Cardiff Records, Volume V, Chapter VI
REMINISCENCES OF OLD INHABITANTS

Transcribed by Kevin H. Sewell 1996
email: pat.sewell@btopenworld.com
www: http://www.btinternet.com/~pat.sewell/

Last Modified: 19 April 1996

MARY HARRIS AND JOB RICHARDS

Notes of Information orally given to the Archivist by Mrs. MARY HARRIS and Mr. JOB RICHARDS, both of Tai Cochion, Roath, 17 October 1896.

I found Mrs. Harris a hale and intelligent woman, aged 81 years. She was born at Rumney, but had livd at Roath nearly all her life. She spoke Welsh much more readily than English, having known no English till she was a full-grown woman. Her daughter, aged about fifty, also spoke Welsh, but less fluently than English. Mr. Richards was then a hearty, clear-headed man of about 70 years. He was born in the parish, at Ffynon Bren cottage. He spoke Welsh and English with equal fluency.

Tai Cochion was so called from the red pantiles with which it was formerly roofed. It was originally the parish poorhouse. (Harris).

The long double cottage in Roath Court field, on the Albany Road, near the Claude Hotel, has no distinctive name. It and the other two old houses are called "Mr. WILLIAMS' old houses." The long cottage used to have a thatched roof. ("Ty to gwellt oedd o'r blaen.") The Roath village school was the smallest and eastermost of this group of houses, the one where the big ash-tree is ("lle mae'r onen fawr.") It was kept by a Miss LEWIS. The very old thatched cottage in the field opposite the Claude is called Ty'n-y-coly[1]. (Harris).

The following were the bridges in the immediate neighbourhood:
Pont Tredelerch, or Rumney bridge.
Pont y Rhath, or Roath bridge, on the Newport road, across the Nant Mawr by Pengam lane.
Pont Lleici [Pont Licky - Harris; Pont Leeky - Richards] carrying the Cefn Coed lane across the Nant Mawr, at the foot of Pen-y-lan.
"The middle bridge" (y bont genol), across the mill-stream by the Roath mill.
"The bridge by the church" (pont gerllaw'r eglwys), across the Nant Mawr close to Roath church.
The last two mentioned bridges each consisted of one very large flat stone, so strong that carts could go over it - ("carag fawr iawn dros yr afon.") (Harris, Richards).

Pedair Erw Twc was the name of an old thatched house and land on the west side of Nant Mawr, south of Cyndda Bach. It would be just where the railings of the recreation ground now are, a little further north that the newest of the houses. (Harris, Richards).

Goose Lear, or "Gwsler," is the common between Roath Mill and the Deri Farm, where large droves of geese used to feed. (Harris, Richards).

Just south-east of where is now the Claude Hotel were formerly two nameless thatched cottages. (Harris, Richards).

Llwyn Celyn was an old thached house, pulled down years ago. It stood on the west side of the Nant Mawr, now the lake. There were several old thatched cottages, on both sides of the Nant, which have been demolished. (Richards).

There were a couple of old thatched houses at the back of "Ty hen Ifans y Rhath"[2] (the house of old EVANS of Roath), by Roath church. The smaller of these was called "the old Clerk's house," and the clerk lived there. (Harris, Richards).

Penylan Well was never spoken of otherwise than as "hen Ffynon Pen-y-lan"[3]. It was a spring rising up from a small bason scooped out of a large stone. After the Easter Monday fair there, the hollow would be choke-full of bent pins. The fair was called "Ffair Pen-y-lan," and was frequented by crowds of people from the country round. (Harris, Richards).

Ffynon Bren was a well situate in the garden of a thatched cottage, by the side of Albany Road, opposite the end of Claude Road. On this house Job Richards was born, and it belonged to his father[4]. Job often cleaned out the well himself. There was no masonry about it, but a hedge surrounded it, and approach to the well was over a stile. People came to the well from far and near, with bottles and tins, to carry home the water. They took it, both externally and internally, as a cure for bad eyes. They did not drop pins into the well. His father did all he could to prevent people going to the well, as they fouled it. It was the finest water he ever knew. You might stir up the mud as much as you liked, but in half an hour the well would be as clear as crystal. It never dried up, and never froze. Job has known people come there with pots and pans for water, when they couldn't get it anywhere else. The water of "yr hen Ffynon Bren" was like ice in the summer, and like milk in the winter. "You could drink so much as you'd like at it." (Richards).

The thatched cottage on the Albany Road, among the trees, near the well, was called "LLEISON's House," after a man who lived there. (Harris, Richards).

Job Richards has heard his father tell how, when the latter was a boy, he used to perambulate the bounds of Roath parish, with other boys. This was locally termed "Walking the feethe." To impress the bounds on their memory, the boyswere sometimes pushed into the streams. A boy was once pushed into the Rhymney river; he stuck in the mud, and was rescued with difficulty. Job's father was pushed into the Long Dyke, near the house of that name which stood about where the Splot Schools now are. The boy's attention would be called to something, and then someone would push them into the water. When the bounds had been "beaten," the boys were inited to assemble in the evening, and were given a supper, with presents of money or other gifts. (Richards).

[1] Ty'n-y-cwm or Ty-y-cwn.
[2] Ty Mawr, alias Llys Du.
[3] Old Pen-y-lan Well.
[4] Apparently it was copyhold at a small fine