), ran parallel to the Taff although not all the way to Butetown in the mid 1880s.

1871-1878 - DISEASE AND DISTRESS The north of Grangetown in particular had strong Irish and Catholic links. The census of 1871 for Thomas Street shows us a number of Irish immigrants, who'd settled with their families, many of them labourers with work in the developing town. Typical is Thomas Fitzgerald, 45, a labourer with his wife and seven children, all born locally. Neighbours include Ryans and Donovans. There are also some brickmakers - which perhaps would tally with the brickworks in Sloper Road. There's a pub at No 22 - The Penarth Dock run by Christopher Griffith, 37, unusually, a Cardiff native, who lived there with his Swansea-born wife and four young daughters. Another pub, the Grange Inn in Francis Terrace first appears in the '61 census, run by a Daniel Francis. By 1871 it is run by a widow from Durham. Living at 67 Francis Street (it was later renamed Franklen Street in the 1890s, while there is also a Frances Street in Butetown, just to confuse you!) are three families brought up in Cardiff and headed by Irish-born labourers, John Pat Moricy, 45, his wife Mary and their six children, aged from one to 20 - including 14-year-old Patrick, already a labourer; John and Alice Cronin also had six children and James O'Brien and his three young children. To give us an idea of some of the conditions is this report from September 1873. Eleven householders were summonsed to court for continual overcrowding in their properties. Magistrates were told that the area was thickly populated and typhoid was spreading, with seven cases reported recently. The Western Mail report doesn't name the streets, only giving the area as Upper Grangetown. The censuses puts the families in the Thomas Street, Havelock Street and Rosemary Street areas. Thomas Donahue was found to have 18 people living in his three-bedroomed house, which was deemed fit for six. Cornelius Driscoll had 11 in his similar-sized property. Michael Mahony, his wife and five children shared their house with another seven people - with the home only fit for half that number. The Western Mail reports that the inspector when he visited Patrick Morris' house found three families, of 18 people, with every room used as a bedroom. "The place was so foul I could hardly enter it." Jeremiah Regan had a household of 14, including his wife and eight children. In 1878, with economic problems in the south Wales valleys acute - many mines shut or on short time - and even Cardiff "suffering the pinch of poverty after three years depression", charitable collections, poor relief and soup kitchens were springing up for struggling working families. The Western Mail noted however: "It's somewhat remarkable, however, that no public movement has been set on foot for the relief of the people of Grangetown. Here, the inhabitants seem to be in greater want than in other parts of the borough. The iron works having been closed, many out of work as a natural consequence, and poverty is compelling a number of people to adopt all sorts of measures for obtaining some kind of livelihood." Later in the year, the paper found several people from Grangetown using the soup kitchen set up on the corner of St Mary Street and Penarth Road..."their wants being of an extreme character. A few casual inquiries in that neighbourhood led the manager (of the soup kitchen, Theophilus Jones) to believe that a vast amount of distress exists there." I came across quite an interesting account of the end of the 19th century in a St Patrick's parish magazine, dated from 1948. In it, C Sexton recalls seeing in the new century at a special midnight mass. "We were all glad to see the old century go. Times had been hard, there had been strikes and unemployment and in the fall of 1899, we had started the South African war that was to drag on for the next three years. "In those days we had no electricity, very few houses had gas, the good oil lamps, many of them with beautiful shades were in most use. I saw the first electric car driven from the Clare Road sheds in 1901. In those days, Solly Andrews' horse-driven tram cars and buses were the means of transport...very few houses had baths and hot water." The article also recalls as well as theatre and music hall in town, locally there were two concerts a year at St Patrick's school rooms - including an Irish concert on St Patrick's Day. Father Brady would also give a lantern lecture on his trips to Rome. The writer also said it was still a few years before Grangetown library opened, and children relied on teacher Mrs Butler's own small collection of books, including favourites like Jules Verne. Possibly proving that things come around, writing in 1948 - just after the war years - it was noted: "One thing you do not see in these days, but were seen frequently then were the number of drunken folk about at closing time, Saturday nights and when a big football match was on." Shops were also open until about 8pm every day, and Fridays and Saturdays untl 9, 10 or 11. Pubs were open at 6 or 7 in the morning, until 11pm at night - midnight on Saturdays. The old Thomas Street was demolished in the 1970s and new housing replaced it. Madras Street disappeared to make way for St Patrick's School.

In 1875, Grangetown became a Cardiff suburb, although there were still fields separating it from the town centre. The two parts of Grange were still distinct - Saltmead in the north, named after the salty marshland; and lower Grange to the south.

The biggest spurt in building came in the 1880s and 1890s and by 1901, the suburb had a population of 17,000 - effectively the same as it is today.

The city's most prominent and grandest builders of the period were Grangetown-based, E Turner and Sons in Havelock Place. As well as homes, schools and churches across Cardiff, they were responsible for City Hall and Civic Centre. The company remained there until 1993, when they moved to Cathedral Road and the offices and cottages were demolished for new housing.

1878 - A FIRE AND A FIREARM The Cardiff to Penarth railway officially opened this year. And it caused something of a problem one July night in Grangetown, when hot cinders from a passing train were blamed for starting a fire which burnt down half of the rope works, backing onto the track. Messrs Elliott and Sons, which was owned by Alderman J Elliott, made rope out of hemp - just off Penarth Road. At 3am on the night of the 17th July, a watchman at Grangetown gas works opposite spotted the fire. It had taken hold of the wooden buildings which housed the machinery and store of hemp. The manager, Sunderland-born Samuel Waugh, 37, who lived on site with his wife and three children, was roused and sent his teenage son Robert - later the assistant manager - for the constable. The steam-driven fire engine with nine of the fire brigade had arrived within 20 minutes. The best they could do was save the engine house, new rope shed and the manager's own house. "Whenever the flames burst through, the smell from the burning hemp was so strong that anyone approaching was driven back by the choking sensation coming from the inhalation of smoke," reported the South Wales Daily News. The rope yard, machines and hemp waiting for tarring were destroyed, with just "ironwork bent and broken left" and damage estimated at £1,500. Luckily, they were insured. Cinders had started grass fires on the embankment earlier in the summer. "It is supposed that a hot coal from one of the engines on the Penarth railway had fallen on the roof of the wooden shed and set it on fire." An incident in September, which attracted local concern, was the tragic death of 15-year-old Irish-born Patrick Shea, the eldest of five children of a Cork labourer who lived in Havelock Place (then Street) in upper Grangetown. He had been playing with two friends when they came across another youth, who had been left looking after a double-barrelled shotgun for a man and his companion. They had left him to pick up a boat so they could reach starlings on the other side of the banks of the River Taff. It seems the boys made dart for the gun, not thinking it was loaded, and it led to Patrick's friend, a boy known as Desmond, shooting him in the head, as they played with it. "The case attracted considerable interest and the police station was surrounded by a large number of inhabitants" for the inquest in Grangetown, reported the Daily News. Desmond ran for Sgt Abram Murley, and told the police officer "I fired it..it hit another boy in the neck, he is bleeding very much." When Sgt Murley reached the river, the boy was already dead. Desmond had been a neighbour and play-mate of Patrick's for years. The inquest jury returned a verdict of misadventure, but criticised the older man who left the gun with the boy. They also raised the issue of gun licence laws."If a little effort was made, many cases of evading the law would be discovered and many persons would be found using guns for which they had not possession of a licence."

