Cowbridge, Glamorgan Beggars Bush 1811

This is a curious record. Although there is a vey precise grid reference in a modern official document it doesn’t seem to relate to any current feature. However, the name, in English, can be traced back via the writings of a major figure in the Druidic and Welsh language revival.

Papers deposited with the House of  Commons library give a very precise OS Map Reference for Entry 182 on a very long list of residual railway holdings, described as an “overbridge” over a private road in the Vale of Glamorgan.

L.J. Hopkin-James, Old Cowbridge (Cowbridge 1922, p.134), discusses the records compiled by Iolo Morganwg of Druidical remains in Glamorgan. Hopkins-Clark says his entry for Cowbridge is in all probability “the White Stone, as Gorseddgylch y Beggar’s Bush, a symmudwyd gan Dr. Walton, that is the Gorsedd circle removed by Dr. Walton (a subscriber to the Glamorgan Agricultural Society in 1783).” He goes on to say that “Beggar’s Bush is just outside Cowbridge on the Llandough Road.” According to Appendix (pp.263-4) the entry is from Iolo Morganwg’s Llanover MS. C. 74, p. 227. [A.D.] 1811. The name is given in English in the list taken from that, as are a few others in the predominantly Welsh language list, so the name must have been used in that form before 1811.

Richard Morgan tells me: the name Beggar’s Bush no longer seems to be current, and that the bridge must have been where Llandough Road crossed the old railway running south from Cowbridge to link with the Barry-Bridgend railway near East Aberthaw. There is no bridge at the grid reference in the record. The only important one over the railway was at Eastfield House, Cowbridge (SS 999743).

The following advertisement appeared in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette of 17 March 1855 : –

SALE OF PRIME HAY. MESSRS. REYNOLDS & THOMAS BEG to announce that they have been favoured with instructions from G. W. TOOGOOD, Esq., to SELL BY AUCTION, at the BEAR INN, Cowbridge, on BY AUCTION, at the BEAR INN, Cowbridge, on TUESDAY, the 20th of MARCH, 1855, (being Cowbridge Fair Day) at Four o’Clock in the Afternoon, TWO MOWS OF PRIME HAY (one of which is 2 years old), standing on Beggars’ Bush Field, adjoining the Turnpike Road to Landough, near the East Gate, Cowbridge. Three Months’ Credit will be given, on approved Security, or Discount for Cash at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum. For further particulars apply to the Auctioneers, at Cowbridge. Bear Inn, Cowbridge, 12th of March, 1855. 

On 29 January 1870 the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette reported evidence from a poaching case: “Police-Sergeant Rodman deposed I was on duty on the Landough-road on the 8th inst., and saw two men pass off the road into a lane called Beggars’ Bush. They got over a gate at the end of the lane into a field . . . ”

OS Grid

SS998739

Thanks

Richard Morgan for local information and reference to Hopkins-Clark

Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Cowbridge, Glamorgan | No Comments »