Rhiwbina Village Walk

The Garden Village really is an anachronism; an estate designed before the advent of the motor car, electricity, even the telephone. Designed by forward-thinking planners and academics in an attempt to provide better housing for local workers

It’s an estate of pre-WWI rented cream-coloured houses with green-painted windows all under steeply slated roofs, and half-hidden behind neatly managed hedges. The houses, each privately-owned now are eagerly sought-after, and all protected within a conservation area

Map of Conservation Area (courtesy of Cardiff CC). 

Unlike most local cottages of the time, each house in the Garden Village was provided with running water, gas for lighting and cooking, and a garden for growing vegetables and flowers

‘Rhubina Fields’ as it was first called, probably developed because a convenient railway link had just been established nearby, together with a better bus service to Cardiff

With Prof Stanley Jevons, the Cardiff Workers’ Cooperative Garden Village Society had been formed in 1911 and had acquired options on 110 acres of land from the local Pentwyn Estate - at a cost of £200 an acre! There were great plans for this pioneering project. Based on the early-twentieth century developments at Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth, the ‘Rhubina’ village was originally planned to provide over a thousand houses

Raymond Unwin, one of the principal planners on the Hampstead Garden Suburb was invited to join the cooperative to produce a design for this new project. His exciting layout demonstrated what the potential really was. Sadly, only a tiny part of his thousand-home scheme ever came to fruition; only 189 were ever built

The first 34 houses, along Pen-y-Dre, Lon-y-Dial and Y Groes had been built by 1913, but because of the outbreak of WWI, the remaining 155 wouldn’t be built until the 1920s

By 1916, T Alwyn Lloyd - an assistant to Raymond Unwin - produced a revised layout for the now renamed ‘Rhiwbina Garden Village’. The layout reproduced here shows just how large the scheme might have been

The small part already constructed around Pen-y-Dre and Y Groes is shown hatched, but the remainder is enormous. It extended west as far as Pantmawr Road and followed the railway line to the south. The grainy illustration is difficult to read, but gives a real flavour of the ‘dream’

Like other pioneering garden village schemes, it envisaged long tree-lined avenues of houses with prominent views. There were proposed developments for municipal buildings at important junctions. And there were squares - a bit like Y Groes - incorporated strategically throughout the development to form local interest

A square was proposed at Rhiwbina Halt, where the library/hub now is, and another even grander square further along, with Whitchurch station forming one side

Pentwyn - a thatched farmhouse back then - formed one of the ‘end stops’ of an avenue at the far western end The farm pond was even incorporated as a corner feature on an informal junction

T Alwyn Lloyd envisaged a substantial and important building to close the view at the end of Lon Isa. Ironically this didn’t happen, but he designed and built a house for himself on the very spot! The house was built about 1920, and he called it Hafod Lwyd. I’m sure he’d be pleased that it’s the only house in the conservation area outside the ‘boundary’

And what about the rest of the land proposed for the garden village? The land option lapsed in 1912, and an embryonic golf club acquired the land instead. Pentwyn, the ancient thatch-roofed farmhouse became the new clubhouse, and the farm pond - envisaged by T Alwyn Lloyd as a special feature in his design – became a water hazard on the course instead!

And what happened to T Alwyn Lloyd? Well, he moved into his new home in Heol Wen, and set up in practice in Cathedral Road. He later invited one of his junior architects Alex Gordon, to join him in partnership; becoming one of the largest and most important post-WW2 architectural practices in Cardiff, and designing so many of the important buildings in Wales we know today

Rhubina Fields as envisaged c1912

 

THE WALK THROUGH RHIWBINA GARDEN VILLAGE

 

1          Starting at Heol-y-Deri, opposite Beulah Chape

            The garage was originally the Estate Office for the Garden Village developments

Walk down Pen-y-Dre. This short length of road was originally called Homfrey Road

The terraced houses on the south side are set back from the road. Interestingly, they are only accessed via small footbridges over the stream, Nant Waedlyd – the Bloody Brook