The Square in Holmesdale Street, with the rather ornate public convenience in the centre - and how the area looks today.
Move your mouse over the old photo for a colour contemporary image

1881 - A SNAPSHOT Holmesdale Street to many is the heart of Grangetown, stretching from Grange Gardens to Ferry Road, with a network of terraces off it, with shops and local schools. Back in 1881, who lived there? The census in that year shows a Londoner, Edward Smith ran the Plymouth Hotel at one end of the road with his wife and five children living there, with three servants and a nurse employed. Living nearby were migrant workers from Somerset, Gloucester and other parts - builders, two blacksmiths next door to each other - one who had a game-keeper as the lodger, one Robert Iles, 50. An iron moudler father and son, Thomas Gillard, one of two nearby grocers (and another native of Somerset) - his neighbours, Fred Denham a railway clerk and cab driver Alfred Gough were also from the west country. There were also two green grocers, including Eleanor Wilkie, 60, a widow and mother of two, whose teenage son John was a seaman. At No 48, there was another grocer, Owen Jones, 70, a native of Aberaeron, while at No 78, is the appropriately named William Hook, the butcher, 54, and yet another from Somerset. George Blake ran the Lord Windsor pub at No 47 - which shut a few years ago and is currently facing demolition. There are plenty of dock labourers and coal trimmers (loading coal onto ships) of course. Showing the distances people had travelled, is mariner David King, a native of Sydney, Australia, who had moved from Cornwall with his wife and son, while having a young daughter after their move to Cardiff. You can find more on the 1881 Census under District 28b, Llandaff. FEBRUARY 1886 - BURNING EFFIGIES OF POLICEMAN AND HIS LADY Something of a scandal amused Grangetown residents, after a local policeman became infatuated with the wife of the keeper of the York Club, near the Plymouth pub in Clive Street. The woman in her 30s, and "very dressy" had been linked with a member of the club and had left her husband. The policeman, who had served in Grangetown for three or four years and was recently widowed, then became "much too friendly" with the club keeper's wife. The Western Mail reported that her estranged husband spoke with the constable, who insisted "he would keep her in the defiance of everybody."" His infatuation led to his neglect of duty, which led to an appearence before the watch committee and his resignation. Some of the "young and fun-loving members of the club" took to preparing to burn two effigies of the couple, whose dress was paid for by the husband. The policeman had blue coat and hat and his lover, with a "showy hat and huge feather." A procession marched through lower and upper Grangtown, accompanied by tambourine, cow horn, pans and kettles. A doggerel rhyme and shouts of "We'll hang old...on a sour apple tree." They marched onto Tressilian Terrace, where the couple now lived, and burnt the effigies on waste ground. The procession was repeated on the following Monday evening, although this time a policeman intervened and took the effigy of the wife. He was followed by a crowd down St Mary Street, with the effigy under his arm, and inquiries made "as to the nature of the offence committed by the prisoner, so tenderly taken in charge."

Clare Road, from Penarth Road and then (below), Penarth Road near the Clare Road junction. The old Penarth Road methodist church on the corner has been replaced by a supermarket after first closing and then being badly damaged by fire in the 1970s.

Corporation Road was a main thoroughfare, although the Butetown end of the road (behind this image) was only developed comparatively late. Today, there are more cars of course and no tramlines.

JULY 25-26 1886 - A BRIDGE TOO FAR Two nights of disturbances in Grangetown made the national news, as workers held a mass demonstration against tolls being introduced on the road linking the suburb with their workplaces in the docks. It centered on a swing bridge at the Old Sea Lock over the Taff in Penarth Road, linking Grangetown with the docks. It was a private road leased by the Taff Vale Railway Co and which had cost £60,000 to build in 1861. Suddenly the company wanted to enforce its rights. Working men were to be charged a penny for walking over the bridge, and the toll rose for those with animals or in carriages. The Western Mail reported that almost every resident of Lower Grangetown was against the toll, which would lead to hardship and inconvenience in many cases. By the first day, around 100 householders had already decided to give notice to move, because they could no longer afford to live in the area - and the paper mooted that if this continued, the area would soon become "a deserted village". By 5.15pm on the toll's first day, feelings were running high and crowds of men, women and children headed towards the toll-gate, as workmen started heading for home from the Docks. When workers returned again that evening, a crowd of about 1,000 gathered again and a group of ship's carpenters took the gate off its hinges and threw it into the river.The Times reported that 1,000 men took part in the protests each day against the railway company. There had been "upmost good humour" for the most part, as 200 police stood by, but then there was direct action. "They rushed at the newly-erected toll gate and tore it from its hinges, throwing the structure in the river." The first gate was replaced the following day, as well as a sentry box for the toll-keeper. The toll house was also damaged. The paper later publishes court reports of three men who were arrested for causing the damage, costing £5 - Cornelius Dacey, William Smith and William Webb, all under 23. Police were also after another man called William Drew, who was heard to shout "Go it boys, that's right, pull it off!" The court was told of "200 armed navvies with iron bars up their sleeves." The three were found guilty and the judge expressed sorrrow at having to sentence them to a month's hard labour. There were attempts to resolve the issue, before and after the direct action. The matter was raised at a public meeting on July 20th at Clive Hall, chaired by Mr Alderman Jones, in which it was agreed to send a deputation to the company. But the bureaucracy and resistance by the company prevailed. By the time the toll was brought in the following week, some of the 600 men who daily used the bridge decided to take the long route via Penarth Road and Bute Street or catch a tram, rather than pay the toll. They even tried to start a ferry service, costing a halfpenny. After the mini-riot, negotiations continued between borough and company, which eventually led to a commuting of the toll for foot passengers, as the company were unwilling to sell the bridge and road to the corporation. Problems continued and the head at St Patrick's School noted in August a fall in pupil numbers - "many families are leaving the neighbourhood owing to the enforcement of the toll in Lower Grange." The same in November, with the situation having "made a great difference to the attendance of the school, many families having removed in consequence." But the men won an eventual victory. It led to the corporation building the Clarence Road and James Street swing bridges, and the railway company's bridge was dismantled within 10 years.

Joshua Bann (standing right) and his butcher's shop in Kent Street/Holmesdale Street, about 1902. He opened the shop in 1896 and his son Harry, pictured next to him carried on until 1951. His daughter Lal later married another butcher, Jack Harris of Corporation Road. It's now a private residence.

