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126-734: The project began as Cymru1900 in October 2013 under the auspices of the National Library of Wales , the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies , People's Collection Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales , before being relaunched nationally as GB1900 in September 2016 using maps scanned by the National Library of Scotland . The software

252-477: A CC by-sa licence from the same source. The former has 2,552,460 entries and the latter 1,174,450. 109,193 entries end with a space followed by "Road", "Street", "Lane", "Rd." or "St." The abridged gazetteer includes 1,617 entries for "Manor House", 1,496 for "Manor Farm", and 454 for "High Street". Data from the gazetteer is used by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and

378-635: A Hand-list of incunabula that was published as a supplement to the National Library of Wales Journal. The hand-list and its addenda and corrigenda describes 129 books, mostly printed in Germany, Italy and France, although examples from the Netherlands and England were also listed. Scholderer noted that some of the forty-five books printed in France, particularly those in the vernacular, were very rare. There are approximately 2,500 sixteenth-century European imprints in

504-606: A staple port in 1327. In 1536, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 led to the creation of Glamorganshire and Cardiff was made the county town , it also became part of Kibbor hundred , around the same time the Herberts became the most powerful family in the area. In 1538, Henry VIII closed Cardiff's Dominican and Franciscan friaries, whose remains were used as building materials. A writer in this period noted: "The River Taff runs under

630-523: A steelworks close to the docks at East Moors, which Lord Bute opened on 4 February 1891. Cardiff became a county borough on 1 April 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 . The town had grown rapidly and had a population of over 123,000. It retained its county borough status until 1974. King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on 28 October 1905. It acquired a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1916. Later, more national institutions came to

756-626: A British rather than exclusively Welsh identity . The relative lack of local support for the Assembly and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the originally preferred venue, Cardiff City Hall , encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly. However, the Assembly was eventually located at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay in 1999. In 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by Richard Rogers ,

882-604: A Welsh town in the period. It was the centre of the Norman Marcher Lordship of Glamorgan. By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, although it remained relatively small compared with notable towns in England and continued to be contained within its walls, which were begun as a wooden palisade in the early 12th century. It was of sufficient size and importance to receive

1008-460: A committee was set up to collect Welsh material and house it at University College , Aberystwyth. In 1905, the government promised money in its budget to establish a National Library and a National Museum of Wales , and the Privy Council appointed a committee to decide on the location of the two institutions. David Lloyd George , who later became Prime Minister, supported the effort to establish

1134-504: A format compatible with the collection, i.e. manuscript books or rolls, or unbound material that can be filed; and b) not integral to an archive or individual collection. There is, however, much archival material, most notably correspondence, held in the General Manuscript Collection. Individual manuscripts of particular interest include: Groups of manuscripts in the general collection include: There are many rare books in

1260-483: A history going back to the 11th-century Norman Conquest . The region that may be called "Rural Cardiff" contains the villages of St Fagans , Creigiau, Pentyrch , Tongwynlais and Gwaelod-y-garth . In 2017, plans were approved for a new suburb of 7,000 homes between Radyr and St Fagans , known as Plasdŵr . St Fagans, home to the Museum of Welsh Life , is protected from further development. Since 2000, there has been

1386-540: A hundred examples of his works, known as Aldines, are in the National Library. The Library's also owns works from the sixteenth-century Antwerp press of Christophe Plantin and his son-in-law, Balthasar Moretus , who published De Symbolis Heroicis (1634) with its title-page designed by Peter Paul Rubens . The collection of French medieval romances and editions of the Roman de la rose from the library of F. W. Bourdillon and

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1512-481: A marked change of scale and building height in Cardiff, with the development of the city centre 's first purpose-built high-rise apartments. Tall buildings have been built in the city centre and Cardiff Bay, and more are planned. Cardiff, in the north temperate zone , has a maritime climate ( Köppen : Cfb) marked by mild weather that is often cloudy, wet and windy. Cardiff is one of the warmest and wettest cities in

1638-473: A massive improvement in the quality of the built environment, although it had "failed "to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated". In the 1997 Welsh devolution referendum , Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for

1764-403: A modified version of Greenslade's design. It was completed in 1937 and is a Grade II* listed building . The grounds (landscaping) of the National Library of Wales are also Grade II listed, and are seen as a significant part of the historical landscape of Wales with the landscaping both supporting, and playing a key part of the overall architectural design of the library building. The Library

1890-411: A new local authority vote, 134 out of 161 voted for Cardiff. Cardiff therefore celebrated two important anniversaries in 2005. The Encyclopedia of Wales notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales "had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal Conservative constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have." Although the city hosted

2016-477: A population of only 1,870, making it only the 25th largest town in Wales, well behind Merthyr and Swansea . In 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He spent his life building the Cardiff docks and was later hailed as "the creator of modern Cardiff". A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol opened in 1815, and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established. After

2142-510: A rate of nearly 80 per cent per decade between 1840 and 1870. Much of this was due to migration from within and outside Wales: in 1841, a quarter of Cardiff's population were English-born and more than 10 per cent born in Ireland. By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales. Cardiff's status as the premier town in South Wales was confirmed when it

2268-506: A series of charters, notably in 1331 from William La Zouche, Lord of Glamorgan through marriage with the de Clare family, Edward III in 1359, then Henry IV in 1400, and later Henry VI . In 1404, Owain Glyndŵr burned Cardiff and took possession of the Castle. As many of the buildings were made of timber and tightly packed within the town walls, much of Cardiff was destroyed. The settlement

