This is a
community website for Grangetown in Cardiff, highlighting people, business, community
activities, local news and things to do in the area...and linking other websites.
We live locally; this is a voluntary project - in connection with Grangetown
Community Concern - completely free and not a profit or money-making
or political initiative.
The idea is to create a community resource, which can also act as a window
for those outside the immediate area.
E-mail us if you'd
like to help or to send any contributions for inclusion. Also if you'd
like to be included FREE in our DIRECTORY, FILL IN
YOUR DETAILS ON OUR E-FORM or email us.
COMMUNITY
NEWS Seagulls tackled + Take-away plan rejected |
| DIARY DATES:
Monday 23rd November: North Grangetown Residents' Association,
7pm, Cornwall St baptist church hall. Residents welcome to discuss
local issues of concern, as well as progress report on the housing renewal
scheme.
Tuesday 24th November: Grangetown PACT, Samaj Centre, Mardy Street,
7pm. Monthly community meeting with police and councillors to discuss
local policing priorities.
Wednesday 25th November: Grangetown Community Concern executive committee, Buzz Cafe, Penarth Rd, 7.15pm.
Thursday 26th November: Health and Wellbeing Day, 10am-2pm, Women's Workshop, Clarence House, Clarence Road, Cardiff. The day will include free classes, relaxation and health checks for women. Contact Sian Thomason 20 493351 or sian.thomason@womensworkshop.org.uk
Saturday 28th November: Buy Nothing Day - Community Litter-Pick:
12 noon for 12.30pm start; until 3.30pm. Meet outside 89 Corporation Road,
Grangetown. Local people invited to join a community litterpick, on
the Taff Trail, lanes and other problem areas. Litter grabbers and bin
bags provided. Come along for as little time as you can spare - bring
gloves and warm clothing. More details: Email Kieran on edenderry00@yahoo.co.uk
Help For Heroes charity event, The Grange Pub,
Penarth Rd, from 7.30pm. Barbecue, karaoke, raffle and singer Katie Love
in aid of forces charity.
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Flats plan for old laundry site
Plans have been unveiled
again for the site of the old laundry on the corner of Mardy Street and Pendyris
Street.
This time, they involve 34 flats - social housing planned for Taff Housing. There have been previous applications for the site over the last couple of years, involving similar housing schemes, while the site is currently being used as a car park aimed at commuters.
Other plans in the pipeline include converting a house in Clare Road into a hotel/B&B and plans for a cashpoint on the outside of the chemist/post office on the corner of Cornwall Street.
Litter-pick for Buy Nothing Day
Grangetown has been picked
as one of the areas in the UK taking part in a community litter-pick for Buy Nothing
Day on Saturday 28th November. People are being urged to take a break from shopping
- and help their local environment instead.
Organiser Kieran McCann is hoping there will be enough volunteers to tackle
problem areas, including the lanes and Taff Trail, as well as litter blackspots
people know near their homes. The idea of the day is anti-consumerist, and pro-environment, but Kieran says it's not anti-Christmas.
"We live in a throwaway society where we buy convenience things and then
discard them without a thought," he said. "Buy Nothing Day highlights theenvironmental
effects of consumption and therefore for this year’s Buy Nothing Day I am celebrating
by organizing a litter pick supported by Tidy Towns along the Taff Trail and
Grangetown."
The litter pick takes place from 12.00-3.30pm on Saturday 28th November.
Meet outside 89 Corporation Road, Grangetown, at 12.00 noon for a 12.30pm start.
Litter grabbers and bin bags provided. Come along for as little time as you
can spare - bring gloves and warm clothing. More details: Email Kieran on edenderry00@yahoo.co.uk
All change for Heath Hospital
Cardiff Bus has shortened
the routes of the numbers 8 and 9 buses, which currently run from Cardiff Bay
through Grangetown to the Heath Hospital.
From October 4th, passengers now have to change buses in Westgate Street if
they want to travel onto Roath and to the hospital.
Details were given by a Cardiff Bus
representative at the September meeting of Grangetown PACT. The routes of the
No 8 and 9 have been changed in the city centre, in light of the opening of
the St Davids 2 shopping development.