1895 - GRANGE GARDENS

We owe much of today's parks to the Victorians and patronage. Grange Gardens was a gift to Cardiff in 1894 by Lords Bute and Windsor, who owned the land on which it stands. Just over 9,000 square yards belonged to Bute and 5,764 square yards came from the Windsor estate. The bandstand cost £2,374 and was constructed at the same time as one in Victoria Park. However, it was complicated by the fact the wrong foundations were laid for the bandstand in Grangetown. "Grangetown Gardens" were opened on June 19th 1895 by councillor Joseph Ramsdale, the chairman of the parks committee. "A very large number of the inhabitants of Grangetown" gathered for the ceremony and the mayor proposed a toast to Lord Bute and Lord Windsor. Mr D A Burn's Roath brass band entertained with a selection of tunes. There was also a celebratory dinner later.

Above is an Edwardian photo of Grange Gardens with the original bandstand. See the little boy tying his shoelaces before joining his friends in the background. The war memorial was added in 1921 at a cost of £1,000. Was this lad in the photo one of the ones who returned safely? Interestingly, a plaque was added in 2000 in memory of Private W Langstone, whose body was only found nine years after the end of the war and who was missing from the memorial. Surviving members of his family attended the ceremony, along with representatives of many service organisations. A further plaque to later Grangetown war dead has been added.

There is now the bowling club building on the right and a children's playground on the left, while the trees are more mature. The gardens celebrated its centenary with new trees, fences, a relaid path and improved children's equipment. The bandstand is a replica of the original, which had been dismantled in the early 1960s. The new one cost £324,000 and it was finally opened with a ceremony - and plenty of music - in 2000. A replacement to the drinking fountain, taken away during the war, also returned to the park at the same time.

1891-1901 - SALTMEAD GROWS UP, A LITTLE FORGOTTEN This block of cottages in Court Road, along with a grocers and butchers's shop on either corner, were built in 1891-92 by builder David Davies. The homes and shops opposite were built by WT Ellery four years before. You have to look hard these days to find evidence that Saltmead as a place, ever existed. Which is a shame, as a case has been made for an area which developed semi-independently from Grangetown. Saltmead Baptist Hall was built in 1901, on the corner of Hereford Srreet and Avoca Place - there is now a modern replacement building. We still have a Saltmead surgery in Clare Road. But the name seems to have dropped out of use and fashion. Local historian Colin Weston made the argument in his short history of Saltmead, which appeared in Grange News in 1981. For him, Saltmead was a "forgotten district of Cardiff". It became known as Upper Grangetown sometime in the 1930s, as Saltmead was swallowed up. "Unlike Tiger Bay, Saltmead was a real place, yet in many ways it was very similar to the Bay. Many different races settled in Saltmead, men gambled on street corners, police walked around the area in pairs. Here and there some households had donkeys in their back kitchens and pigs in the passage. The roads were very empty in the early days, except for the horse and carts of the milkman, coalman and the local builders." Saltmead is quite evocatively described in a memories column from an old Cardiff newspaper in 1940, looking back to when the houses were built on former farmland behind Clare Road for £120 each - a bigger yield from the rents of the growing migrant workforce than brought off farming the land. Rents were charged of six shillings a week - nearly a third of the working man's not always regular income. It admits that they could suffer wage loss due to rain or frost and looked elsewhere. "Old Salt" writes: "In days gone by, owing to the influx of new workers, promised employment in the town and unable to find it, the practice arose of these workers hawking coal with donkey carts. The cart was parked in the roadway at night but the donkey was led through the passage and stabled for the night in the kitchen." It is not hard to imagine those builders' carts, when you look at how Saltmead quickly developed from the end of the 1880s. It was not without its problems - builders' strikes, short-term housing slump and problems with drainage from building on marshy land. In July 1890, Stephenson and Alexander (agents still in existence today) held an auction at the Royal Hotel. It included 70 lots of building land for development. These included part of Allerton Street and what is now called Sussex Street (then Staughton Street), and a large tract of land between Somerset Street, Compton Street and Hereford Street, off Court Road, which was offered as either land for industrial development or "small houses...which would easily secure tenancy." The roads and sewers had already been put in place; all was needed was the houses. There were also 35 houses offering rents totalling £189 5s 7d. One house in Dorset Street, commanded a rent of £1 6s and 8d, while a bakehouse on the corner of Staughton Street and Court Road was worth £6, 8s. However, an earlier sale in 1887 had attracted "meagre" interest according to the Western Mail, and proceedings were called to a halt after low prices for some building land in Court Road. Court Road, as an example, with its late Victorian terraced homes is a fascinating snapshot of this piecemeal development, as well as how people moved to Cardiff. The road started to be built in the 1880s. At first glance, it's just another terraced street but you quickly notice the different styles to the houses along it, reflecting the numbers of builders involved and the time it took to complete. You can still see the date 1887 over the doorway of Number 8 and this end of the road was mostly developed from this time, but it was slow progress. Building continued off and on over the next eight years. Houses had sculleries and kitchens, and the plans show outside toilets and coalhouses. Some of the corner shops had stables for up to four horses and coach-houses. Typically of the area, a number of different builders were involved: Llewellyn Thomas built more than a dozen homes and shops in Court Road between 1887-88, but others like W T Ellery, David Davies, Alfred Dando and Llewellyn Preece built smaller numbers. The Court Road School also stood where the newer homes off Rutland Street and Courtmead Gardens stand today, opening in 1893. In 1893, there was a