2394-661: A shorter seven-digit sequential ID. The resulting data (excepting personal data about contributors) is available under a CC0 licence from the Vision of Britain website. The complete gazetteer (reconciled to resolve differences between transcribers and including modern place name equivalents and the corresponding modern parish and local authority names, as of 1991 in England and Wales and 2001 in Scotland) and an abridged version of it (removing duplicated data for common features such as "F.P." for "footpath" and "W" for "well") are available under

2520-564: A wider pattern of counter-urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered to become one of the few cities outside London where population grew in the 1990s. During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had "reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff" and "contributed to

2646-650: Is Welsh for fort and -dyf is in effect a form of Taf (Taff), the river which flows by Cardiff Castle, with the ⟨t⟩ showing consonant mutation to ⟨d⟩ and the vowel showing affection as a result of a (lost) genitive case ending. The anglicised Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf , with the Welsh f [v] borrowed as ff / f / , as also happens in Taff (from Welsh Taf ) and Llandaff (from Welsh Llandaf ). The antiquarian William Camden (1551–1623) suggested that

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2772-511: Is available in the papers of the Welsh Arts Council. Cardiff Cardiff ( / ˈ k ɑːr d ɪ f / ; Welsh : Caerdydd [kairˈdiːð, kaːɨrˈdɨːð] ) is the capital and largest city of Wales . Cardiff had a population of 372,089 in 2022 and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff (Welsh: Dinas a Sir Caerdydd ). The city

2898-592: Is faced with Portland stone on the upper storeys which contrasts with the Cornish granite below it. Restoration work was necessary in 1969 and 1983 due to the effects of weathering on the Portland stone. In recent years many changes have been made to the front part of the building. The large North Reading Room, where printed books are consulted, has "the proportions of a Gothic Cathedral", being 175 feet long, 47 feet wide and 33 feet high. There are galleries at three levels above

3024-404: Is indicative of the overall quality of the manuscripts and their importance as part of Welsh heritage. There are, however, also manuscripts in Cornish, Latin and English that are themselves noteworthy. The collection includes: The Llanstephan Collection of manuscripts was donated to the National Library of Wales by Sir John Williams in 1909. It had been his personal collection, which he kept in

3150-525: Is relatively flat and bounded by hills to the east, north and west. Its location influenced its development as the world's largest coal port, notably its proximity and easy access to the coalfields of the South Wales Valleys . The highest point in the local authority area is Garth Hill , 307 m (1,007 ft) above sea level . Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones. This reclaimed marshland stretches from Chepstow to

3276-496: Is represented by four constituencies: Cardiff East , Cardiff North , Cardiff South and Penarth , and Cardiff West . The Welsh Government is headquartered in Cardiff's Cathays Park , where most of its civil servants are based, with smaller numbers in other central locations: Cathays , Canton , and Cardiff Bay . There are other Welsh Government offices in other parts of Wales, such as Llandudno and Aberystwyth, and there are international offices. Between 1889 and 1974 Cardiff

3402-572: Is the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom . Located in the southeast of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region , Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan . It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in

3528-669: Is the Welsh base for the main national broadcasters. Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. Work continues at Cardiff Bay and in the centre on projects such as Cardiff International Sports Village , BBC drama village , and a new business district. Caerdydd (the Welsh name of the city) derives from the Middle Welsh Caerdyf . The change from -dyf to -dydd shows

3654-459: Is the only part of the Celtic Sea with exposed Jurassic ( blue lias ) geology. This stretch of coast with its reefs, sandbanks and serrated cliffs was a ship graveyard ; many ships sailing to Cardiff during the industrial era were wrecked on this hostile coastline during west/south-westerly gales. Smuggling, deliberate shipwrecking and attacks on ships were also common. "Inner Cardiff" consists of

3780-599: Is the third of the National Library of Wales' foundation collections. The 3,680 volumes are mainly of Welsh interest, with the 1567 New Testament and 1588 Bible to be found among some twenty books from the sixteenth century. Other items of interest are a first edition of Milton's Paradise lost (1668), numerous first editions of John Ruskin and George Borrow , and books from the Baskerville and Strawberry Hill presses. When John Humphreys Davies died on 10 August 1926 he bequeathed his collection of over 10,000 printed volumes to

3906-568: The Battle of St Fagans , between Royalist rebels and a New Model Army detachment, was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians that allowed Oliver Cromwell to conquer Wales. It was the last major battle in Wales, with about 200, mostly Royalist soldiers killed. Cardiff was at peace throughout the ensuing century. In 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and

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4032-661: The Black Book of Carmarthen (the earliest surviving manuscript entirely in Welsh), the Book of Taliesin , the Hendregadredd Manuscript , and an early manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer . Around three hundred medieval manuscripts are deposited in the Library: about 100 are in Welsh. The manuscript collection amalgamated a number of entire collections that were acquired in the early years of

4158-653: The Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff became a centre of national administration only with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Development Agency , most of which were based in Cardiff. The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population in the 1980s, consistent with

4284-504: The Ely Estuary , which is the natural boundary of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Triassic landscapes of this part of the world are usually shallow and low-lying, consistent with the flatness of the centre of Cardiff. The classic Triassic marl , sand and conglomerate rocks are used predominantly throughout Cardiff as building materials. Many of these Triassic rocks are purplish, especially

4410-732: The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion , the University of Wales and the Church in Wales. All materials concerning politics in Wales are kept in the Welsh Political Archive that the National Library established in 1983. This archive coordinates the collection of manuscript, printed and audiovisual records relating to the major political parties active in Wales, with the largest party archive being Plaid Cymru, and notable politicians including Lloyd George. The records of organisations including

