Wenvoe
Encyclopedia
Wenvoe is a Welsh
village
between Barry and Cardiff
in the Vale of Glamorgan
, Wales
. Nearby is the Wenvoe Transmitter
near Twyn-yr-Odyn
and the HTV Wales Television Centre at Culverhouse Cross
in the suburb
s of Cardiff
.
community for centuries, Wenvoe, while still a farming village to an extent, has doubled in population in the last hundred years due to the vast amount of high-end property created by both the government and private developers. The village originally developed around the parish church
of St. Mary, which can be traced back to the twelfth century with the adjacent locality now being a conservation area. Wenvoe is recorded as having belonged to the De Sully, le Fleming and Malefaunt famililies in the later medieval periods. After being escheated to the crown the castle belonged successively to the Thomas, Birt and Jenner families. Major development occurred in the 1770s but much of this was oblitterated by a fire in 1910.Some medieval or earlier fortification is also known to have existed in wooded hillside at Wrinstone .
, a parish church
, primary school, hotel, a part-time library, barber
and three village hall
s.
It is home to three pubs
(two that have been in the village for hundreds of years - The Wenvoe Arms
and The Horse & Jockey at nearby Twyn-yr-Odyn, both of which are protected buildings - and the more recent Walston Castle) and many acres of forestry and fields. There is also another church at St Lythans.
Wenvoe has a very healthy community spirit which supports a number of local community groups. Amongst these are Wenvoe Scout Group
, the Village Quaffers, Ladies Choir, Youth Club and of course the Church. Wenvoe won 'Best Kept Village in the Vale of Glamorgan' in 2005 and again in 2007. It is served by its own monthly newspaper
titled the Wenvoe What's On. A new venture is the annual Village Show convened every September at the Community Centre hosted by the village Scout Group. This is an opportunity for any resident to participate by submitting their art, craft, cookery or gardening successes for impartial judging.
Wenvoe is a popular village as it is convenient for the city of Cardiff. Despite being a commuter village unfortunately it no longer has a railway line which was the victim of the "Beeching Axe
" of the 1960s.The route of the old line remains but is now heavily overgrown, grazed by farm animals and to a great extent innaccesible. The old railway station is now a family dwelling.
The St Lythans
Burial Chamber is only 2 km (1¼ miles) west of Wenvoe, or about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) by road, past the village of S Lythans . The St Lythans Burial Chamber is a single stone Megalithic dolmen
, built around 6,000 BP
(before present
) as part of a Chambered long barrow
, during the Neolithic
period.
The Tinkinswood Burial Chamber
is about 3.5 km (2½ miles) north west of Wenvoe, near the village of St Nicholas
, or about 6 km (3¾ miles) by road towards Bonvilston
. Tinkinswood is a more extensive cromlech
than St Lythans, which it may have once resembled, and was constructed during the same period.
Between the St Lythans and the Tinkinswood Burial Chambers lies Dyffryn Gardens
, the estate to which both burial chambers once belonged.
Dyffryn Gardens is a collection of botanical garden
s located near the village of St. Nicholas. They were selected by the British Tourism Association as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
between Barry and Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
in the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Nearby is the Wenvoe Transmitter
Wenvoe Transmitter
The Wenvoe transmitting station is a facility for broadcasting and telecommunications situated close to the village of Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, in the UK. It comprises a guyed mast with antennas attached at various heights. The mast plus the Main UHF antenna on top now gives a...
near Twyn-yr-Odyn
Twyn-yr-Odyn
Twyn-yr-Odyn is a hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan, southeast Wales, just beyond the territorial border of western Cardiff. It lies just southwest of Culverhouse Cross, very close to Wenvoe and St Lythans. The Wenvoe Transmitter is located here. It is home to a pub named the Horse and Jockey...
and the HTV Wales Television Centre at Culverhouse Cross
Culverhouse Cross
Culverhouse Cross is suburban district in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying on the border with the Vale of Glamorgan.The busy Culverhouse Cross roundabout is an important part of the primary road network to the west of the city and connects the A4232 , the A4050 , and...
in the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s of Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
History
Maintaining a thriving farmingAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
community for centuries, Wenvoe, while still a farming village to an extent, has doubled in population in the last hundred years due to the vast amount of high-end property created by both the government and private developers. The village originally developed around the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of St. Mary, which can be traced back to the twelfth century with the adjacent locality now being a conservation area. Wenvoe is recorded as having belonged to the De Sully, le Fleming and Malefaunt famililies in the later medieval periods. After being escheated to the crown the castle belonged successively to the Thomas, Birt and Jenner families. Major development occurred in the 1770s but much of this was oblitterated by a fire in 1910.Some medieval or earlier fortification is also known to have existed in wooded hillside at Wrinstone .