bit of a "stink" over refuse being buried in Grangetown's open spaces, which were the new building sites. There was a difference of opinion between Cardiff's public health official and surveyor. The former believed it was "very undesirable" to make use of "offensive refuse" from elsewhere in the town, but the latter argued "a man might as well object to the use of manure in his garden." He believed that a similar burial of "carefully selected" waste at Ely Common had not been a health hazard. There was nothing wrong with vegetable matter, offal and filth finding its way under the new houses. But it certainly aroused enough controversy to need a public meeting. The "Man About Town" column in the Echo poured scorn on the "pathetic touch" of "indignation of the good people of Grangetown having their new homes built on refuse." Interestingly, by the early 1890s, local councillor SA Brain had been complaining about the "swamp" in Saltmead, so much so, that he believed he was regarded as a nuisance at the authority. These problems with the new housing by 1898 became known as"Saltmead swamp" scandal. Cardiff's medical officer found drainage and health problems due to some homes being built on clay, with stagnant water under the floors. Dry rot had affected the woodwork, with damp in the walls. The Western Mail criticised the situation, questioning the planning process and builders, saying the "poor were being choked out of existence in the Saltmead swamp." "The fool who built his house upon the sand was a wise man by comparison with the builders of certain streets in Saltmead." Homes were slowly rotting away, "built on filth" - on pools of stagnant water and ditches. A cattle market would be cleaner, "and a prison brighter, healthier and purer", said the Mail. The reporter found 30 empty houses, boarded up in Stoughton Street, some tenants moving upstairs to live. There were another 14 empty houses in Hereford Street, 16 in Saltmead and Court roads and six in Allerton Street. One town engineer had tried to blame the rough neighbourhood and tenants "knocking about" their homes. But the reporter could see why some would have looked for distractions in the pub and elsewhere due to the "noxiousness" of the place they call 'home.' The borough inspectors visited houses in Compton Street, Somerset Street and Saltmead Road. As well as finding a list of building and drainage defects, they saw tenants with symptoms of rheumatism. But they also found that not all homes were affected and there was evidence of maltreatment of houses by "careless and indifferent" tenants. Councillors visiting the area found workmen on roofs and in backyards in Court Road and Compton Street, where bricks were simply crumbling away in some houses. One resident complained of rats and how his wife could not keep their children's feet dry indoors in wet weather. Feet sank in the backyard at another home in the street "several inches into the sodden, ill-smelling soil." A floorboard was taken up underneath a house in Court Road and 3ft beneath was a mass of foul-smelling slush. The issue was enough to create concerns for the housing planned for the roads laid out between the Taff and Clare Road - now Taff Mead, which had been used to bury refuse and where children used to swim and skate on ponds. The censuses of 1891 and 1901 are wonderful tools for giving a snapshot of what Grangetown was like more than a century ago. The area today is profoundly multi-cultural, not just with Asian and African communities, but with eastern European migrants and a population which changes by around a fifth every five years. At the end of the 19th century, the growth of Cardiff as a city was driven not just by the general population rise, but by the migrant workers who moved from rural parts of Wales and England, other towns and cities and Ireland. Saltmead, provided housing for a time when the town's population grew rapidly. The 1891 census shows Court Road partly developed with around 50 homes - many of those living there are workers who had moved from Somerset, Gloucester, Bristol and other rural areas. The Clare Road-side of the terrace seems to include a number of railway workers, but there are trades ranging from blacksmith, butcher, groom to tailor and sawyer. A few homes also took in lodgers and boarders. William Causey, a Devon-born carpenter lived with his wife and four children, all under four - but also took in two boarders from his home town, who were plumbers! By 1901, the pattern of workers settling in the boom town continues, although by now the whole road has been constructed. Into one of the last block of homes to be built were Devon-born James Youlden, 48, who was a boildermaker's helper. He lived with his wife Elizabeth, 42, born in Gloucestershire, and their three sons, aged 13 to 16, all born in Cardiff. The family had moved from nearby Devon Street, where the two youngest were born. The eldest Robert worked as a waiter in the railway rooms. Another Sam later became an engine driver, according to local records. Next door one side lived Charles Davies, 51, a stonemason, and wife Mary, 56, both originally from Ross-on-Wye. Their four children included the eldest, Mary, 21, a "domestic" and son John a butcher's assistant. The other side of the Youldens was tailor Richard Giles and his wife Emily, both 38, orginally from Monmouth and their two children. Other neighbours of the Davies family were John Reed, 40, who was a more recent migrants. He was born in Hong Kong, while his wife Annie, 40, was a Londoner. They had brought their eldest daughter from London, but youngest Olive, six, was born in Cardiff. Living next-door to them is water clerk Godwin Palmer, 33, wife Cicily, 29 and three young children. They were another couple from Monmouth. Court Road has only one shop today, but at the end of the 19th century - before cars - it was a busy mix of shops and terraced homes. In 1899, according to the Western Mail's Cardiff directory of the time we find five grocers, three butchers, two green grocers, a newsagent, other unnamed shops. Edward Ribton's fried fish shop is now a mid-terrace house a block away from the surviving corner shop. By 1890, the first few homes had been built on Cornwall Street, Court Road, Allerton Street and Hereford Street, but other streets would follow within a few years. It's not a surprise then that street names like Cornwall, Hereford, Somerset, Monmouth and Devon appeared in this part of upper Grangetown. Other names were eventually changed - Staughton Street became Jubilee Street and Sussex Street, Saltmead Road became Stafford Road.