4536-782: The National Eisteddfod of Wales , BBC Wales , the Welsh Arts Council and the Welsh Academy . The archive of the National Eisteddfod of Wales contains the central office records, compositions, adjudications and criticisms from 1886 onwards. The Eisteddfod is a unique institution and an important part of the literary tradition of Wales that celebrates poetry, song and the Welsh language. The substantial archive of BBC Wales includes radio drama scripts and talks by well-known authors. A further collection of Welsh authors archives

4662-665: The Roman conquest of Britain , Cardiff was part of the territory of the Silures – a Celtic British tribe that flourished in the Iron Age – whose territory included the areas that would become known as Breconshire , Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. The 3.2 ha (8-acre) fort established by the Romans near the mouth of the River Taff in AD ;75, in what would become the north western boundary of

4788-541: The Shirburn Castle library with the Llanstephan Manuscripts. The collection from Shirburn Castle comprises 193 printed books and pamphlets that were all printed before 1750; a superb miscellany of books from the first century of Welsh printing. Some of the particularly significant items that belonged to Sir John are: Purchased in 1910, the library of Edward Humphrey Owen (1850–1904), from Ty Coch, Caernarfon,

4914-657: The United Kingdom , the National Library is a member of Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). At the very core of the National Library of Wales is the mission to collect and preserve materials related to Wales and Welsh life and those which can be utilised by the people of Wales for study and research. Welsh is the Library's main medium of communication, but it does aim to deliver all public services in Welsh and English. In 1873,

5040-561: The 1920s; this includes BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C. Carved above the entrance is the room's original name the Print and Maps Room. Above it on the second floor of the south wing is the Gregynog Gallery where temporary and permanent exhibitions display the treasures of the Library's collections. A six-storey bookstack, which was completed in 1931, was built to increase storage space for the rapidly expanding book collection. A second bookstack

5166-465: The 2004 and 2012 local elections, no individual political party held a majority on Cardiff County Council. The Liberal Democrats held the largest number of seats and Cllr Rodney Berman was Leader of the council. The Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru formed a partnership administration. In the 2012 elections the Labour Party achieved an outright majority, after gaining an additional 33 seats across

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5292-555: The 20th century have been collected by the Library. The Archives of Welsh Authors include the work of authors, poets, playwrights, scholars, journalists and archdruids of the Gorsedd. Significant holding from these archives include draft copies of novels: Cysgod y Cryman [The Shadow of the Sickle] by Islwyn Ffowc Elis , Y Stafell Ddirgel [The Secret Room] by Marion Eames and Cyfres Rwdlan by Angharad Tomos ; Saunders Lewis 's letters, and

5418-507: The Aldines, which are from the collection of J. Burleigh James, are important features. The National Library of Wales has one of the two copies of the 1539 edition of Miles Coverdale's Great Bible , that were printed on vellum and illuminated throughout. The other copy is in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge . The Library has a substantial private press collection, some 1,800 volumes in total, with representative examples from all of

5544-645: The Anglo-Welsh authors and the Library has a large collection of his papers. Other important items in the Archives of Welsh Writers in English are Raymond Williams' drafts of the novels Border Country and People of the Black Mountains and the papers of David Jones, which include draft copies of In Parenthesis and The Anathemata. Prominent holdings in the Archives of Literary Organisations, Journals and Publishers are

5670-769: The Ashburn library and Sir Edmund Buckley of Plas Dinas Mawddwy. Descriptions of 446 of these manuscripts are provided by J. H. Davies in Additional Manuscripts in the Collections of Sir John Williams , which the Library published in 1921. The manuscripts in the National Library which are not part of the foundation collections are the focus of the Handlist of manuscripts , which was first published in 1941. All manuscripts acquired by donation or purchase are added to this open-ended series, either singly or in groups, if they are: a) in

5796-599: The British Museum, which weighed over one hundred tons, the Library received forty-six boxes of manuscript and printed books from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and over a thousand pictures, eighty-two boxes of books and twenty members of staff from the National Gallery . The Library also received irreplaceable items from other prestigious institutions such as the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford, Dulwich College and

5922-573: The Cae'rarfau Chambered Tomb , Creigiau (about six miles or ten km northwest of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa long barrow , near Coedkernew , Newport (about eight miles or thirteen km northeast of Cardiff city centre). A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of the Garth , within the county's northern boundary. Four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiff's county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort , an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares ( 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres). Until

6048-401: The Gregynog Press binder, George Fisher. In the late 1970s, the library acquired an archive recording the work of the Birdsall bindery, Northampton. Bourdillon's library includes books printed before 1600 in their original pigskin or stamped calf bindings and some examples of modern fine binding. Examples of fore-edge paintings that depict topographical scenes in Wales have been collected by

6174-456: The Library are the Astronomica by Marcus Manilius (1474) with illuminated initials and borders, and Hartmann Schedel 's Liber Chronicarum (1493). During the time that the incunabula expert, Dr. Victor Scholderer, Deputy-Keeper in the Department of Printed Books at the British Museum, spent in Aberystwyth during the Second World War, he took an interest in the National Library's small collection of fifteenth-century printed books and produced

6300-432: The Library as an expression of their gratitude and Mrs. David Sassoon, London presented two works by Cicero that were printed at Venice in the fifteenth century. The documents and artefacts that spent World War II in the care of the National Library include an original exemplification of Magna Carta , drawings by Leonardo da Vinci , paintings by Rembrandt , Rubens and Velásquez from Dulwich College , letters of