Amenities
The village has a village shop with a post officePost office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
, a parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, primary school, hotel, a part-time library, barber
Barber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
and three village hall
Village hall
In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...
s.
It is home to three pubs
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
(two that have been in the village for hundreds of years - The Wenvoe Arms
The Wenvoe Arms
The Wenvoe Arms is a village pub in Wenvoe .Dating back to the late 18th century, the pub has been a focal point of the village for many years - from its days as a tight-knit farming...
and The Horse & Jockey at nearby Twyn-yr-Odyn, both of which are protected buildings - and the more recent Walston Castle) and many acres of forestry and fields. There is also another church at St Lythans.
Scout Group
The Scout Group is the local organisation for Scouting in most countries where it is active. It combines together the different sections into a single body. Scout Groups can consist of any number of sections in the different Age Groups in Scouting and Guiding...
, the Village Quaffers, Ladies Choir, Youth Club and of course the Church. Wenvoe won 'Best Kept Village in the Vale of Glamorgan' in 2005 and again in 2007. It is served by its own monthly newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
titled the Wenvoe What's On. A new venture is the annual Village Show convened every September at the Community Centre hosted by the village Scout Group. This is an opportunity for any resident to participate by submitting their art, craft, cookery or gardening successes for impartial judging.
Wenvoe is a popular village as it is convenient for the city of Cardiff. Despite being a commuter village unfortunately it no longer has a railway line which was the victim of the "Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
" of the 1960s.The route of the old line remains but is now heavily overgrown, grazed by farm animals and to a great extent innaccesible. The old railway station is now a family dwelling.
Local attractions
St Lythans
St Lythans is an affluent hamlet and former parish in the Vale of Glamorgan, southeast Wales, just outside of western Cardiff. It lies southwest of Culverhouse Cross, west of Wenvoe and southwest of Twyn-yr-Odyn and is also connected by road from Dyffryn and the Five Mile Lane in the west...
Burial Chamber is only 2 km (1¼ miles) west of Wenvoe, or about 4.5 km (2.8 mi) by road, past the village of S Lythans . The St Lythans Burial Chamber is a single stone Megalithic dolmen
Dolmen
A dolmen—also known as a portal tomb, portal grave, dolmain , cromlech , anta , Hünengrab/Hünenbett , Adamra , Ispun , Hunebed , dös , goindol or quoit—is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of...
, built around 6,000 BP
5th millennium BC
The 5th millennium BC saw the spread of agriculture from the Near East throughout southern and central Europe.Urban cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia flourished, developing the wheel. Copper ornaments became more common, marking the Chalcolithic. Animal husbandry spread throughout Eurasia,...
(before present
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
) as part of a Chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrow
Chambered long barrows are a type of megalithic burial monument found in the British Isles in the Neolithic.Long barrows either contained wooden or stone burial structures beneath the barrow and the surviving megalithic stone in the latter means that they are the ones referred to by archaeologists...
, during the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
period.
Tinkinswood
Tinkinswood or its full name Tinkinswood Burial Chamber , also known as Castell Carreg, Llech-y-Filiast and Maes-y-Filiast, is a megalithic burial chamber, built around 6,000 BP , during the Neolithic period, in the Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales.The structure is called a dolmen, which was...
is about 3.5 km (2½ miles) north west of Wenvoe, near the village of St Nicholas
St. Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan
St. Nicholas is a small village in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It lies 2 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 7 miles from its city centre.- Amenities & History :...
, or about 6 km (3¾ miles) by road towards Bonvilston
Bonvilston
Bonvilston is a village in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village is situated on the A48 about four miles east of Cowbridge and near the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.- History & Amenities :...
. Tinkinswood is a more extensive cromlech
Cromlech
Cromlech is a Brythonic word used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archaeology, but remains in use as a colloquial term for two different types of megalithic monument.In English it usually...
than St Lythans, which it may have once resembled, and was constructed during the same period.
Between the St Lythans and the Tinkinswood Burial Chambers lies Dyffryn Gardens
Dyffryn Gardens
Dyffryn Gardens is a collection of botanical gardens located near the village of St. Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The gardens were selected by the British Tourist Authority as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.-History of The Dyffryn Estate:...
, the estate to which both burial chambers once belonged.
Dyffryn Gardens is a collection of botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
s located near the village of St. Nicholas. They were selected by the British Tourism Association as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.