Penmain
Encyclopedia
- This article refers to the hamlet in Caerphilly county boroughCaerphilly (county borough)Caerphilly is a county borough in southern Wales, straddling the ancient county boundary between Glamorgan and Monmouthshire.Its main town is Caerphilly, and also the largest...
For the village in Gower PeninsulaGower PeninsulaGower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
see Penmaen, Swansea
Penmain or Penmaen is a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in Caerphilly county borough
Caerphilly (county borough)
Caerphilly is a county borough in southern Wales, straddling the ancient county boundary between Glamorgan and Monmouthshire.Its main town is Caerphilly, and also the largest...
, south
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
. It is situated in the Sirhowy valley
Sirhowy Valley
The Sirhowy Valley is an industrialised valley in the eastern part of the Valleys region of South Wales. It is named from the Sirhowy River which runs through it. Its upper reaches are occupied by the town of Tredegar within the unitary area of Blaenau Gwent...
, 3 miles east of Blackwood
Blackwood, Wales
Blackwood is a town on the Sirhowy River in the South Wales Valleys within the Caerphilly County Borough.The town houses a growing number of light industrial and high-tech firms...
. It is contiguous with, if not completely encompassed by, the larger village of Oakdale
Oakdale, Caerphilly
Oakdale is a large village in Caerphilly county borough, Wales, 9½ miles north of Caerphilly itself, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire...
.
Penmain is an anglicisation
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...
of the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
name Penmaen, meaning quite simply "headland" or "outcrop" (a common element in Welsh placenames: literally, rock/stone hill). Both spellings are found locally, with the English spelling predominant throughout the majority of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the Welsh spelling is the one now more generally used.
History
In 1845, the district of Penmain became an ecclesiastical parish, formed out of the parish of MynyddislwynMynyddislwyn
Mynyddislwyn was a civil parish and urban district in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It was abolished in local government reorganisation in 1974.The ancient parish of Mynyddislwyn covered a large part of the lower Ebbw and Sirhowy Valleys...
, and in 1855 the Church of St. David was built, having seating for 300 worshippers. Its registers started from 1866. A National School
National school (England and Wales)
A national school was a school founded in 19th century England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education.These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor.Together with the less numerous...
was built there in 1845 for 250 pupils.
In 1870 Penmain was described as:
The chapel he describes is the Congregational chapel. It was started by Henry Walter, who had been curate of Mynyddislwyn and, later, vicar of St. Woolos
Newport Cathedral
Newport Cathedral in the city of Newport in South Wales is the cathedral of the Diocese of Monmouth, in the Church in Wales, and seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. The full title is Newport Cathedral, Woolos, King & Confessor...
Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
. In 1618, King James
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
issued the "Book of Sports", which relaxed the previous attitudes to Sunday amusements, and set out which times were to be allowed on the Sabbath. There was much opposition to this by the clergy, and it continued up to the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. Afterwards, in 1660, when Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
came to the throne, he re-introduced it. Many clergymen refused to obey, including Henry Walter, who was dismissed from his position in the Church. He then set up the Independent Chapel at Penmain, although the Nonconformist chapel building was not completed until 1691. Services were held in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
. It was rebuilt in 1828, renovated in 1888, and is the second oldest existing Independent Chapel in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.
No longer used for worship, the building is now the 'home' of the Mynyddislwyn Male Choir.
Politics
Penmaen ward is an electoral ward district in the County BoroughCounty borough
County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...
of Caerphilly, covering the village of Oakdale, and the hamlets of Penmaen, Pen-y-fan and Woodfieldside. It is currently represented by two Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
councillors.