Place:Penygraig, Glamorgan, Wales

Watchers
NamePenygraig
Alt namesPen-y-graigsource: Welsh spelling
Ffrwd Amossource: name of original settlement
Dinas Rhonddasource: village in parish
Edmondstownsource: village in parish
Penrhiwfersource: village in parish
Williamstownsource: village in parish
TypeCivil parish
Coordinates51.613°N 3.453°W
Located inGlamorgan, Wales     ( - 1974)
Also located inMid Glamorgan, Wales     (1974 - 1996)
Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales     (1996 - )
See alsoRhondda, Glamorgan, Walesancient parish of which it was a part
source: Family History Library Catalog


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

Penygraig ("Head of the Rock") is a village and community (or civil parish) in the Rhondda Valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. As a community Penygraig contains the neighbouring districts (villages) of Dinas Rhondda, Edmondstown, Penrhiwfer and Williamstown.

The original settlement which in now Penygraig was called Ffrwd Amos, though as with the rest of the Rhondda before industrialisation the only settlements were farmsteads.

Coal mining began in Penygraig in 1857 when Thomas Ellis sank a drift mine. In 1858 Moses Rowlands and Richard Jenkins discovered a seam at Penygraig and would later form the Penygraig Coal Company. The Company sank the first deep pit in the village, The Penygraig Colliery; after which the village would be named.

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.)
  • Rhondda Cynon Taf Library Service provides an historical description of a number of towns and villages in its principal area

Maps

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

These maps were found on Wikimedia Commons

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

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Penygraig. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.