The houses on both sides are some of the earliest, and were built by 1914

2           There is an interpretation board and plaque outside the library/hub

Turn right into Lon-y-Dail and enjoy the tree-lined avenue with grassed verges and sets of semi-detached houses set behind neatly clipped hedges

3          After 50m or so, turn east onto the footpath leading back towards the village shops. There are tantalising glimpses of the houses and rear gardens, and the incredibly informal clutter of later garages. There were so few cars when the village was first built! Originally, this was the maintenance yard

4          At the junction with Lon Fach discover the ‘Wendy House’ within its tiny garden and clipped hedges

            Used as a meeting room for the Residents Association, and also as ARP station during WWII

Turn left and follow the path leading north into Y Groes

5          This formal square with its grassed central island were the first houses to be built by 1912

In the southwest corner is a house with the first (of four) blue plaques; the home of Edgar Chappell

On the north side, adjacent houses have commemorative plaques, the first with a sundial and the second memorialising the co-operative movement who built the houses

6          Leave Y Groes on the western side of the square, leading back onto Lon-y-Dail. Carefully cross the road and turn south for 20m and enter a tree-lined footpath into Parc-y-Pentre

Originally planned to be a formal square of houses, much like Y Groes, the space was originally a simple playing field, and then formally opened as Parc-y-Pentre in April 1960

7          Follow the footpath on the south side and turn into the short footpath leading into Pen-y-Dre

The railway line and Parc Caedelyn lie just behind the houses to the south. The view east shows some of the last houses to be built in 1920-22

8          Double-back into the park and follow the footpath to the north, onto Lon Isa. These semi-detached houses are also some of the last to be built

9           Turn west and walk to the junction with Heol Wen.

The house opposite, called Hafod Lwyd was the home of T Alwyn Lloyd - last architect of the scheme

His house defines the western end of the garden village

Just to the north, and outside the conservation area is the second blue plaque, the home of Cyril Fox

10        Retracing your footsteps eastwards along Lon Isa, there is a short footpath leading northward, to the greens of Rhiwbina Bowls Club. Continue eastwards; at the junction with Lon-y-Dail is the third blue plaque, the home of Iorwerth Peate

11         Carefully crossing the road, and continuing along Lon Isa you will find the fourth blue plaque - the home of Kate Roberts

12         Approaching the junction with Heol-y-Deri you can choose two routes. The first, walking along Heol-y-

Deri sees a few of the garden village houses on the busy main road. An alternative – and perhaps the safer route – leads south along the rear lane. There are glimpses into the rear gardens and the elevational treatments of the same houses, before returning to the ‘Wendy House’

A final turn eastwards along Lon Fach, skirting the conservation area, brings you back to the starting point, and the shops of Rhiwbina Village. These are all worth exploring, as are the various coffee shops

 

BLUE PLAQUE DETAILS:

 

Edgar Chappell             Social Reformer, Local Historian and Secretary to Prof Stanley Jevons

Sir Cyril Fox                  Archaeologist and Keeper of Archaeology at National Museum of Wales

Iorwerth Peate              Founder of Amgueddfa Werin/Welsh Folk Museum

Kate Roberts                 Author and founder member of Plaid Cymru

 

 

 

TRANSLATIONS OF STREET NAMES/PLACES:

 

Rhiwbina                       named after a local hilltop farm. It is an ancient name possibly relating to a slope of pine trees – but there are many other suggestions

 

Hafod Lwyd                   Pale Summerhouse

Heol-y-Deri                   Oak Road

Heol Wen                     White Road

Lon Fach                      Little Lane

Lon Ganol                     Middle Lane

Lon Isa                         Lower Lane

Lon Ucha                      High Lane

Parc-y-Pentre               The Village Park

Pen-y-Dre                     End of the Village

Y Groes                        The Square

 

We hope you have enjoyed this walk through the Garden Village

 

Ask at the Library/Hub or email awen.cymru@gmail.com for more information about AWEN and the Rhiwbina Local History Group for regular meetings and events.