Vale Of Glamorgan Research Articles

Petrography of the Mesozoic Succession of South Wales

AbstractThe heavy mineral suites of the Trias, Rhaetic and lowermost zones of the Lower Lias in the Vale of Glamorgan of South Wales are described. The northerly coastline of the Mesozoic sea, roughly coincident with the present-day periphery of the Coalfield, consisted mainly of Carboniferous Limestone and in places, the Old Red Sandstone and Millstone Grit. The mineral assemblage at any particular point in the littoral zone was determined largely by the nature of the outcropping rocks of the coastal mainland, the derivation of detritus being very localized. Within this zone some degree of gravity sorting of the detritals occurred, this implying a relatively steeply inclined coastal sea-bed. An off-shore current carried detritus from the Armorican land-mass of Britanny and granite of South-West England to this area where the detritals were dispersed thinly throughout the locally derived sediment.

Respiratory symptoms, bronchitis and disability in a random sample of an agricultural community in dumfriesshire

Summary A survey of respiratory symptoms and ventilatory capacity in over go per cent of a random sample of men and women aged 55–64 living in Annandale in Scotland is described. The men recorded more cough, sputum and chest illness, the women more breathlessness. The prevalence of ‘chronic bronchitis’, defined as persistent sputum with at least one chest illness during the past three years, was 6·4 per cent in the men and 2·2 per cent in the women. The mean indirect maximum breathing capacity was 95 litres/min. in the men and 70 litres/min. in the women. The results are compared with those found previously in men and women in the same age group investigated in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

A census of psychiatric cases in two contrasting communities.

During recent years members of the Medical Research Council Pneumoconiosis Research Unit have carried out a number of studies of the prevalence and incidence of common diseases in two populations in South Wales and attempted to relate differences in morbidity to known differences in social and environmental factors (Cochrane and Miall, 1956). The communities studied are the Rhondda Fach, a mining valley with a population in 1951 of 19,722 (aged over 15 years) living in a contiguous series of eight small towns, and a number of parishes in the Vale of Glamorgan, approximately ten miles from the Rhondda Fach, in which the population of 4,621 (aged over 15 years) is spread over a relatively large agricultural area. These will be referred to as the Rhondda and the Vale. They were originally chosen to provide a complete mining community (in which the prevalence of diseases of the lungs in miners and ex-miners could be estimated) and a contrasting, predominantly rural, population respectively.

Glamorgan Customs in the Eighteenth Century

THE Editor has suggested to me that I should give the readers of GWERINa short account of certain features of rural life in the Vale of Glamorgan which are referred to in eighteenthand nineteenthcentury documents. Many of these are to be found in the 1010 Morganwg MSS. in the National Library of Wales. They contain lists of old customs and festivities, and of the games which were so popular throughout Glamorgan during his lifetime. Much valuable material can also be found in a curious diary which was written by an eccentric old schoolmaster, William Thomas, who lived in Michaelston-super-Ely, within a mile of the Welsh Folk Museum in St. Fagans. He was born in 1727 and died in 1795, and from 1750 until his death he kept a diary. It is a curious document, full of gossip and scandal. In spite of the great interest which he took in the activities of the Welsh Methodist Revivalists and of the Nonconformist Ministers, he was regarded by his contemporaries as a wizard and a magician, and, indeed, it was as a great master of the 'occult arts' that he was remembered in the neighbourhood of St. Fagans for over a hundred years after his death. He was, indeed, a complex character, who duly recorded the evil doings of his contemporaries in East Glamorgan for over forty years. This perverted Calvinist condemns all rural amusements, the revels, cock-fighting, horse-races, the 'assemblies of dance and song', etc., but at the same time he sometimes gives us fairly accurate descriptions of those amusements which retained their popularity in the Vale of Glamorgan until the second half of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately the original diary has disappeared, but in 1888 a Glamorgan historian, David Jones of Wallington, a native of Llanblethian, near Cowbridge, saw the second volume. It was a bulky tome of 1296 pages, and contained all the entries made between 1762 and 1795. He did not have time to make a complete transcript, but he has given us copious extracts, with commentaries (which are invaluable for the local historian).! It is certain that the scores of entries which he did not include in his copy contained valuable material. If the original diary were to be discovered, it