Instead of travelling down St Mary Street and through the city centre, via
City Road, Crwys Road and Heath, the buses now turn right out of Tudor Street
into St Mary Street and take a "circular" route around the Hayes Bridge
Road area, to serve St Davids 2, before returning back to Grangetown and Cardiff
Bay. Passengers now have to catch the new No 38 and 39 services there to travel
onwards to the hospital - these can be caught in Westgate Street (opposite the
Millennium Stadium) or in St Mary Street (by Wyndham Arcade). Residents were
told this would improve efficiency of transport and not add to journey times,
and was in line with shorter routes elsewhere in the city.
But concern was expressed at the lack of consultation
and that the break in the journey would inevitably cause inconvenience to those
with hospital appointments or visiting relatives, while for those wishing to
travel just one way, the fare would double to £3 (the cost of a day saver).
The new timetables were not ready in time for the meeting but are now on the
Cardiff Bus website.
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Every month we
select a "photo of the month" to help showcase the work of the digital photographers
from the Grangetown Flckr Group. The competition is just a bit of fun and
is now into its second year!
Our tasty choice for September/October Wholesome Meal is by
Time Grabber - a Clarke's Pie has never looked so inviting and beautifully
presented. As it celebrates is centenary, this Grangetown delicacy deserves
the glossy treatment.
Share your photos of Grange For those with an interest in photography, there is a photo-group website for people to share their images of Grangetown.
The Grangetown Flickr
Group was created to allow people to add their photos of Grangetown
places, people and events. "To be honest my prime motive was to put
Grangetown on the map," says webmaster Sean Kisby.
What's good about the photos there so far, is there's a mix of people
and places - the "disappearing" and sadly "disappeared"
landmarks of Grangetown, as well as some more off-beat and domestic shots.
If you'd like to contribute, follow the link at www.flickr.com/groups/grangetown
Past months winners
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Society at family history day - and oral history recorded
Members of Grangetown History Society
took their new display boards and laptops to the City Hall on Saturday
3rd October for a Family History Fayre. What a busy day, and people had
a cornucopia of displays to absorb them both downstairs and upstairs in
this beautiful setting.
The society joined local history groups from across England and Wales
for the event, on two floors of the hall, which was of interest to people
researching their family trees or local areas. As well as photographs
on boards and on computer screens, members were able to help people
from different parts of the country with questions about the area.
2010 calendar on sale
Grangetown Local History Society's popular calendar for 2010 -
featuring old photos of the area - has gone on sale (£2.50).
It is available in the following outlets: Clark's
Pie Shop, Martyn Youngs Fruit and Veg, Penarth Road, Lloyds Newsagents,
corner of Durham St/Clare Rd and Grangetown Library, Havelock Place.
The cost is £2.50 and we hope everyone enjoys the choice of photographs
this year. Postal copies can be obtained by contacting Rita Spinola
02920 345962. We are confident the calendar will be a sell out; so make
sure you get your copy early! Zena Mabbs, chairperson Grangetown Local
History Society
Did you know there used to be a synagogue in Merches Place?
ZENA MABBS, chair of Grangetown History
Society, traces the history of a building which has been used by three
different religions since it opened nearly 110 years ago.
The synagogue in Merches Place was known as the Foreigner's Shul or
Furriners' Shul and opened in 1900, formed from recent immigrants to
the area. For instance, in Allerton Street in 1900 there lived 13 Jewish
families, six of whom described their occupations as tailors. Ten families
lived in Clare Road, consisting of two watchmakers and two pawnbrokers.
The Jewish congregations in Cardiff - they also met in Cathedral Road
and the town centre - eventually merged and moved to a synagogue to
the Cyncoed area. By 1978, the old synagogue in Grangetown had become
a printing press and was purchased for the sum of £22,000. It then became
the Shree Swaminarayan Temple, president: Mr. Naran Bhimji Patel, for
the growing Gujarati community until 1993 when the new Hindu temple
was finished nearby.
The building was taken over for its current use as the United Pentecostal
Church and is called the New Hope Centre. As you can seen, the exterior
has not been materially altered from when it was used as a synagogue.
Thanks to Cardiff Shul
and the Shree Swaninarayan
Temple for use of the photographs. More information is available
from their websites.
If you have any memories, or other photographs you wish to share
relating to this building please contact the Grangetown Local History
Society, c/o The Library, Havelock Place, Grangetown, Cardiff. The society
meets on the first Wednesday of every month, new visitors are always
welcome.
