Gwaelod-y-Garth
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place
Template:Langnf; Template:IPA) is a village in the community of Pentyrch, Cardiff in Wales.
Location
Gwaelod-y-garth is located in Taff Valley at the foot of Garth Hill, Template:Convert north of central Cardiff and Template:Convert south of Pontypridd. The castle of Castell Coch is within reach of the village, by car or on foot.
History
In Elizabethan times, Gwaelod-y-Garth was noted for its iron-ore mines. The mines were opened between 1565 and 1625, and re-opened in the 19th century by the Blackmoor Booker company. In the early 1990s, a campaign was held to save the site.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Self-published inline
The Pentyrch Iron Works was opened in Gwaelod-y-Garth in 1740 (Gwaelod-y-Garth was then in the parish of Pentyrch). It supplied iron to the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works in Whitchurch, about Template:Convert downriver.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1812 a tramway was constructed to the Mellingriffith Works; in 1871 this was upgraded to the standard-gauge Melingriffith and Pentyrch Railway.<ref>Template:Coflein</ref> An Ordnance Survey map revised in 1915 shows the works as 'disused'.<ref>Template:Cite map</ref> The forge from the ironworks was demolished in 1977<ref>Template:Coflein</ref> and the site is now used for housing.
Amenities
Amenities include a Royal Mail collection point, Garth Tyres yard and a police car park, from where South Wales Police Roads Policing Unit is run. There is also a large playing field named Heol Berry, where local amateur football team Gwaelod Rangers plays. At the top end of the village is the village pub, the Gwaelod Y Garth Inn. Situated in the village is Gwaelod-y-Garth Primary School, a school that educates through both the medium of Welsh and English. The students are separated into two sections of the school (English and Welsh). The village has a Welsh medium chapel called Bethlehem built in 1832.
Notable residents
- Dr. Mary Gillham, naturalist, one of the first women to visit Antarctica, in 1959.