Results of a chest X-ray survey in the vale of glamorgan: A study of an agricultural community

Summary In an agricultural area in South Wales, with a population of about 6,000, 95 per cent of those aged 5 or over were persuaded to have chest x-rays. The overall prevalence of infectious cases was low; 0·7 per 1,000 for females, and 1·5 per 1,000 for males. The yield of previously unknown infectious cases was 0·9 per 1,000. The prevalence of tuberculosis in the area is compared with that in the Rhondda Fach and the reasons for the differences discussed. The techniques for carrying out chest x-ray surveys are reviewed.

Notes on the Structure of some Minor Outlying Occurrences of Littoral Trias in the Vale of Glamorgan.

ABSTRACTActive or recently-active, large-scale quarrying operations within the Carboniferous Limestone Series of this area, and ranging in location from the near-junction areas to points about half a mile removed from the southern boundary of the main littoral Trias outcrops, have afforded excellent sections displaying remnants of a former Triassic cover. It is considered unlikely that the latter outliers, of limited dimensions, occur in areas further removed than about one-third of a mile south of the existing limits of the main Triassic outcrops.

Some Unusual Structures in Rhaetic Sandstones, near Cowbridge, Glamorgan

AbstractThe best known exposures of Rhaetic strata in Glamorgan are those of the Lavernock and Penarth cliff sections, where the normal black shales—thin limestones facies are displayed. In the central and west Vale of Glamorgan, however, massive sandstones are the dominant Rhaetic formation. The construction of a housing site has revealed the presence of numerous voids or cavities in these sandstones, the origin of which is attributed to decalcification.

THE PEOPLING OF THE HINTERLAND AND THE PORT OF CARDIFF

O NE of the outstanding features of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was the rapid increase in the population during the nineteenth century which doubled from 9 millions in i8o to i8 millions in I850, and again doubled itself by the end of the century. Another outstanding feature was the attractive power of industry, which drew the population from the countryside and concentrated it on the coal-fields. This process changed the whole face of the countryside, and new densely populated regions came into being in Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Scottish Lowlands, the Midlands, and parts of South Wales which before had been distinctly rural in character. At the opening of the nineteenth century the hinterland of the Port of Cardiff was already beginning to feel this attractive power of industry, but its influence was as yet relatively small and restricted to a few localities only. The two sharply divided regions of the hinterland, the one agricultural, of long standing and more or less static in character, and the other industrial, new and vigorously expanding, showed the trend of the future distribution of its population. The extent of the hinterland at that date amounted to about 504-4 square milesl and consisted of the eastern part of Glamorganshire, bounded on the east by the Rhymney River from the hamlet of Rudry to the sea; on the north by the Glamorgan-Brecknock boundary; and on the west by a line running from the Avon in a north-north-east direction to the head of the Neath Valley. The westerly and easterly margins were vague, however, since the area in the west from Bridgend to Neath overlapped with that of the natural hinterland of the Ports of Neath and Swansea, while that in the east overlapped with the natural hinterland of Newport. So scanty was the population, however, that for census purposes there were only six administrative districts, each composed of one or more civil parishes which sprawled over several valleys bearing no likeness to future urban districts. Of the total area of 504-4 square miles, the Merthyr and Aberdare districts accounted for 177 square miles, or just under 40 %, and this represented the extent of the industrial hinterland, except for isolated pockets of industry as at Llantrisant, Whitchurch and Caerphilly. At the turn of the eighteenth century, there were no more than 40,oo0 people dwelling in the whole of the hinterland and its Port, of whom a little more than one-quarter lived in the industrial districts of Merthyr and Aberdare.2 The only places which could boast of more than a thousand inhabitants were Merthyr Tydfil, Cardif, Aberdare, Llantrisant, and Coyty (near Bridgend).3 The bulk of the population outside of these small townships lived in hamlets and villages dotted over the Vale of Glamorgan