6426-585: The Library by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies of Gregynog in 1921. Two of these books were printed by William Caxton : Speculum Vitae Christi of 1488, and the copy of Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon (1482) that had previously been the property of Higden's Monastery, St. Werburgh's Abbey at Chester. The third is another copy of the Polychronicon, printed by Caxton's successor Wynkyn de Worde in 1495. Nine specimens of early printed books (three German, five Italian and one printed in Ghent) were deposited by Lord Harlech between 1938 and 1941. Other notable incunabula in

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6552-429: The Library's existence, including the Hengwrt-Peniarth, Mostyn, Llanstephan, Panton, Cwrtmawr, Wrexham and Aberdare manuscripts. The Welsh manuscripts in these foundation collections were catalogued by Dr J. Gwenogvryn Evans in the Reports on manuscripts in the Welsh language that he compiled for the Historic Manuscripts Commission. The Peniarth Manuscripts collection is considered to be of global significance and

6678-442: The Library. Works from the leading scholar-printers of the early sixteenth-century are represented in the collection, which covers a broad array of subjects. These include Johann Froben (Basle), Jodocus Badius (Lyons and Paris), Robert Estienne (Paris) and Aldus Manutius (Venice). Aldus Manutius of Venice, who is known for his dolphin and anchor printer's device , was the finest of the Italian printers of this period and about

6804-403: The Napoleonic Wars Cardiff suffered some social and industrial unrest, starting with the trial and hanging of Dic Penderyn in 1831. The town grew rapidly from the 1830s onwards, when the Marquess of Bute built a dock , which eventually linked to the Taff Vale Railway . Cardiff became the main port for coal exports from the Cynon , Rhondda , and Rhymney valleys, and grew in population at

6930-454: The National Library in Aberystwyth, which was selected as the location of the library after a bitter fight with Cardiff , partly because a collection was already available in the College. Sir John Williams , physician and book collector, had also said he would present his collection (in particular, the Peniarth collection of manuscripts ) to the library if it were established in Aberystwyth. He also eventually gave £20,000 to build and establish

7056-406: The National Library of Scotland, and is being incorporated into Wikidata . National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales ( Welsh : Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru ), in Aberystwyth , is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies . It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and

7182-488: The National Library of Wales including the three earliest books printed in Welsh, Yny lhyvyr hwnn (1546), Oll synnwyr pen Kembero ygyd (1547) and A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe (1547) by William Salesbury . The Library also holds the first Welsh translation of the complete Bible (1588). The National Library's rare books include collections of incunabula, sixteenth-century European imprints, private press publications, bindings and scientific works. Thanks to

7308-567: The National Library of Wales purchased the collection of French medieval literary texts and early illustrated books that had been assembled by Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921). Bourdillon's library included twenty-three editions of the Roman de la Rose and an important group of works on the Arthurian legend. The 6,178 printed volumes include sixty-six incunabula, 180 English short title catalogue books (1475–1800), including twenty-five STC and fifty Wing books. Further, there are 320 volumes that were printed in continental Europe during

7434-497: The National Library of Wales should be removed from Aberystwyth then the manuscripts donated by Sir John Williams will become the property of the University College. A new Royal Charter was granted in 2006. The National Library of Wales was granted the privilege of legal deposit under the Copyright Act 1911 . Initially, however, the Library could only claim material deemed to be of Welsh and Celtic interest without any restrictions on expensive or limited edition publications. In 1987,

7560-500: The National Library of Wales, which provided the evacuated treasures with a refuge from enemy bombing raids. The architect Charles Holden was instructed to design a tunnel for this purpose in the outcrop of rock close to the main building, with the British Museum sharing in the costs that this incurred. The tunnel was heated and ventilated to ensure the preservation of vellum, papyri and paper during its use from 18 July 1940 until 23 May 1945. In addition to an extensive consignment from

7686-577: The National Library of Wales. Davies was a keen bibliographer who acquired multiple copies of some works for variants in the typography and accumulated an important collection of Welsh literature, discovering some previously unrecorded works in the process. Some of the early Welsh books that Davies collected contain leaves or signatures that were not in the copies that the National Library already possessed. The rare books include: There are also substantial collections of pamphlets, elegies, almanacs, ballads, satires and tracts that Davies had collected. In 1922

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7812-489: The National Library, including a view of Conway Castle and Bridge on a 1795 copy of The Poetical Works of John Cunningham , a rural view, stated to be Wales, painted on a 1795 edition of Milton's Paradise Lost bound by Edwards of Halifax, and an 1823 English-Welsh bilingual edition of The Book of Common Prayer with a double fore-edge painting of (1) Bangor and (2) Bangor Cathedral. Other locations in Wales include Barmouth and Neath Abbey, both painted on books published during

7938-416: The Peniarth Manuscript collection and The Life Story of David Lloyd George were amongst the first ten inscriptions on the UK Memory of the World Register , a UNESCO record of documentary heritage of cultural significance. Collection development is focused on materials relating to the people of Wales, those in the Welsh language and resources for Celtic studies , but other materials are collected for

8064-401: The Peniarth and Llanstephan manuscripts, the collection that Sir John Williams donated to the National Library included 500 manuscripts in the general collection (NLW MS 1–500). These manuscripts are an amalgamation of the various purchases that Sir John made between 1894 and 1899, including groups of manuscripts from the Welsh philologist Egerton Phillimore, Sir Thomas Phillipps of Middle Hill,