Foulkes' shoe shop in Holmesdale Street in 1914. Nowadays you can only get sole - it's the Holmesdale Street Fish Bar! Before that in the 1880s, sign-writer Edwin Johns lived there. Pictured right is an advert for the barber's in Clare Road - now a private house.

MAY 1893: "That business, pure and simple, appeared to be consuming as much beer as they possibly could" The Hotel de Marl, as photographed by GH Lawrence of Cardiff. It was seen as remarkable at the time, and it looks pretty odd even today - but hundreds of Grangetown men got around the Sunday drinking laws in 1893 by founding an open-air "gentlemen's club." Pits were dug 8ft deep in the clay ground of The Marl to form the walls, carpet was laid out and up to 400 men sat around, as beer was poured freely from casks from 7am until 9pm at night. No alcohol could be officially sold, but members made "donations," with sixpences and pennies collected in old copies of the South Wales Echo. By all accounts, this arrangement was fairly observed and the men were impeccably behaved. As one of the organisers said, likening the activity to the champagne drunk in the private members County Club in Westgate Street: "Them pays as likes and we all drink square." Police intervened when it started but when the organisers appeared in court, they proved to magistrates they were not breaking the law. This ensured an even bigger crowd for the following Sunday. The Echo's correspondent joined the group for refreshment at the "Hotel de Marl" on May 7. The reporter found 70 men, seated in a cresent shape in two rows, with the chairman of the gathering, known as "Jeremy." The report says: "He occupied an elevated position on a 4.5 gallon cask of double X beer (empty)...a man called 'Bill', humourous, red-whiskered and as it transpired, strictly law-abiding character, acted as drawer". He filled the men's decanters while they, from time to time, put money into a "tattered" copy of Saturday's Echo. Fresh supplies were brought from a licenced drink wholesalers in nearby Clive Street. It was estimated a 4.5 gallon cask was consumed every 20 minutes. The reporter, on the edge of the pit, was "good humourly" invited down and offered a glass of beer. "One glass of that beer was enough for anyone who really valued a good draught of the national breweries." "The civility of the crowd was no less remarkable than their determination to obey, while this consented to be the law and to avoid creating a nuisance and a scandal," said the correspondent. He said there were "no loafers or corner boys," juveniles were ordered away and the majority of the crowd were "working class masons, fitters, engineers, a few dockers and sailors." He added: "If questioned, I should positively deny that the men I saw were idlers, or blackguards or scoundrels of sorts." The reporter also saw some "well-dressed people," possibly on their way back from church or chapel. Another account reported a group from a theatrical company, who were playing in town. "They were working men, pure and simple, with a flavour of strong language and stronger tobacco but undeniably wage earners," said the Echo man. A separate account in the London Pall Mall Budget found people turning up in cabs "laden with kilderkins of beer" from as early as 7am. Fourteen kilderkins (about seven barrels) had been drunk in 10 minutes. Quoting The Morning paper in Cardiff, it was estimated there were 360 "club members" and another 1,500 spectators. "It appears almost incredible that the proceedings should have been so harmoniously conducted as was the case," reports the paper. It found "perfect order" as the various clubs were "engrossed" in emptying 4.5 gallon casks and to remind one another there was not sufficient money on the carpet to pay for the next, "to pay much attention to anything but the business in hand." It added: "That business, pure and simple, appeared to be the consuming as much beer as they possibly could." Up to 5pm, more than 80 4.5 gallon casks were emptied, but after retiring for tea, a "roaring trade" was expected in the evening. After the attention given to the field club, the "disgraceful exhibitions" were attacked by Canon Thompson in a lecture to the YMCA. He appealed for an end to the "club", for the influence it might have on children. By June, Lord Windsor had banned drinking on his property and threatened arrests for trespass for anyone found drinking on the Marl. The drinking club had taken to meeting in other locations near Canton Common and Saltmead, as well as meeting at the Marl just after midnight to avoid police. Another club was reported near the tannery and 40 people were spotted drinking in the open in a field off Clare Road. The Western Mail remarked that while Sunday was usually the quietest day of the week, in Grangetown "it was just the reverse." The scenes taking place were "disgraceful and demoralising." * There had been an issue for a few years regarding the 1881 Sunday drinking laws in Cardiff. There were claims of hundreds of "shebeens" - illegal drinking dens - in the town. Newspapers speculated that the large Irish community was one factor for their popularity. In 1889, a Royal Commission heard evidence that there were 450 shebeens in the town and that police raids couldn't contain the trade. The Western Mail sent a team of ordinary people under cover to investigate their extent. In Grangetown, they found 40 shebeens with 173 people present - Cardiff-wide it amounted to 3,196 in 457 shebeens. There were around 58 people in one alone in Andrew Terrace, five shebeens in in Hewell Street and Havelock Street, four in Lucknow Street, two each in Saltmead off Cornwall Street, Cornwall Road, Court Road, Hereford Street, Holmesdale Street and Sevenoaks Street, other shebeens in Andrew Terrace, Bishop Street, Courtenay Street, Earl Street, Newport Street, North Street, Oakley Street, Plymouth Street and Redlaver Street. Dr Gibbins, the curate at St Paul's Church in Grangetown said the Sunday closing act had had an "evil effect" on the area, with drinking been driven underground in clubs and where illicit drinking in homes had become "widespread." The inspectors also found illegal drinking in shops, including two fried fish shops and a barbers. Convictions were running at one a day in 1891-92. In February 1892, police raids included houses in Earl Street and Cornwall Street, with 4.5 gallon casks of beer confiscated. In October, police found 17 people drinking at William Jones' house in Dorset Street - 11 of them women. Charles Morgan in Saltmead Road said he had to provide for his family, as he had been in hospital.

The girls from the JR Freeman cigar factory before a picnic trip in the 1920s. The factory moved from London to Bridge Street in Cardiff in 1908 before moving to North Clive Street in Grangetown in 1912. It relocated a shorter distance to Penarth Road in the early 1960s. It has been a long-term employer of women in the area for 100 years - making the Manikin and Hamlet brands for the Gallaher Group. Sadly, its closure was announced in September 2007 - set for 2009 - blamed on falling sales. A total of 184 jobs are being lost.

Another of Grangetown's fantastic late Victorian buildings, long since disappeared. The Grangetown Forward Movement Presybyterian Hall was built in 1895 on the corner of Paget Street and Corporation Road. It closed in the 1960s, was demolished in 1968 and the site later became an office equipment store and is now a Tesco store.

JANUARY 12 1895: Ice tragedy for local rugby star This particular sad story illustrates something of what it was like in what is now the Taff Mead area, before Merches Gardens, Hafod and Mardy Streets were built at the end of the century. As well as being an area for dumping some of the town's refuse, there were also brick ponds between the River Taff and Clare Road. These ponds seemed quite large, and were popular with townspeople for recreation. They were on privately owned land, leased by a Mrs Jones of Francis Street (now Franklen Street) who would charge a 3d toll for entry. In winter, when they froze over, the ponds were popular with skaters. On this particular Saturday, tragedy struck involving a well-known local rugby player. "Dick" Davies was 26 and was a "dashing forward" for Cardiff football club. On this particular weekend, he couldn't join his twin brother William and the rest of the squad because of an ear injury. They had travelled all the way north for a match at South Shields. Dick instead, visiting his mother and sister in Allerton Street, joined up to 300 other people skating. He was one of half a dozen men who went through thin ice, as it grew dark, 10ft from the bank and left struggling in 12ft deep water. Poles from a building shelter were thrown across the pond for the men to reach. Spectators used planks and linked hands to try to reach them. The Western Mail reports how Dick "struggled manfully" and was seen trying to remove his coat - which onlookers say may have entangled him. But he was too far away and disappeared before assistance could reach him. Peter Lynch (101 Clare Road) recovered his body half an hour later and it was taken to the mortuary to be identified by his mother and sister. Two other lives were saved by a Norwegian sailor, George Jacobsen. E J Humphreys, from Adamsdown was rescued after grabbing hold of a plank. "They laid me on the bank and started pumping me, they thought I was passed recovery," recalled Mr Humphreys, a non-swimmer. He was taken to the Neville Hotel, where he was given clothing and refreshments by the landlord Mr Gillard. Dick was employed by the Barry Railway Company as a plumber and he lived with his brother-in-law Frank, an engine driver, in Barry. Dick had briefly left Cardiff to work in Huddersfield during a builders' strike and was selected for the town's team. "A genial young fellow, liked by everyone" he was due to be married in the summer to Prudence Goodhall. His body was taken to his mother's house at 19 Allerton Street. She had been making his tea when he drowned and cried repeatedly "if only he had gone to Shields" when she heard the news. The sad news was telegraphed to Tyneside and Charlie Arthur, Cardiff rugby club's secretary, who relayed the news to Dick's brother and the team. A F Hill, captain of Cardiff, led the funeral procession on the Wednesday from Allerton Street, swelled by members of other local rugby and cycling clubs. The pall-bearers were four members of the Cardiff team. A special train had carried 250 of his work colleagues from Barry. * An earlier newspaper report from 1893, comparing skating ponds across Cardiff, called another 3ft deep pond off Ferry Road at the Grangetown Brick Works, "the finest piece of ice in the town." A small charge covered the hire of skates and you could have a coffee from a cottage next to the pond. There was also a Dumballs pond, off Penarth Road, "frequented by people whose company was anything but congenial."