Stake-Circles in Turf Barrows: a record of excavation in Glamorgan, 1939–40

The three Barrows described in this paper are in the northern part of Llantwit Major parish in the Vale of Glamorgan. Being nameless, they are defined by (a) the nearest farmstead, and (b) the height of their crests above O.D. The work of excavation was begun on 5th December 1939 and finished on 25th February 1940. It was thus carried out during the severest winter weather of modern times. Alternations of frost and thaw played havoc with sections and floors, and prolonged delays ate into the time available. Thus in many respects the effects were irremediable, and the record suffers.

National Museum of Wales

AT a Court of Governors of the National Museum of Wales held at Aberystwyth on May 23, Lord Harlech from the chair reported on the result of his recent visit to the United States of America, when he was accompanied by Sir Cyril Fox, the director, to appeal to Welshmen in the States on behalf of the National Museum. The sum of £10,000 has already been received in response to the appeal. Lord Harlech stated that the attitude of Welsh Americans towards the Museum was such that the response would have been much greater had it not been for the international tension in Europe at the present time. The variety and range of the recent accessions to the collections of the Museum, which were reported to the governors by Sir Cyril Fox on this occasion, are an indication of the activities of the Museum in the preservation and display of objects illustrating the history and culture of the Welsh people. Among these were a collection of neolithic finds from Breconshire, a thirteenth-fifteenth century stone fireplace from the Vale of Glamorgan, and a turned chair of mid-sixteenth century date; while among objects deposited were an important collection of carved stones dated at about A.D. 1230-40 from Castell-y-Bere, and the extremely interesting iron age fire-dog found in 1852 at Carreg Coedog Farm, Denbighshire. It was also reported that the services of the Museum had been called upon by the Office of Works to report on the antiquities of Pembrokeshire, which are threatened by a tank school.

A Barrow on Breach Farm, Llanbleddian, Glamorgan

The Vale of Glamorgan (fig. 1, 1) is the middle part of the coastal plain of South Wales. An undulating belt of country much dissected by river systems, its highest parts consisting of knolls and ridges which rarely achieve a height of more than 400 ft. above sea-level, it was occupied fairly intensively throughout prehistoric times. Round barrows are found scattered throughout its length. But they are particularly concentrated in one area in the middle portion of the Vale, where, between the ancient towns of Llantwit Major on the coast, and Cowbridge, about six miles inland, between 20 and 30 have been recognised. None of these barrows has hitherto been scientifically examined, nor do they appear to have suffered damage apart from ploughing. The excavation here described was undertaken by the Archaeological Section of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society in the hope that from it might be derived definite information bearing upon the intensive Bronze Age occupation of this part of the coastal plain which the barrows clearly attest.

V.—Two Bronze Age Cairns in South Wales: Simondston and Pond Cairns, Coity Higher Parish, Bridgend

In the angle between the rivers Ogwr and Ewenny on the northern margin of the Vale of Glamorgan, east of the town of Bridgend, Brackla Hill (287 ft.) is the outstanding feature. Its pastoral slopes are linked to higher ground on the north by a saddle, on the east side of which there is a gentle fall to a tributary of the Ewenny, and on the west to a rivulet which flows into the Ogwr. Coity village lies at the point where the saddle merges into the upland.

The Coastal Plateaux of South Wales

A long the coast of South Wales is a series of plateaux, mostly at heights up to just over 400 feet above sea-level. They meet the coast in lines of cliffs, varied in character and often of great beauty. The most westerly area, in south and west Pembrokeshire, is the most perfectly developed, its level sky-line having been commented on by numerous writers (Dixon, 1921, p. 2; North, 1929, p. 23). The Gower peninsula, which is detached from the other coastal plateaux by Carmarthen and Swansea Bays, shows similar features, as does also the Vale of Glamorgan which stretches from the shores of Swansea Bay almost to Cardiff.