Place:St. Bride's Major, Glamorgan, Wales

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

St. Bride's Major (Welsh: Saint y brid) is a village within the modern "community" or civil parish of the same name in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. The community, which also includes the villages of Ogmore-by-Sea and Southerndown had a population of 2,009 in the UK census of 2001. [The writer was unable to access the 2011 census data because the Office of National Statistics would not accept either St. Bride's Major or St Brides Major in their search engine. Answer to complaint awaited.]

Prior to 1974 St. Bride's Major was located in historic county of Glamorgan and from 1974 until 1996 in the preserved county of Mid Glamorgan.

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

St. Bride's Major is a community (or civil parish) on the western edge of the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales. Its largest settlement is the village of St. Bride's Major, and also includes the villages of Ogmore-by-Sea and Southerndown, and the hamlets of Ogmore Village, Castle upon Alun, Heol y Mynydd, Norton and Pont yr Brown.

Economy

Agriculture has been the traditional mainstay of the local economy, with farms being historically found in all the old villages, plus the hamlets of Pitcot, Durval, Heol y Mynydd, Norton and Pont yr Brown and isolated farms. Mining and quarrying have also been carried on in various parts of the community. Along the coast both "Sutton Stone" (a stone that can be carved and sawn, due to its lack of grain and slow hardening once it is exposed to air) and lead and other minerals have been extracted. Inland, the Duchy quarry near Castle upon Alun is now disused, but two large quarries, the Pant Quarry and Lithalun Quarry produce both aggregates and cement from the limestone (along with the nearby Ewenny Quarry, in Ewenny community or parish).

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Glamorgan Lots of leads to other sources and descriptions of former parishes.
• The FamilySearch Wiki on Glamorgan has recently been updated (early 2016) and looks remarkably like Wikipedia. Their map "Glamorgan Parish Map.jpg" enlarges to show all the original parishes. The sub-section "Parishes of Historic Glamorgan" lists all the parishes of Glamorgan and the newer preserved counties and principal areas in both English and Welsh. (Currently this website is still under construction.)

Maps

The first three maps are provided by A Vision of Britain through Time

• A map of 1832 showing larger towns and some villages (not as good as the England county maps in this series).
• Ordnance Survey map of Glamorgan illustrating the parishes, rural districts, urban districts and boroughs as revised to 1899.
• A 1930s Ordnance Survey map of Glamorgan illustrating the parishes, rural districts, urban districts and boroughs as revised to 1944.

These maps were found on Wikimedia Commons

• Glamorgan Administrative Map 1947 separating the various types of administrations with colour coding. These division were most likely in place until 1974.
• A map of Wales outlining the prinicipal areas of Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan
• A map of Wales outlining the prinicipal areas of West Glamorgan
• A map of the Vale of Glamorgan principal area with the western part of Cardiff included

These maps of Glamorgan post-1974 were found on another site and are very useful for sorting out the up-to-date geography of the area

• A map of West Glamorgan showing the two principal areas and the towns located in them.
• A map of South Glamorgan showing the two principal areas and the towns located in them.
• A map of Bridgend, Merthyr and Rhondda showing the three principal areas and the towns located in them. The description states that this is "formerly part of Mid Glamorgan".
• A map of Caerphilly, Blaenau and Torfean showing the three principal areas and the towns located in them.