Here's a photo dated from about the turn of the century, in Lower Grangetown. It shows Margaret Saddler standing outside her son Fred's shaving saloon - near the junction of Worcester Street/Oakley Street. She would have been in her early 50s at the time this was taken, her son Fred around 20. Father Edwin was a sailor. The terraces have been replaced by modern housing and an OAP complex. The shop was still a hairdresser's in the late 1920s.

Churches and schools

St Paul's Church in Grangetown was conscecrated by the Bishop of Llandaff in 1890. It was built on an acre of land given five years earlier by Lord Windsor, who also donated £4,000 to build the church's 75ft-long knave. The building was aimed at accommodating a congretation of 600. The congegration initially came under the parish of St John's in Canton and first met in Vanstone's Loft, over a stable in North Street. When the Grangetown National School (renamed St Paul's Church-in-Wales Primary in 1963) opened in Bromsgrove Street in 1864, the Sunday services moved there. In 1879, Lady Mary Windsor Clive had given £500 for the building of the Iron Mission Church, known as "The Iron Room". It was here that a service was held in March 1889, ahead of the laying of a foundation stone by Lord Windsor. Around 200 then sat down to lunch at the school. As for the school, "the Nash" moved to a new building in June 1974 and the old National School building was demolished. St Dyfrig and Samson's church dates from 1927.

St Patrick's RC School opened in north Grangetown in 1873, (with the chapel opening in 1882), to serve an estimated 500 Grangetown catholics and 100 pupils. Classes had been held from the 1860s in a small cottage in Havelock Place, followed by "The Brickyard School", opened by a pioneer of Catholic education in the town, Father Fortunatus Signini. He had arrived in Cardiff in 1854, moving to St Peter's in Roath with the ambition of spreading Catholic schools across the town. The centenary history of the school, with extracts from its log books - reflects the period in Grangetown. Residents in nearby Thomas Street, still semi-rural, hung out their washing "on the hedges and bushes," and children had to cross ditches and streams to reach school. Ilnesses like scarlet fever and measles could take their toll - three pupils died of the former in one month in 1876. These were the days before free schooling although the inspector's reports were good.

An extract from the log from 1884 gives a flavour of the time: "It is impossible to get the children to school. The mothers complain of the roads and the bad weather..it is painful to see some poor little infants with bad boots trudging through the mud. Even those who are well shod get wet feet. Another reason for the poor attendance is that the illness that is always prevalent in damp weather. Many are suffering from bad coughs, bronchitis, sore eyes, earache and sore throats. The absentees are chiefly the younger children, who as a rule, leave school in the winter months."

There were other distractions too. The school head noticed in 1874 that attendances fell off from April until October, as some pupils took up work at the brick works next door. Helping to supplement the family's income could be a necessity.

As for St Patrick's RC Church, before the permanent building was opened, mass was celebrated in people's homes and even at the Irish pub, the London Style Inn in Lucknow Street. The first church building was opened in 1882 by Canon Hallahan. A site was also found at Grange Gardens which eventually led to the current church opening on St Patrick's Day in 1930. St Patrick's Memorial Hall, close to the school, opened in 1920.

Grangetown Baptist Church opened in Clive Street in 1865 and is one of Grangetown's oldest surviving buildings. An adjoining school was later demolished for a housing development. The Ebenezer chapel in Corporation Road dates from 1899.

Court Road School was another Victorian school, which was opened on 19 August 1893 by the mayor, W E Vaughan, after considerable delay due to a building strike. The new board school was much needed in the growing area of Saltmead and Mr Vaughan commented at the opening ceremony in one of the classrooms that every child should be educated, whether their parents could afford to pay or not. The school catered for 380 girls on the ground floor - with class sizes of 70 and 60! The 380 boys were taught upstairs. There was also an infants school block looking towards the railway, with room for another 468 pupils. The main entrance was off Rutland Street. A report on its opening in the Western Mail commented on its design, allowing light and ventilation, and fittings which gave "an appearence of warmth and cheerfulness." It was built by the prominent local builders E Turner for a cost of £11,703 and designed by architects Jones, Richards and Budgen, although Mr Jones did not live to see the opening. It was later renamed Courtmead Primary School, eventually closing in 1969 and demolished a year later. New housing was built on part of the site in Rutland Street and a new community garden opened in 2006 after part of the site was left as wasteground for 35 years.

Ninian Park School opened in 1900. During World War One it became a hospital for servicemen. During this time, pupils travelled to Court Road School for lessons in the morning, while the host school's children had their classes in the afternoon. The school celebrated its centenary in 2000 with a Victorian fayre and exhibition.

The Grangetown Library in Paget Street off Clive Street

When SA Brain meant books not just beer

The name "SA Brain" is well known in Cardiff as the name of a pint of beer, after the brewer of the same name.

The eponymous Samuel Arthur Brain, as well as being co-founder of the brewery in 1882, was also a Conservative councillor for Grangetown from 1885 and played a crucial role in founding the area's library.

Councillor Brain took a keen interest in the education of the area's population. He personally helped to support a reading room in Clive Street. As chairman of the town's branch library committee, in 1901 he oversaw the opening of a number of lending libraries in Cardiff. The second of six to open, on September 15th, was the one on the opposite side of the road to the old reading room.

Designed by EM Bruce-Vaughan, the red-brick building was noted for its natural light and ventilation and regarded as a model likely to be "widely adopted." It was built by contractors D Thomas and Sons for a cost of £3,501 including freehold.

It appears Mr Brain helped pay for 3,000 of the 5,000 books in the library, chosen by the chief librarian Mr Ballinger. Previously, he had "privately subscribed heavily" to supplement the grant from the rates to maintain the reading room. But the Cardiff Weekly Times reported that he made clear that "the inhabitants of Grangetown were not to associate charity with the library, it was their own, bought out of the public purse." The six branches, which also included Splott, Canton, Roath, Docks and Cathays, were to "place sound literature within the reach of all."

Mr Brain, in the absence of the mayor, opened the library by applying for membership and borrowing its first book. He then received a golden key in return and treated the guests to lunch.

Grangetown Library remained in use until September 2006, when the service moved to a new building in Havelock Place. The building, after local campaigning, was saved from demolition and it is hoped will be converted to flats.

Time, gentlemen! Grangetown's disappearing pubs

In May 2008, there are just three pubs currently open in Grangetown! So let's start with that trio. The Grange Hotel in Penarth Road back in 1901 was run by John M Pritchard (pictured above centre), then 40, who lived there with his wife Ellen, 27, originally from Swansea. His son Edgar, 18, was a plumber and there were two daughters Winifred, 11, and one-year-old May. Also living on the premises was book-keeper Kate Jenkins, a Irish-born widow, 39, barmaid Rose Bernard, 24, servant Emily Brooks, 23, and Mr Pritchard's cousin Ralph, 16, a sign-writer from Monmouth. The Pritchards lived there until the 1920s. Part of the pub's present-day lounge used to be a butcher's shop.

