St Mellons

St Mellons
Welsh: Llaneirwg

St Mellons Church, Church Lane
Population 2,279 (Old St Mellons)
OS grid referenceST235815
Principal areaCardiff
Ceremonial countySouth Glamorgan
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town CARDIFF
Postcode district CF3
Dialling code 029
Police South Wales
Fire South Wales
Ambulance Welsh
EU Parliament Wales
UK ParliamentCardiff South & Penarth
List of places
UK
Wales
Cardiff
Old St Mellons

St Mellons (Welsh: Llaneirwg) is a district and suburb of northeastern Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Historically in Monmouthshire, St Mellons became part of South Glamorgan and Cardiff in 1974. It consists of Old St Mellons and a newer, much larger area of modern housing and business parks.

History

St Mellons began as a small commercial centre in the historic county of Monmouthshire, relying heavily on rural agriculture, farming and travel. Owners of coach houses or coaching inns would cater for travellers using Newport Road, the old Roman Road between Cardiff and London.

St Mellons became part of the city of Cardiff district of South Glamorgan under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974.

Origins of the name

The English name St Mellons is believed to be derived from the 6th-century Saint Melaine who became Bishop of Rennes in Brittany, rather than the more legendary 4th-century Mellonius, Bishop of Rouen. One of these bishops are known to have been born and brought up in the area where the estate now exists, though stories of the two have become hopelessly confused in many biographies over the years[1] leaving historians unsure as to which is which.

The Welsh translation of St Mellons is Llaneirwg which is made up of Llan, a Welsh word meaning 'enclosure'. Wales was originally evangelised by Celtic monks whose practice was to move into an area, and erect small premises within a fenced area - 'the enclosure'. From here they continued their work and subsequently a church would be erected on the site. The extent of the missionary activity in Wales is shown by the number of place names beginning with 'Llan' which is generally followed by the name of the missionary monk who founded the church in that place. In the case of LLaneirwg,'Eurwg' is the name of a mythical King of Gwent. Eurwg is said to have lived on the hill at St Mellons during the Romano-British era, he and his people were converted to Christianity and baptised in the nearby Rhymney River. Eurwg's church was erected near the site of the former church of 1360 and the area has since been known as Llaneirwg, literally "Church of Eirwg/Eurwg".[2]

When people refer to St Mellons, they are often not talking about the historic St Mellons, but the considerably larger and more modern housing estate which has been built to the south and east. The historic area is now referred to as 'Old St Mellons' (Welsh: Pentre Llaneirwg), while the newer estate has retained the name 'St Mellons'. Many buildings in Old St Mellons date back to the 19th century while the vast majority of buildings in St Mellons were built in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The area

St Mellons falls under two separate electoral wards. Old St Mellons combines with neighbouring Pontprennau while St Mellons joins with Trowbridge. The 2001 Census put Pontprennau & Old St. Mellons's population at 8,031 while Trowbridge was 14,801, the 4th most populated ward in Cardiff.[3] The combined population of the four districts is 22,832, 7% of Cardiff's total population.

These figures should change significantly by the time of the 2011 Census however, due to large scale infill development along the mainline railway and in Pontprennau. Plans are also afoot to regenerate the older council-owned estates in the district in line with the recent trend of constructing three-storey "town" houses.

Facilities

Church of the Resurrection, St Mellons.

The area is home to two major retail complexes. The largest features a Tesco petrol station and superstore, which hit the headlines in January 2010 when it banned customers from shopping in their nightwear,[4] The Willows (SA Brains public house) and a parade of small retail units including a hairdresser, solicitor, betting shop, dentist, fish & chip takeaway and newsagent. Plans for a massive overhaul of the site were approved in March 2009. The plans include demolition of the existing 5,000sq M store and six smaller units, to be replaced by a brand new 11,000sq M store built over a ground floor car park, however due to the economic downturn of recent years, these plans have now been axed.

The other complex, located approximately one mile away, has Shamrat (an Indian Restaurant), a Boots Chemist, doctor's surgery and two empty supermarket units which once belonged to Hyper Value and Kwik Save until both companies went into liquidation in 2006[5] and 2007.[6] Further to the east, near the A48(M) Junction, there is the 3 star St Mellons Hotel and Country Club, the St Mellons Golf Club, The Heron Marsh public house, a garden centre and furniture showroom.

In Old St Mellons there is a Texaco petrol station, newsagent and convenience store, hairdresser and a Post Office which closed in 2009.[7] There are also four public houses situated in close proximity along Newport Road: The Bluebell Inn, The Star Inn, The Coach House and The Fox and Hounds (widely believed to be one of the oldest pubs in Cardiff). These establishments were able to gain extra business on weekends by exploiting the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881. The act prohibited the sale of alcohol in Welsh establishments on the Sabbath, but St Mellons was in the ancient county of Monmouthshire[8] where the act did not take effect until 1921.[9]

There are a number of sports and leisure facilities dotted around the district, including floodlit outdoor courts, playing fields and children's play parks as well as community centres, a bowls club, job centre and St Mellons Library. There is also Hendre Lake Park; a park and man-made lake popular with local fishermen situated near the mainline railway.

