Gelligaer Community Council

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Interesting Links

• Gelligaer Roman Fort
• Llancaiach Fawr Manor
• Chronicle - Gelligaer Common
• Chronicle - Emerging Societies
• Chronicle - The Coming of Rome
• Chronicle - Hengoed-Maesycwmmer Viaduct
• Loops and Links - Ystrad Mynach

 

History

On Gelligaer Common are seven Roman practice camps. These would have probably been built by the auxiliary troops garrisoned at Gelligaer Fort, just over a mile's march to the south. This dates them to between A.D.75 and the end of the second century.

Built in the early sixteenth century, Llancaiach Fawr Manor is one of the finest examples of a semi-fortified manor house in Wales today. In 1630, Colonel Edward Prichard inherited the estate and successfully guided the family's fortunes through the hardships of the Civil War. When he died in 1655 with no male heir, the estate passed out of the family. It then became a tenanted farm, until the council purchased it in 1979. For the next twelve years an extensive programme of restoration and conservation was carried out. This returned the Manor and its grounds to their probable mid-seventeenth century appearance. The Manor is now open to the public and visitors are invited to step back in time and sample the sights, sounds and smells of 1645.

Hengoed or Old Wood, and Cefn Hengoed or Old Wood on the Ridge as they are known in Welsh are in the centre of the county borough. They were both originally individual villages that merged after the housing expansion after the War.

The most significant construction in 1857 was the Hengoed - Maesycwmmer viaduct, which connected the railway line from Pontypool to Swansea. Recent development has seen the viaduct re-open as part of a cycle route.