8190-400: The Royal Society . A number of distinguished scholars from the British Museum accompanied the collections to Aberystwyth. Their senior member of staff was Deputy Keeper of Printed Books, Victor Scholderer, who responded to a letter from the Director, Sir John Forsdyke , by insisting that he and his colleagues would continue to sleep in the Library so that the tunnel could be checked during

8316-609: The Senedd; the constituencies for the Senedd are the same as for the UK Parliament. All of the city's electors have an extra vote for the South Wales Central regional members; this system increases proportionality to the Senedd. The most recent Senedd general election was held on 6 May 2021 . In the Senedd, Cardiff is represented by Jenny Rathbone (Labour) in Cardiff Central , Julie Morgan (Labour) in Cardiff North , former First Minister Mark Drakeford (Labour) in Cardiff West and former First Minister Vaughan Gething (Labour) in Cardiff South and Penarth . At Westminster, Cardiff

8442-488: The UK, with an average annual temperature and rainfall of approximately 11°C and 1200mm respectively. Summers tend to be warm and sunny, with average maxima between 19 and 22 °C (66 and 72 °F). Winters are fairly wet, but excessive rainfall as well as frost are rare. Spring and autumn feel similar, with mild temperatures averaging around 15°C as daytime maxima. Rain is unpredictable at any time of year, although showers tend to be shorter in summer. The northern part of

8568-472: The United Kingdom. With the exception of some outlying privately built estates at Michaelston-super-Ely , this is an economically disadvantaged area with high numbers of unemployed households. Culverhouse Cross is a more affluent western area of the city. Fairwater , Heath , Birchgrove , Gabalfa , Mynachdy , Llandaff North , Llandaff , Llanishen , Radyr , Whitchurch & Tongwynlais , Rhiwbina , Thornhill , Lisvane and Cyncoed lie in an arc from

8694-459: The Welsh National Council of the United Nations Association and the Association of Welsh Local Authorities also to be found in this archive, as are papers generated by the Parliament for Wales Campaign 1953–6, and several nationalist pressure groups. Some of the political archives cannot be accessed due to their embargo status. The Modern Literary Archives are home to the work of some of the most important Welsh poets and authors. An insight into

8820-413: The area by at least around 6000 BC, during the early Neolithic; about 1,500 years before either Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. These include the St Lythans burial chamber near Wenvoe , (approximately four miles or six km west of Cardiff city centre); the Tinkinswood burial chamber , near St. Nicholas (about six miles or ten km west of Cardiff city centre),

8946-402: The centre of Cardiff, was built over an extensive settlement that had been established by the Romans in the 50s AD. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta ( Caerleon ) that acted as border defences. The fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a civilian settlement, or vicus ,

9072-826: The city of Newport; to the north by the South Wales Valleys , and to the south by the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel . The River Taff winds through the city centre and together with the River Ely flows into the freshwater Cardiff Bay. A third river, the Rhymney , flows through the east of the city directly into the Severn Estuary. Cardiff lies near the Glamorgan Heritage Coast , stretching westward from Penarth and Barry – commuter towns of Cardiff – with striped yellow-blue Jurassic limestone cliffs. The Glamorgan coast

9198-449: The city, are built of Portland stone from Dorset. A widely used building stone in Cardiff is the yellow-grey Liassic limestone rock of the Vale of Glamorgan, including the rare "Sutton Stone", a conglomerate of lias limestone and carboniferous limestone. Cardiff is bordered to the west by the rural district of the Vale of Glamorgan, also known as the Garden of Cardiff, to the east by

9324-537: The city, including the National Museum of Wales , the Welsh National War Memorial , and the University of Wales Registry Building, but it was denied the National Library of Wales , partly because the library's founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have "a non-Welsh population". After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the interwar period . By 1936, trade

9450-411: The city. Cardiff is divided into communities, several with their own community council and the rest governed directly by Cardiff City Council. Elections are held every five years. The last contested elections would have been held at the same time as the 2017 Cardiff Council election had there been more candidates standing than available seats. Those with community councils are: The centre of Cardiff

9576-614: The coastal marl found near Penarth. One of the Triassic rocks used in Cardiff is "Radyr Stone", a freestone which as its name suggests is quarried in the Radyr district. Cardiff has also imported some materials for buildings: Devonian sandstones (the Old Red Sandstone ) from the Brecon Beacons has been used. Most famously, the buildings of Cathays Park , the civic centre in the centre of

9702-543: The collection, as well as seventy-three volumes from the sixteenth century, including the first English (Reynold Wolfe, London, 1551) and Arabic (Typographia Medicea, Rome, 1594) editions. The National Library of Wales is home to the largest collection of archival material in Wales. Around 2,500 archives of various sizes have been collected since the library was founded. These archives contain many different types of document, such as charters, estate records, correspondence, literary drafts and digital materials, which range from

9828-406: The collections of printed books that were donated by Sir John Williams, J. H. Davies and Edward Humphrey Owen, the Library has particularly strong holdings of publications in the Welsh language from before 1912. Of the 286 Welsh books published between 1546 and 1710, the National Library possesses copies of 210, and has facsimiles of others that exist as a unique copy in another institution. Many of

9954-510: The colloquial alteration of Welsh f [v] and dd [ð] and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology . This sound change probably first occurred in the Middle Ages ; both forms were current in the Tudor period . Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning "the fort of the Taff ". The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans . Caer

10080-483: The correspondence between Rhydwen Williams and Alwyn D. Rees ; the diaries of Caradog Prichard and Euros Bowen ; and, manuscript copies of poetry, such as Y Mynach by Gwenallt , Y Mynydd by T. H. Parry-Williams and Cerddi'r Gaeaf by R. Williams Parry . Parry-Williams and Williams Parry were both first cousins of Thomas Parry , the National Librarian. Dylan Thomas is the most prominent name amongst

