Merthyr Dyfan

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Merthyr Dyfan
District of Barry and parish/ward
Merthyr Dyfan parish church.jpg
The parish church of St Dyfan and St Teilo
Location map Wales Vale of Glamorgan Barry.png
Red pog.svg
Merthyr Dyfan
Location in Barry
Coordinates: 51°25′14″N3°16′15″W / 51.42056°N 3.27083°W / 51.42056; -3.27083
Country United Kingdom
Region Wales
County Vale of Glamorgan
Town Barry
Population
 (2011)
  Total5,166
 (ward) [1]
Time zone UTC+0 (GMT)
Area code(s) CF

Merthyr Dyfan or Dyfan is a northeastern suburb of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, in south Wales, formerly an independent medieval village. It is also an ecclesiastical parish [2] and a formal[ clarification needed ] electoral ward of the Vale of Glamorgan. It borders Colcot to the west, Buttrills to the southwest and Gibbonsdown to the southeast. Its main roads are Merthyr Dyfan Road, a hilly road leading down from the A4050 road (Port Road) which leads into Wenvoe and Cardiff; and Skomer Road which separates it from Gibbonsdown and eventually also leads to the A4050 road. Merthyr Dyfan contains an old parish church, Barry Rugby Club, Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School and the Master Mariner Pub and Holm View Leisure Centre, although the last two could be considered to be in northern Gibbonsdown.

Contents

History

Although the usual modern meaning of the Welsh word merthyr (from the Greek μαρτυς, μαρτυρος "witness") is 'martyr', the word formerly also indicated a martyrium, a martyr's grave or a structure or church erected at such a grave. [4] [5] Similar examples, all in south Wales, are Merthyr Cynog, Merthyr Tydfil, and Merthyr Mawr. Of the Dyfan who presumably inspired the name, nothing seems to be known, although the Iolo Manuscripts collected by Edward Williams have led to his popular conflation with the St Deruvian who was added to the King   Lucius legends in the 12th century. Owing to Williams's numerous forgeries and additions to other texts, however, this identification is now generally discredited. [6] Baring-Gould notes Deruvian's "whole history, from beginning to end, is a pure fabrication, and the church of Merthyr Dyfan has been made to serve as a peg to hang it on". [7] The earliest historic church at the site was credited (and then dedicated) to St Teilo in the 6th century. [8] The current church is Norman, built in the early 13th century, and was consecrated by Bishop   William de Burgh of Llandaff in 1250. [9] The church fell into neglect during the Reformation period but was fully restored in the late 19th century. [9] In 1970 it underwent renovation: amongst other things, the windows were reglazed and the church was reroofed in Welsh slate. [9] It is now formally dedicated to both Saints  Dyfan and Teilo [10] and as recently as 2010 the local parish continued to claim it to be the oldest Christian site in Wales, citing the legends concerning King Lucius. [11] [12]

The village of Merthyr Dyfan grew up during the medieval period. The centre of the original village and church are located in what today is the southwestern-most part of Merthyr Dyfan district. It was originally located around 53 to 68 m (174 to 223 ft) above sea level. [13] The centre of the medieval village was excavated by a local man, G. Tyley, between 1968 and 1978. [13] In 1969 he excavated and examined an old corn-drying kiln at the site. The Merthyr Dyfan Chapel is located near the Barry Cemetery to the south, which is actually in the district of Buttrills.

Housing development grew up along Merthyr Dyfan hill, north of the original village, in the early 1950s, and the area to the northwest became a council estate, Colcot. Further extensive development took place between the 1960s and the 1980s, with the building of Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School, and housing estates to the east and southeast (Lundy Park). Holm View Leisure Centre was built around 1990.

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Dinas Powys Human settlement in Wales

Dinas Powys is a large village and a community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales which takes its name from the ancient Welsh for stronghold, (Dinas) and pagus,(Powys) the Latin word for pagan. The literal meaning, therefore, being, "Pagan Stronghold", referring to Dinas Powys hillfort that dates from the Iron Age. The village is 5.6 miles (9.0 km) south-west of the centre of Cardiff and conveniently situated on the A4055 Cardiff to Barry main road, almost merging with Penarth. It is generally regarded as a pleasant dormitory village for Cardiff's commerce and industry commuters since the city has expanded with widespread development around the Cardiff Bay area.

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St. Brides Major is a village within the community also called St Brides Major in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales.

Colcot District of Barry in Wales

Colcot is a northern district of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, in the Dyfan ward of South Wales. Dyfan ward is situated in the north west of Barry and its most northern edge is on the green belt of the town. Port Road West runs through the ward and is the main route to Cardiff and Cardiff International Airport in Rhoose. Dyfan benefits from a sports centre and Buttrills recreation field and The Barry Hospital can be found on Colcot Road. It also contains the Colcot Primary School, the Colcot Arms pub, the St David's Methodist Church, Coastlands Family Church, a fish and chip shop/Chinese takeaway, Barry Arts Centre and Merthyr Dyfan Cemetery.

Gibbonsdown District of Barry in Wales

Gibbonsdown, colloquially known as 'Gibby', is a residential area and electoral ward situated in the north east of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Gibbonsdown borders Merthyr Dyfan to the northwest and Cadoxton to the southeast.

Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School Comprehensive school in Barry, South Glamorgan, , Wales

Pencoedtre High School, formerly called the Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School, is located in Merthyr Dyfan on the outskirts of the town of Barry near Cardiff in Wales. It was opened in 1971. Pencoedtre was an 11-19 girls' comprehensive school for approximately 1,300 students. But since 2018 the school has mixed and is now a mixed-sex school. It shares a mixed-sex joint 6th form with Barry Comprehensive School, a boys' school.

Buttrills District of Barry and ward in Wales

Buttrills is a northwestern-central district of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, in south Wales. It is also an electoral ward of the Vale of Glamorgan, the population of which taken at the 2011 census was 6,357. The centre of education in Barry in the early twentieth century, Buttrills today contains notable playing fields and Barry Cemetery.

Saint Teilo Welsh bishop and saint

Saint Teilo, also known by his Cornish name Eliud, was a British Christian monk, bishop, and founder of monasteries and churches. He was from Penalun (Penally) near Tenby in Pembrokeshire, south Wales.

Great Brynhill Human settlement in Wales

Great Brynhill is a small hamlet and farm in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. It consists little more than a few farms including the Little Brynhill Farm and Thorn Falcon Farm and the Great Brynhill Farm. It is located in the historical parish of Merthyr Dyfan and near Colcot now northern districts of the town of Barry. It is accessed via a lane from Port Road but can also be accessed from Dyffryn along the lane to the New Wallace Farm and Goldsland which lie just to the northeast.

Fagan (saint) Welsh saint

Fagan, also known by other names including Fugatius, was a legendary 2nd-century Welsh bishop and saint, said to have been sent by the pope to answer King Lucius's request for baptism and conversion to Christianity. Together with his companion St Deruvian, he was sometimes reckoned as the apostle of Britain.

Deruvian saint

Deruvian, also known by several other names including Damian, was a possibly legendary 2nd-century bishop and saint, said to have been sent by the pope to answer King Lucius's request for baptism and conversion to Christianity. Together with his companion St Fagan, he was sometimes reckoned as the apostle of Britain. King Lucius's letter may represent earlier traditions but does not appear in surviving sources before the 6th century; the names of the bishops sent to him does not appear in sources older than the early 12th century, when their story was used to support the independence of the bishops of St Davids in Wales and the antiquity of the Glastonbury Abbey in England. The story became widely known following its appearance in Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudohistorical History of the Kings of Britain. This was influential for centuries and its account of SS Fagan and Deruvian was used during the English Reformation to support the claims of both the Catholics and Protestants. Geoffrey's account is now considered wholly implausible, but Christianity was well-established in Roman Britain by the third century. Some scholars therefore argue the stories preserve a more modest account of the conversion of a Romano-British chieftain, possibly by Roman emissaries by these names.

Pencoedtre District of Barry in Wales

Pencoedtre or Pencoetre, also known as Pencoedtre Village, is a northeastern suburb of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It borders Gibbonsdown to the southwest and Cadoxton to the south. It has developed from a small farming hamlet into an extensive housing estate in recent years. Pencoedtre Wood is one of the largest areas of woodland in the town, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Pencoedtre Park is located between Pencoedtre and Gibbonsdown.

Dyfan Welsh saint

Saint Dyfan is a highly obscure figure who was presumably the namesake of Merthyr Dyfan and therefore an early Christian saint and martyr in southeastern Wales in Roman or Sub-Roman Britain. He is sometimes styled the protomartyr of Wales. The erection of his martyrium was credited to the 6th-century St Teilo. In the 19th century, Edward Williams conflated him with St Deruvian, a figure in the legendary accounts of the baptism of King Lucius of Britain. The discovery of Williams's alterations and forgeries have since discredited this connection. Partially based on this connection, however, the church of Merthyr Dyfan dates his martyrdom to c. 180.

Saint Dyfan was an obscure Welsh martyr and saint.

Barry Town Council

Barry Town Council is an elected town council serving Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, one of the largest towns in Wales.

References

  1. "Ward population 2011" . Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  2. Merthyr Dyfan L084 Archived 19 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine , The Church in Wales. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  3. University of Wales Dictionary , vol. III, page 2436.
  4. The Cornish and Breton language equivalents, in place names, are merther and merzher. [3]
  5. Y Geiriadur Mawr just gives bedd (sant) for the obsolete meaning.
  6. Bartrum, Peter C. "Duvianus (1)", in A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A. D. 1000, p. 236. National Library of Wales, 1993. Emended 2009.
  7. Baring-Gould, Sabine & al. The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain, Vol. II, pp. 394395. Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London), 1911.
  8. Rees, Rice (1836). An essay on the Welsh saints or the primitive Christians ... founders of churches in Wales. Longman. p. 87.
  9. 1 2 3 "Parish of Merthyr Dyfan, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan". merthyrdyfan.org.uk. Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
  10. The Church in Wales. "St Dyfan and Teilo". Representative Body of the Church in Wales, 2014. Accessed 3 February 2015.
  11. The Church in Wales. "The Parish of Merthyr Dyfan: Barry, South Wales". Parish of Merthyr Dyfan (Merthyr Dyfan), 2010. Hosted at the Internet Archive. Accessed 3 February 2015.
  12. In fact, the Lucius legends never accorded such a place to Merthyr Dyfan, were developed as a means of buttressing the antiquity of Glastonbury , and (when places in Wales were mentioned) involved foundations at Llandaff rather than Merthyr Dyfan. See Lucius of Britain and Saints  Deruvian and Fagan.
  13. 1 2 Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales (1976). An inventory of the ancient monuments in Glamorgan. H.M.S.D.