"All the furniture we owned was piled onto this handcart. For the first few weeks of living there we slept on the bare floor boards. At that time along the whole length of the street houses were in various stages of construction." Jack Payne with memories of 1937, when South Clive Street was first built and who lived there. Read the full story in our history pages. |
Thanks to those
of you already interested in our Grangetown Local History
section, as we continue to build up features and photos about the area -
divided into three sections, the early and Victorian Grangetown;
wartime Grangetown and a a
section looking at sport, transport, local life and entertainment, as well as
stories from the post-war era.
Thanks to the Grangetown Local History Society (who meet the first Wednesday
of the month, Grangetown Library, 2.15pm), we've published some photos
from their archives - including some "then and now" images. We will
hopefully re-tell some stories, include some interesting facts about the area.
It's been interesting already to hear from as far afield as the US, Canada
and Australia from people with family roots in Grangetown! So Email
your memories, stories and old photos
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Sites we like!
There are links to a lot of local
websites at the bottom - and more in the directory. If you'd like to
be included, please email us.
A few we came across recently, took the eye. First Cardiffians,
which is dedicated to assembling photos of old Cardiff - or old buildings
and landmarks in different districts across the city. A very promising
heritage site, which we're missing.
There's also a fantastic zoomable map on the recently created Grangetown
Map site, which homes in on local landmarks and shops too on the
flash, animated street plan. A good tech-y feature and if they extend
it across the city, it would be an excellent tool for locals and visitors.
Also, there's a very detailed and exhaustive Cardiff
Pubs website, a real labour of love and very informative.
You may already be familiar with writer Peter Finch's excellent
Real Cardiff series, which is a miscellany of prose, poetry
and opinion from journeys around the city. He also has Real
Cardiff web pages, which give a flavour of the books.
Among a few local community sites is one for Old
St Mellons, being carefully put together by Rhys Gregory. Good
to see more springing up in different parts of the city, which network
together nicely.
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Grangetown Community Concern's
newspaper is a regular and long-running FREE link between thousands
of homes in Grangetown and parts of Butetown.
We have decided to print three editions a year and the next
newspaper will be coming out in the run-up to Christmas. A few production problems have meant we were unable to produce an autumn issue.
E-mail here for
details and to volunteer to help deliver. FREE to more than 6,500
homes across Grangetown and some of Butetown - the newspaper
is a long-running and vital community link, which is non-profit-making
and depends on advertising and sponsorship to keep it going.
We still need volunteer deliverers - especially for Channel
View (part), Oakley Place and York Place. If you can spare half an
hour every two or three months, contact Christine or Joan
in the office, (029) 20 377 010!
Advertising rates for 2009:
Full page: £130 Copy and adverts - contact: Christine on 029 20 377 010. Email
contributions to grangetowncardiff@yahoo.co.uk
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Directory for Grangetown
A community directory of local
organisations, services and activities was distributed FREE to homes
throughout Grangetown and Butetown in May 2006.
Grangetown Community Concern assisted Butetown Healthy Living Programme
in the project.
As well as the printed version, we're updating an online
version, which also includes local shops and traders.
If you want to be included or amend your entry, you can e-mail
us here
We hope one day to be able to publish an updated printed version,
so help us keep it up to date. If there are any changes or inaccuracies,
please let us know.
We'd be glad to receive contributions or relevant
articles for the website, please email us at grangetowncardiff@yahoo.co.uk
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Meanwhile, the Society
is recording memories and stories for its ongoing oral history project.
It's always looking for people with stories to tell - of living, going
to school or work in Grangetown for instance. It's organised its first"drop-in"
session for Saturday October 17th (10am-1pm at Grangetown Library),
while visits can be arranged if required. All you need is a little time
to spare - and the odd tale to tell. If you would like to take part
- or know someone who might be able to help - 
Information taken
from the Cardiff directories of the period show variations in the name
of the location of the building. In 1904, it was called Talmud Torah
Meeting House, Saltmead, with reader and teacher M Katz. In 1915, it
was listed as Talmud Torah Jewish Meeting House,Merches Place; and in
1920 it was the same name but in Merches Gardens.
Remembering
the birth of South Clive Street