10206-408: The creation of prose and poetry is provided by the letters, manuscript and typescript drafts, notebooks, proofs and other personal papers of 20th and 21st century writers. Archives belonging to Welsh-language authors, Welsh authors writing in English and literary organisations are deposited in the National Library. Papers and manuscripts belonging to Welsh authors who achieved their fame during

10332-488: The floor. The feasibility of installing a mezzanine floor to make better use of the space has been considered on two occasions. Until 2022, The South Reading Room was used for consulting archives, manuscripts, maps and other printed materials. It now houses the Wales Broadcast Archive Centre, an Archive of programmes from all the major Welsh broadcasters dating back to the beginnings of broadcasting in Wales in

10458-467: The foundation stone of the National Library of Wales. Designed by architect Sidney Greenslade , who won the competition to design the building in 1909, the building at Grogythan, off Penglais Hill, was ready for occupation in August 1915 but the task of transferring the collections was not completed until 1 March 1916, St David's Day . The central block, or corps de logis , was added by Charles Holden to

10584-682: The important British presses. The holdings of ordinary and special bindings of the Gregynog Press books are comprehensive and along with the reference collection from Gregynog, form the core of the National Library's collection of private press editions. However, the Library also has a complete set of the Kelmscott Press publications that Sir John Williams collected, including The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896). The private press collection has been developed through further acquisitions by donation, purchase and legal deposit, and contains examples of

10710-551: The initial thirty-nine volumes of early editions of the Elements that Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford donated in 1927, including further eleven volumes from Sir Charles in 1928. With the subsequent additions the collection covers all of Euclid's works, including Data, Phaenomena, Optica and Catoptrica along with numerous editions of the Elements, in many languages. There are two incunabula (Erhard Ratdolt, Venice, 1482 and Leonardus de Basilea & Gulielmus de Papia, Vicenza, 1491) in

10836-606: The kings and queens of England, and autographs belonging to William Shakespeare . The collections of the National Library of Wales include over 6.5 million printed volumes, including the first book printed in Welsh, Yny lhyvyr hwnn (1546). In addition to the printed book collections, there are about 25,000 manuscripts in the holdings. The archival collections at the Library include the Welsh Political Archive and National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. The Library also keeps maps, photographs, paintings, topographical and landscape prints, periodicals and newspapers. In 2010,

10962-460: The largest collections of archives, portraits, maps, and photographic images in Wales. The Library is also home to the national collection of Welsh manuscripts, the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, and the most comprehensive collection of paintings and topographical prints in Wales. As the primary research library and archive in Wales and one of the largest research libraries in

11088-555: The last of these restrictions were removed to make the legal deposit entitlement of the National Library of Wales equal to those of the Bodleian Library , Cambridge University Library , Trinity College Library , Dublin and the National Library of Scotland . The first use of the Library of Congress Classification by a library in Britain was at the National Library of Wales in 1913. On 15 July 1911 King George V and Queen Mary laid

11214-511: The libraries of Sir Edward Anwyl , Thomas Powel, Dr Thomas Gwynn Jones , Dr Paul Diverres and Llywarch Reynolds . The holdings of Cornish and Manx printed books include practically everything that has been published in those languages, with a few facsimiles. The Library's holdings can also be found in the European Library and Copac union catalogues. The National Library of Wales keeps many rare and important manuscripts, including

11340-519: The library of his home, Llanstephan mansion, Carmarthenshire. The collection is composed of the 154 manuscripts which had belonged to Moses Williams (1685–1742), that were purchased from Shirburn Castle , Oxfordshire and other manuscripts of diverse origins collected by Sir John. Medieval Welsh prose is well represented in the Shirburn Castle collection, with chronicles, legends, fables, theological tracts and collections of works by eminent poets of

11466-674: The library. Cardiff was eventually selected as the location of the National Museum of Wales. Funds for both the National Library and the National Museum were contributed by the subscriptions of the working classes, which was unusual in the establishment of such institutions. In a Prefatory Note to A List of Subscribers to the Building Fund (1924), the first librarian, John Ballinger , estimates that there were almost 110,000 contributors. The Library and Museum were established by Royal Charter on 19 March 1907. The Charter stipulated that if

11592-479: The medieval to contemporary periods. Many of the earlier archives are those of the landed gentry and their estates, which developed over many centuries, but these are supplemented by corporate archives including the Church of Wales archive and the archive of the Court of Great Sessions that the Library has received. The Library collects corporate archives, which are the records of institutions, societies and public bodies, and

11718-700: The most important collection of manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. In 2010, it was included in the UK Memory of the World Register of documentary heritage. Of the 561 volumes of manuscripts in the Peniarth collection, some four-fifths were collected by Robert Vaughan (c. 1592–1667) for his library in Hengwrt, Meirioneth. Three of the Four Ancient Books of Wales are part of the Peniarth collection, and this

11844-544: The name Cardiff may derive from * Caer-Didi ("the Fort of Didius"), a name supposedly given in honour of Aulus Didius Gallus , governor of a nearby province at the time when the Roman fort was established. Although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. Archaeological evidence from sites in and around Cardiff show that people had settled in

11970-464: The named collections of printed books include early or otherwise rare books: The Sir John Williams Collection forms the nucleus of the Library's printed books collection. The collection of approximately 23,360 volumes contains many items of importance to the history of Welsh printing, which were donated to the Library when it was established in 1907. Nineteen of the first twenty-two books published in Welsh are present, of which fourteen were acquired from

