Glamorgan History
Welsh History
This morning I was interested to read of a recently-discovered Bronze Age road (the wooden kind) in the region of Kenfig. Soon after that (this morning that is, not after the Bronze Age), I found an old book in a cupboard. The book, by CJO Evans, was first published in 1938 and this particular edition appears to be from 1946; it's calledGlamorgan, ItsHistory and Topography (still available secondhandonline, including Amazon.co.uk) and contains some verypleasing pictures as well as the interesting text. I've only just started delving into it but have already found some fascinating facts; for example, Sir Edward Stradling (ofSt Donat's - 1529 to 1609) was a 'cultured and gifted' man. He travelled abroad and was said to have the best private library of the period. He bore the expense of printing A Grammar of the Welsh Language and was the prime mover in the establishment of a Grammar School at Cowbridge.
The book also tells us of the original inhabitants of Britain and the subsequent immigrants. The Iberians (short and dark) were the first and followed by the taller, fairer, Gauls and Brythons. Evans explains that the woad-wearing inhabitants of Britain were really confined to the Belgae who came here not long before the Romans and lived peacefully in what is now south and south east England, alongside the "Celts".
Somewhere I was not aware of is Merthyr Mawr, an idyllic chocolate box village of thatched cottages (apparently still very much the same, according to the internet). Merthyr Mawr dunes were used in the filming of Lawrence of Arabia.
Just skimming through the book, I can see that there are Bronze Age and Roman settlements of which I had not heard so I shall get stuck in and find out more.
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:11PM