The Neville in Allerton Street, dating from 1888-1889, started life as the Saltmead Hotel when it was built for the Hancock's Brewery, before its change of name within about a year. In 1901, it was run by Devonian John Gillard, 57, assisted by his son George, 20. His wife Annie, 51, looked after their other five children - although the two eldest girls were an apprentice milliner and dressmaker (so much for the myth that women didn't go out to work..! You can easily find women who worked as laundry workers in this area too). The pub though was up and running by the time of the 1891 census, run by a Bristol man, who lived there with his wife and six children.

The Neville became the centre of an emergency in January 1895, when a well-known local rugby player drowned and two other men were rescued while falling through the ice skating on the frozen ponds the other side of Clare Road. Mr Gillard looked after the injured. (See above)

Down the road in Cornwall Street, The Cornwall (House) Hotel - which first opened its doors in September 1894 - was run by another Devon-born man, Joseph Martin, 32, his wife Emma, 34, who had recently moved to Cardiff from London with their young family. Also living at the pub in 1901 was an Irish housekeeper, a widow, and two barmaids (who also spoke Welsh) from Maesteg and Taibach. The story about this pub is that it is haunted by Will The Pig, the father of an old landlord who died in the lounge.

Now those going, and gone. Pictured above is The Cork Club's picnic day out in 1919, outside The London Style Inn, which stood opposite St Patrick's church hall and had strong Irish links. Before the permanent church was built, it was also often used for Catholic services. It was at No 1 Lucknow Street, at the back of Havelock Place and Madras Street - both street and pub disappeared for the grounds of the modern-day St Patrick's school. I presumed the "Cork Club" was purely connected with the area's Irish community. But the story goes that it was a fund-raising club. All members had to carry a cork with them - if they were unable to produce one at the request of a member, they were asked to pay into the fund, which went to charity! In 1881, the pub was run by Abraham Brown, 59, a Cornish carpenter who lived there with his wife and six children. He had worked as a ship's carpenter in the docks since the 1860s and took over a pub in Sophia Street in the 1870s.

Another club outing in 1946, outside the Lord Windsor pub, which isn't there any more.

The empty Inn On The River, hit by arson attacks in June 2006, is set to disappear for housing.

New flats are set to be built by Taff Housing Association. Brain's brewery had been marketing the old "Pub On The Mud" on the embankment, due to a fall in customers. However, some would argue it has been allowed to decline for years. At one time it was a popular venue for blues, rock and jazz bands. The association's plans include one, two and three bedroom apartments.

The inn started life as a town house owned by William Turner - part of the E Turner and Sons building company, which was based in Havelock Place - and included a tennis court before being turned into a pub in 1974 by his grandson. This would mean another pub landmark disappearing, after the demolition of the Red House in Ferry Road to make way for new flats. See also Blitz and Blight

And two of the pubs no longer with us from south Grangetown - The Bird In The Hand in Bromsgrove Street (above right), which closed in 1995 and was demolished for development. And under threat is The Plymouth (above left - an archive photo and present day), which must be one of the area's oldest pubs. Dating from 1847, the building is empty on the corner of Clive Street and Holmesdale Street. However, it could soon be lost to yet another housing development.

Other pubs no longer around are the Penarth Dock at 35 Thomas Street (Grangetown-born Paul Flynn MP writes of his mother being the landlord's daughter and growing up in the "melting pot"), the Forge Hotel/Inn in Oakley Street and the Royal Princess in Hewell Street.

Another pub to disappear more recently is the Red House on the waterfront at Ferry Road (left). The distinctive looking pub sadly made way in 2005 for characterless apartments near the sports village. The Baroness Windsor in Penarth Road in early 2008 was closed and boarded up. It has been open since at least the 1860s. No word on what it happening there, but it may have been a licence issue.

FLOODING IN GRANGETOWN

Pictured is a woodcut of the "great flood" of Cardiff in 1607. © Photo courtesy of Cardiff Central Library/Cardiff Museum.

The Old Library in the Hayes featured an exhibition on the history of flooding in Cardiff in early 2008. It focused on five “great floods”, most of which affected Grangetown.

Victoria Rogers, exhibitions officer, said one of particular interest happened on 17th October 1883.

"A sea dyke in Grangetown was breached after a particularly high tide and water flowed through the streets," she said. "It was so deep that one newspaper report told of horses having to swim under the railway bridge.

"Other eye-witnesses reported how the water reached just inches from the first floor of houses in Holmesdale Street , others mentioned the water being around five feet deep in some streets, and several reported harvest festival fruit and vegetables floating around churches and chapels!"

The history of St Patrick's School records the dyke at the top of Kent Street giving way, with 5ft deep water. Those celebrating Harvest Festival at the Wesleyan chapel in Ludlow Street at the St Paul's "Iron Room" had to be rescued by boats.

Photo of flooding in Clare Road in 1979. © Courtesy of Terence Dimmick.

There were other floods of note too. In July 1875, The Times reported that "hundreds of inhabitants have been removed by boats from Cardiff" due to flooding in Grangetown "just outside Cardiff". No lives were reported lost but the waters were "still rising" and the turnpike road between Cardiff and St Nicholas was impassable, reported the paper's Monmouthshire correspondent.

On January 23 1890, Clare Road was under up to 6ft of water - with four new homes near the railway bridge the worst affected. A widow and her young child were rescued from the currents, after they escaped - although the woman, a dressmaker, had dresses and materials ruined. A South Wales Evening Express reporter inspected a house in Court Road, where a man had taken his wife and child upstairs for safety. Downstairs "everything was wet, rusty and covered with a muddly slime."

A look back at Grangetown - a century ago

APRIL 1908: James W Morgan, a tramway signalman who lived at 112 Holmesdale Street, was given a Royal Humane Society award for saving a 17-year-old girl from drowning. Mr Morgan was on duty by the Custom House Bridge, when he spotted Florrie Williams standing on the top of the bridge. He could do nothing to stop her jumping, in what was reported to be a suicide attempt. At first tried to use the long pole for removing the trolley heads to reach her in the water. But he dropped the pole and ended up jumping in after her in 10ft of water. The South Wales Echo reported that he was in full uniform, wearing heavy clogs and leggings, "which much hampered him in the water." He managed to reach her and two young men also entered the water to help him with the rescue. Mr Morgan's colleagues in the tram company had a collection for him and he was presented with £1 11s and 6d. He came from a family of strong swimmers and his brother Henry was said to have saved several young people from the River Taff.

Another story from this month a century ago is one which the newspaper headlined "A sad story of poverty, squalor and neglect." It tells of a time before the welfare state and with the shadow of the workhouse still looming large. A mother from Compton Street in Saltmead is prosecuted for child neglect, after a policeman found three of her children in a sorry state.