12096-523: The night to ensure that the air conditioning was functioning properly. Scholderer, an expert on incunabula , produced A Handlist of Incunabula in the National Library of Wales in gratitude to the hospitality that was afforded to them by the Library. Likewise, Arthur E. Popham , Keeper of Prints and Drawings, dedicated The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci "To the Librarian and staff of the National Library of Wales". Several other institutions donated funds to

12222-489: The nineteenth century. The earliest volume with a fore-edge painting owned by the Library is the 1669 Book of Common Prayer with a depiction of the Crucifixion. The National Library's collection of works ascribed to Euclid contains more than 300 volumes, representing 270 editions, and is considered to be an important reference point for Euclidean bibliographical studies. The collection has been developed through additions to

12348-506: The north-west to the north-east of the centre. Lisvane, Cyncoed, Radyr and Rhiwbina contain some of the most expensive housing in Wales. Further east lie the wards of Pontprennau and Old St Mellons, Rumney, Pentwyn , Llanrumney , Llanedeyrn and Trowbridge . The last four are largely public housing stock, although much new private housing is being built in Trowbridge. Pontprennau is the newest "suburb" of Cardiff, while Old St Mellons has

12474-404: The other hand, Gabalfa, Plasnewydd and Cathays north of the 'arc' have large student populations, and Pontcanna (north of Riverside and alongside Canton) is a favourite for students and young professionals. Penylan , to the north east of Roath Park, is an affluent area popular with older parents and the retired. To the west lie Ely and Caerau , which have some of the largest housing estates in

12600-532: The period. These manuscripts include a Welsh translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia from the 13th century, the Gutun Owain Manuscript and the Red Book of Talgarth. The Cwrtmawr Manuscripts are one of the significant manuscript collections that were transferred to the National Library of Wales in the early years of its existence. They are from the personal collection of John Humphreys Davies , who

12726-413: The personal archives of individuals who have played a significant role in the life of the nation. Personal archives contain a variety of material that is related to the life and work of notable individuals and families. For example, the papers of Celtic scholar Sir Idris Foster include correspondence, personal papers, scholarly and academic notes, and papers relating to organisations and societies, such as

12852-833: The productions by the Doves Press , Ashendene Press and the Roxburghe Club . Works from foreign presses have been collected and include many publications of the Grolier Club , the Bremer Presse edition of Luther's Bible (1926–1928) and Eclogues of Virgil (1927) from the Cranach Press The National Library has many examples of books with fine bindings in its holdings. These include under-painted vellum, Victorian carved wood and papier-mâché bindings, French art nouveau bookbinding and bindings by Bernard C. Middleton and

12978-662: The purposes of education and literary and scientific research. As a legal deposit library , the National Library is entitled to request a copy of every work published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This has allowed the Library to collect modern Welsh, Irish and Gaelic language books for its Celtic collection. The acquisition of material through legal deposit has been supplemented by purchases, international exchanges, donations and bequests. The Celtic collection includes works in all six Celtic languages. A representative collection of Scottish Gaelic books has been assembled, primarily through purchase of earlier publications, guided by

13104-462: The region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales . Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth . Cardiff is the main commercial centre of Wales as well as the base for the Senedd , the Welsh Parliament. At the 2021 census, the unitary authority area population

13230-413: The sixteenth century, and another 260 items which date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The National Library has a collection of about 250 incunabula , which are predominantly German, Italian and French imprints. Sixty-six of the incunabula, including seven different editions of the Roman de la Rose, with the accepted first edition among them, are part of Francis William Bourdillon's collection that

13356-492: The standard bibliographies, and, for books published after 1911, by legal deposit. Irish literature, which is far more extensive, has been collected through a similar combination of purchase and deposit. However, many collections purchased by or donated to the Library have contained rare Irish books. The Library of Dr E. C. Quiggin , which was received in 1921, contained a large Irish collection and many early Breton books. Further Breton books have been purchased or were acquired in

13482-635: The streets of Cardiff". From 1901 coal exports from Barry surpassed those from Cardiff, but the administration of the coal trade remained centred on Cardiff, in particular its Coal Exchange , where the price of coal on the British market was determined and the first million-pound deal was struck in 1907. The city also strengthened its industrial base when the owners of the Dowlais Ironworks in Merthyr (who would later form part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds ) built

13608-477: The title. Welsh local authorities had been divided: only 76 out of 161 chose Cardiff in a 1924 poll organised by the South Wales Daily News . The subject was not debated again until 1950, and meanwhile Cardiff took steps to promote its "Welshness". The stalemate between Cardiff and cities such as Caernarfon and Aberystwyth was not broken until Cardiganshire County Council decided to support Cardiff; and in

13734-453: The walls of his honours castle and from the north part of the town to the south part where there is a fair quay and a safe harbour for shipping." Cardiff became a borough in 1542 and further Royal Charters were granted to it by Elizabeth I in 1600 and James I in 1608. In 1573, it was made a head port for collection of customs duties. Pembrokeshire historian George Owen described Cardiff in 1602 as "the fayrest towne in Wales yett not

13860-459: The wards of Plasnewydd , Gabalfa , Roath , Cathays , Adamsdown and Splott ward on the north and east of the city centre, and Butetown , Grangetown , Riverside and Canton to the south and west. The inner-city areas to the south of the A4161 road , known as the "Southern Arc", are with the exception of Cardiff Bay some of the poorest districts of Wales, with low levels of economic activity. On