Public houses in Old St Mellons

Education

St Mellons has 5 state schools: Meadowlane Primary School, St Bishop Childs Church in Wales, Oakfield Primary, Willowbrook Primary and St. Mellons Primary. It also has a private school St John's College, amongst the best performing schools in Wales, based on results.[10] The building and surrounding fields were part of the Ty-to-Maen convalescent house, which only closed in the 1970s. The surrounding land was sold off for housing in the late 1990s following the death of the house's former owner William Nicholls, who now has a street on the estate named after him. Proposals for another primary school in the Kwik Save area quietly disappeared owing to a shortage of pupils and the plot, after becoming an attractive patch of natural heathland, is now being developed for housing.

There are no learning institutions in the suburb for secondary, tertiary or higher education students (other than fee-payers at St John's College). Three secondary schools in the Rumney/ Llanrumney area (Eastern, Llanrumney and St Illtyds) mop up most secondary school pupils, who are expected to travel by bus or car to these establishments from St Mellons (at their own expense). Proposals in former years for a secondary school in the Tesco/ Cath Cobb Woods area have been abandoned and strategically forgotten about.

Tertiary education is handled at the Cardiff and Vale College or St David's Catholic College (which also admits non-Catholics).

Business park

St Mellons Business Park, Fortran Road

The St Mellons Business Park is a collection of large scale business parks located on low-lying land east of St Mellons considered to be Cardiff's green belt. It has a vast number of factories and office units which have been (or are still) occupied by such companies as Capita, Gilesports, TBI, and Lloyds TSB. A number of roads in and around the business parks are named after computer programming languages, namely Pascal, COBOL and Fortran.

Conservation area

Old St Mellons has been deemed an area of special architectural or historical interest and lies in a conservation area which Cardiff County Council first adopted in 1977. The area was reassessed and updated in July 2007 to cover a smaller land area.[9] A number of Grade II listed buildings lie inside the boundary of the conservation area including the Bluebell and Coach House (previously named White Hart) public houses, St Johns College, the two churches and the Kingdom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses. The Fox and Hounds public house, though widely considered an important landmark, is only covered by a local listing.

Coastal defences

Much of the newer estates were built on the Wentloog Levels, areas of low-lying farmland which regularly became flooded until they were reclaimed from the sea during Roman times. A system of drainage reens and sluice gates together with a seawall which runs from the River Usk in the east to the Rhymney River in the west protect the area from the risk of coastal flooding as the land is still only a few metres above sea level.

Wildlife

Despite large scale development, a lot of wildlife can still be seen especially to the eastern fringe: foxes, rabbits, grey squirrels, buzzards, herons, moorhens, swans, mallards, green woodpeckers and many other birds are a common sight.

Transport

Cardiff Bus services 30, 44 and 45 serve the area. Services run frequently between the area and Cardiff Central Station.

There is no local railway station, despite Hendre Lake park being adjacent to the Freight Terminal Port, situated along the main line between Cardiff and Newport. The nearest main line station is Cardiff Central.

Main roads have a 30 mph speed limit, except for a section of Newport Road which is 40 mph. There are no permanent speed cameras and very few speed bumps, pedestrian crossings or traffic lights. A number of road-related deaths in recent years has led to residents campaigning that these traffic calming measures be implemented before more lives are lost.[11] In late 2008, Cardiff Council began implementing new traffic calming measures outside the primary schools, including zebra crossings and speed bumps.

The area is located next to Junction 29a of the A48 (M)/Eastern Avenue Junction, where the A48 continues eastbound through Coedkernew and the A48(M) rejoins the M4.

Proposed M4 relief road

Plans are in place to utilise the area's motorway links by creating a new dual carriageway. The St Mellons / Wentloog Link road would become part of the Cardiff Ring Road, crossing the railway line to serve the existing freight terminal and industrial land built on the Wentloog Levels.[12]

The plans, however, are not without objection from local residents who fear their health, safety and the value of their homes will all be affected. The road is set be built in low-lying marsh land, which is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Read more about Melaine and Mellonius
  2. ↑ BBC | Heol Maes Eirwg
  3. ↑ 2001 Census, Ranked Tables
  4. ↑ "Tesco ban on shoppers in pyjamas". BBC. 2010-01-28.
  5. ↑ BBC | Hyper Value closing 9 stores
  6. ↑ BBC | Kwik Save to close 79 shops
  7. ↑ BBC | Post Office to close 29 branches
  8. ↑ The ambiguous "Welsh / English" status of the Historic County of Monmouthshire has long been disputed, read more on this related wikipedia page
  9. 1 2 Old St Mellons Conservation area
  10. ↑ Top School in Wales 2007
  11. ↑ BBC | 24-hour demo after toddler death
  12. ↑ Keep Cardiff Moving
Pontprennau Castleton
Llanrumney St Mellons Marshfield
Rumney Wentloog Peterstone

Coordinates: 51°31′38″N 3°06′15″W / 51.52721°N 3.10414°W / 51.52721; -3.10414

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