The Cardiff Police Court heard that Frederick Ball was too ill to work and Mrs Ball had pawned most of their possessions, including her clothes, to buy food. Daughter Nellie, 11, was "weak, poorly fed, dirty and verminous" when Sgt Whitcombe saw the family in the "dirty" two rooms where they lived with little furniture and no fire on the grate. Wallace, five, was weak, thin, poorly nourished, "very verminous" and ionly wearing a sleeveless coat, a ragged shirt and no boots or stockings. Sister Violet, only two, was better fed but poorly clad. The children were taken to Grangetown Police Station, where they "ate ravenously," before they were taken to the workhouse hospital. Mrs Ball tearfully told the court of their circumstances and when she applied for parish relief, was told they had to go to the workhouse. A shopkeeper Mrs Barker said how she had given her a shilling because she seemed so poor. Sgt Whitcombe said he had seen her around, but also in a situation when she had had a drink. The stipendary magistrate warned her that "poverty was no excuse for the insufficient feeding and dirty condition of the children". He was to review the case in six months time.

MAY 1908: A couple of stories of marital issues this month. Ellen Ann Harris summonsed her estranged husband to court for destertion and wanted a separation order. She had been married to Benjamin Harris, a boilermaker, for 13 years, lived in Penhaved Street and they had a child. The court heard that Mr Harris had treated his wife "in a diabolical manner" by "staying out night after night". She turned detective after obtaining certain information and found her husband in bed with another woman. He was told to pay the price, at 25 shillings a week.

Another story in the Western Mail involves a tugboat owner from Amherst Street who was after a separation order from his wife and to make an arrangement for maintenance. "The cursed drink" loomed large, with even his mother-in-law admitting to the court her daughter was "always, always drunk..and the children, the poor little lambs, are allowed to go around in an awful dirty state."

JUNE 1908: One that sticks out for this month - for all those who say things were always better in the old days. There was trouble reported in the Echo at Grange Gardens, as well as parks at Splott and Canton because of misbehaviour from young people, with stones and balls being thrown. There were threats to withdraw the bands from the bandstands "unless there was an improvement in conduct of youmg people."

"The old discipline of the schools has declined evidently," said the paper, when "some children and young people" could pose such a threat.

Remembered - the wartime sailor who postponed wedding for action

The sacrifice of a Grangetown sailor during World War One has been remembered 90 years after his death in April 1918, thanks to the Friends of Cathays Cemetery.

The grave of John Cleal had become unkempt and overgrown until the group stepped in - and it was re-dedicated in a ceremony on April 20th to mark the anniversary of the sinking of his ship. The stoker on HMS Iphigenia died of his injuries on a hospital ship, the day after an attempt to sink three ships filled with concrete at Zeebrugge.

John Cleal, 24, had served in the Navy for six years and it is believed he lived in both Clive Street and Holmesdale Street. He had postponed his wedding to volunteer to take part in the raid. Eight Victoria Crosses were awarded, but the casualty rate was high with more than 200 killed and a further 300 wounded.

The South Wales Daily News reported ahead of his funeral: "He was engaged to be married to Miss May Price, and the wedding was only postponed in order that he might volunteer for the great exploit. His brother George is serving in the army, and one of his brothers-in-law has been killed."

His memorial was erected by public subscription but had been neglected over the years until his story was re-discovered last year by two researchers James Lister and Peter Gronow.

The friends group then contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, arranged for the grave to be tidied up. The Royal Naval Association joined the friends group to rededicate the memorial.

* The Friends of Cathays Cemetery would be pleased to make contact with any living relatives of John Cleal. Contact GCC and we will pass the details on.

A DVD telling the story of Grangetown and the Docks has been released locally. It has been written and produced by Grangetown-born Ian Malcolm , who is involved with the Cardiff Cine and Video Society and has already produced films telling the history of Cardiff. This nearly hour-long more localised history includes comparisons of the area then and now, stories in the words of local people and some fascinating archive film.

Tales Of Old Grangetown naturally features some common ground, for those familiar with the splendid "Images of Wales" books compiled over the last 10 years by Barbara Jones and Ian Clarke. It begins with a scene-setting history of Butetown and the Docks and how Grangetown grew rapidly beyond, although its name and earliest landmark dated back to the medieval Grange Farm. Certainly, it was fascinating to be taken on a look inside this, thankfully, preserved building today.

What will appeal to those not already familiar with local history are firstly the little nooks and crannies surviving in the area, despite the huge changes. It's also a lesson that too many landmarks seem to be disappearing or under threat. The most poignant moment is the plaque marking the wartime bombing of Hollyman's Bakery in Stockland Street and the death of 32 people. It's left to the owner of the hardware shop built on the site to retell the story of that night in January 1941, a reminder of an event not forgotten but of time moving on. Happier times are remembered by other locals - the St Patrick's church pipe band, Cardiff City players when they lived a few streets away and walked to the ground (some old colour footage at Ninian Park is worth a look), and the small but perfectly formed business which is Clark's Pies. There is also the curious tale of the haunting of The Grange pub by a former landlord. Although this particularly story may lack cinematic evidence, there is other film worth a look - including Currans munitions factory during World War Two and some colour film of one of the earliest adventure playgrounds on The Marl from 1970 - Grangetown was not immune to some fashion mistakes!

These sort of films give you an appetite to delve further and perhaps take a look at your surroundings just that bit more. The DVD occasionally has patchy sound quality and could have done with a little less cheesy background music in places - a personal bug-bear - but it's well overdue.

Tales Of Old Grangetown (DVD-R) is available at £10 from Lloyds Newsagents in Clare Road, Clarks Pie Shop and also from Video Image, Rumney, Cardiff, 02920 795 619. There is also a copy to borrow in the Grangetown and Central libraries.

LOCAL HISTORY RESOURCES: Cardiff Library members can now access Victorian newspapers online from home, including the Western Mail from 1869 to 1899. You need to log on to the Cardiff e-library with your membership number and password. You can also access Ancestry.co.uk through your library membership log-in. For visitors, the Central library, currently in temporary accommodation in John Street, also has old newspapers on microfiche, as well as old documents and directories for reference - all in the Local Interest section on the first floor. Grangetown Library in Havelock Place has a selection of Cardiff history books. The Cardiff Museum at the Old Library building in The Hayes houses regular local history exhibitions, amongs other shows. When We Were Young: growing up in Cardiff is running until January 2009. It's also trying to gather memories and photos for it's ongoing Collecting Cardiff project. There is also the Glamorgan Records Office, based in Cathays Park but is due to move to a new building as part of the new Cardiff City stadium development. You can call in but it's often best to book a place in advance - the office has old archive documents, parish and estate records, original plans for houses and other buildings in Cardiff, you can also access censuses up to 1901. Other useful links or interesting sites for local or family history include ancestry.co.uk (subscription required for most services); GENUKI Cardiff, abandoned communities has details of old Temperance Town and Newtown in Cardiff.

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