13986-636: The welthiest". It gained a second Royal Charter in 1608. A disastrous flood in the Bristol Channel on 30 January 1607 (now believed to have been a tidal wave) changed the course of the River Taff and ruined St Mary's Parish Church , which was replaced by a chapel of ease dedicated to St John the Baptist. During the Second English Civil War St Fagans , just to the west of the town,

14112-554: Was a county borough governed by Cardiff County Borough Council (known as Cardiff City Council after 1905). Between 1974 and 1996, Cardiff was governed by Cardiff City Council , a district council of South Glamorgan . Since local government reorganisation in 1996 , Cardiff has been governed by the City and County Council of Cardiff, based at County Hall in Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay. Voters elect 75 councillors every four years. Between

14238-615: Was at less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for Welsh coal . Bomb damage in the Cardiff Blitz of World War II included the devastation of Llandaff Cathedral , and in the immediate postwar years, the city's link with the Bute family came to an end. The city was recognised as the capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, in a written reply by the Home Secretary , Gwilym Lloyd George . Caernarfon had also vied for

14364-578: Was chosen as the site for the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in 1883. A permanent military presence was established with the completion of Maindy Barracks in 1877. Cardiff faced a challenge in the 1880s when David Davies of Llandinam and the Barry Railway Company promoted rival docks at Barry . These had the advantage of being accessible in all tides : David Davies claimed his venture would cause "grass to grow in

14490-511: Was divided into small kingdoms; early on, Meurig ap Tewdrig emerged as the local king in Glywysing (which later became Glamorgan ). The area passed through his family until the advent of the Normans in the 11th century. In 1081 William I, King of England , began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort. Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. The castle

14616-476: Was established. It was likely made up of traders who made a living from the fort, ex-soldiers and their families. A Roman villa has been discovered at Ely . Contemporary with the Saxon Shore forts of the 3rd and 4th centuries, a stone fortress was established at Cardiff. Similar to the shore forts, the fortress was built to protect Britannia from raiders. Coins from the reign of Gratian indicate that Cardiff

14742-487: Was inhabited until at least the 4th century; the fort was abandoned towards the end of the 4th century, as the last Roman legions left the province of Britannia with Magnus Maximus . Little is known of the fort and civilian settlement in the period between the Roman departure from Britain and the Norman Conquest. The settlement probably shrank in size and may even have been abandoned. In the absence of Roman rule, Wales

14868-414: Was later created Baron Cardiff . In 1778, he began renovating Cardiff Castle. A racecourse , printing press , bank and coffee house opened in the 1790s and Cardiff gained a stagecoach service to London. Despite these improvements, Cardiff's position in the Welsh urban hierarchy declined over the 18th century. Iolo Morganwg called it "an obscure and inconsiderable place" and the 1801 census found

14994-642: Was officially opened in March 1982. In 1996, the Third Library Building was opened, doubling the storage capacity of the Library. The second phase of the building was built by T. Alun Evans (Aberystwyth) Ltd. A fire on 26 April 2013 destroyed a section of roofing in an office area of the building. Restoration was assisted by a government grant of £625,000. During the Second World War , many of Britain's most valuable artworks and manuscripts were stored in

15120-512: Was opened. The Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru ) has been based in Cardiff Bay since its formation in 1999 as the "National Assembly for Wales". The Senedd building was opened on 1 March 2006 by The Queen . The Members of the Senedd (MSs), the Senedd Commission and ministerial support staff are based in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff elects four constituency Members of the Senedd to

15246-406: Was purchased by the Library in 1922. At least three of the incunabula acquired from Bourdillon's library are not known in any other copy: a Quatre fils Aymon , a Destruction de Jerusalem , and a Vie de Ste. Catherine . Sir Charles Thomas-Stanford presented or bequeathed eighteen incunabula in total, half of which were printed in Germany. Three examples of early English printing were donated to

15372-426: Was put at 362,400. The population of the wider urban area in 2011 was 479,000. In 2011, it ranked sixth in the world in a National Geographic magazine list of alternative tourist destinations. It is the most popular destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. Cardiff is a major centre for television and film production (such as the 2005 revival of Doctor Who , Torchwood and Sherlock ) and

15498-520: Was soon rebuilt on the same street plan and began to flourish again. (Glyndŵr's statue was erected in Cardiff Town Hall in the early 20th century, reflecting the complex, often conflicting cultural identity of Cardiff as capital of Wales.) Besides serving an important political role in the governance of the fertile south Glamorgan coastal plain, Cardiff was a busy port in the Middle Ages and declared

15624-453: Was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute , and the architect William Burges . Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in the wall facings. A town grew up under the castle, consisting mainly of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages – a normal size for

15750-686: Was the Principal of University College, Aberystwyth. Davies was a barrister and a keen book collector who acquired the manuscripts gradually from a number of sources. The largest group of manuscripts are those acquired from John Jones ('Myrddin Fardd') , but there are several other substantial groups including those from a Welsh clerical family, the Richards of Darowen, Peter Bailey Williams and his brother Rev. St George Armstrong Williams, William John Roberts ('Gwilym Cowlyd'), and Daniel Silvan Evans . In addition to

15876-568: Was updated and hosted by the University of Portsmouth . Transcription was concluded in January 2018, with the launch of the gazetteer in July that year. Each placename was tagged with the WGS84 coordinates and Ordnance Survey National Grid reference of the position of the bottom-left of the first letter of its first word, and allocated a 24-character hexadecimal code, which could not begin with zero, as well as

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