Welsh Journals

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EARLY CARDIFF. WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF ITS STREET-NAMES AND SURROUNDING PLACE-NAMES. D. R. PATERSON, M.D., F.S.A. The origin of Cardiff, like that of most medieval towns, is wrapped in obscurity, though there are reasons for thinking that its roots go deep into the past. It occupies a Roman site, and its position, not on the sea but on a navigable river a mile from its mouth, presents advantages, military and commercial, generally associated with an ancient settlement. Written records contain no reference to it, however, and only in Norman times does its name first come into the light of day. This is in connection with an event in 1081, the year in which William the Conqueror paid his visit to Wales. The Normans were not given to occupy uninhabited sites, and when they made Cardiff the caput or head of a great marcher lordship it is more than likely that they found some form of organised community already there. It is through the Norman records that our knowledge of early Cardiff comes. We find it then fully formed as a town, styled a borough, with legal and administrative machinery, palisaded for defence, the seat of trade, and in possession of a noble castle," which was later the admiration of Giraldus. But the records permit us to travel further back from the known to the unknown," for they supply data in the form of names of places which enable us to reconstruct in some measure the still earlier history of the town. The history of words is but the history of the ideas they express, and the scientific study of place-names has proved its value as a help to historical investigation. From this angle an examination of the available data may throw light upon the origin of the