Sully, Vale of Glamorgan
Encyclopedia
Sully is a village in the Vale of Glamorgan
, Wales
lying on the northern coast of the Bristol Channel
, midway between the towns of Penarth
and Barry and 7 miles (11.3 kilometres) southwest of the Welsh
capital city
of Cardiff
.
family of Baron Reginald de Sully, one of the 'Twelve Knights of Glamorgan
' who was awarded the Manor
around 1093 by the conqueror of Glamorgan Sir Robert Fitzhamon
, probably under charter by William II of England
. In 1591 Sir Edward Mansel of Margam wrote his historical document recording 'The winning of Glamorgan' and recorded:
De Sully also had extensive estates in Devon but he is recorded as having built a small fortified castle in Sully, the remains of which have mostly vanished, except for a short length of wall, located to the east of the Norman parish church
in the village. The site of a 13th century moat
ed manor house
can still be observed on Sully Moors.
The castle at Sully was the smallest in Glamorgan by a very long way. It covered a site of only about half an acre and stood in a location that was, until only recently, called Castle Wood. Occupation of the castle lasted less than three hundred years till around the mid 14th century, probably as a result of the extinction of the de Sully family line. The present church dates from around the same time as the castle and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The resident Sully clergyman has always been referred to as the Rector which indicates the tithes that produced his annual income were never appropriated by a monastery and he was therefore probably supported by the Lord of the Manor directly, although appointed by the Bishop.
There is a mostly complete late medieval lime kiln on Ashby Road, Sully. Composed of stone and brick it is 40 feet long and 18 feet high by 13 feet wide. Buttressed with three brick on edge archways and draught holes on the south elevation. Five iron pegs are inserted into the face of the kiln. Briarside and Middleton Cottage on Cog Road is a yeoman
's cottage built in the mid 16th century with later 18th century additions. The cottage contains a Tudor-style archway and an original circular stone staircase. The remains of the village mill can be found at Hayes Farm on Hayes Road.
for exactly two hundred years after which it was administered first by Christopher Mansel
and later by Bussy Mansel
until his death in 1780.
There followed a number of lawsuits with several landowners claiming rights to the manor until a private Act of Parliament granted the manors of both St. Donats and Sully to Sir John de la Fountaine Tyrwhit. It stayed in his family
until 1811 although the family had changed their name to Drake by then. When the last of the Drake family died without heirs the estate was sold by public auction
to a Mr Evan Thomas who resided in Old Sully House until he died in 1832. Thomas built Cog Farm between 1816-17. The rickstands at Cog Farm are probably contemporary. The eight circular rickstands are approximately 3 metres high, stone built and lipped at the top. In plan they form a right angle at the edge of the former rickyard. The rickstands kept unthreshed corn above the moist ground and the lips provided protection against rodents.
There was a six year gap while ownership was disputed until in 1838 the estate was finally taken by Sir Josiah John Guest of Dowlais
and Merthyr Tydfil
, whose eldest son would later became the first Lord Wimborne of Ashby
. In 1889 Lord Wimborne purchased the rights to use the Sully foreshore for the manor estate purposes.
By the early 20th century Lord Wimborne's estate began to sell off various lands within the parish, and during 1914 the last of the Sully estate interests were sold at public auction
to a number of individual private landowners, the main purchaser being Lieutenant-Commander Charles E. Evans, RNVR, who in 1917 split his overall Sully holding into a number of rented properties. These various properties then formed part of Evans' estate, which in 1956 was established as a private limited letting company (Evans' Estate (1956) Ltd), based in Newton Abbott, Devon.
From 1890 until the end of the 1960s Sully was connected eastwards to Penarth
and Cardiff
and westwards to Barry and the South Wales Valleys
by an extension of the Taff Vale Railway
line. The coastal spur fell victim to the sweeping Beeching Axe
in 1968. Sully station, on Cog Road opposite the Sully Inn and Swanbridge Halt were closed. The redundant rail track bed and station buildings have mostly been sold into private ownership and built on, with any unsold stretches being overgrown and impassable as far as the Fort Road bridge at Lavernock. Between Lavernock and Penarth the track bed is a rural greenway and cycle track.
In the 1960s the local plastics factory and principal employers in the immediate area, a subsidiary of Distillers Company, built a new sports and social club at the east end of the village, opposite Swanbridge Halt railway station. In 1966 members of the club formed a rugby team initially known as 'Barry Plastics RFC' but now renamed as 'Sully Sports RFC'. Today the club fields three teams in the Cardiff and District Rugby Union and the sides are regular competitors in the Welsh Brewers Cup, the Mallett Cup and the Ninian Stuart Cup. Touring venues have included Holland, Spain, Germany and Belgium, as well as many within the U.K.
of Cardiff, Pilton ran aground during gale force winds in December 1924. She was aground for three months, and provided a steady source of income for Sully caterers from the large number visitors arriving by train to view the spectacle.
Sully Hospital is described in the Glamorgan section of Nikolaus Pevsner
’s ‘The Buildings of Wales’ as “An outstanding example of inter-war architecture, which has survived almost unaltered” and is considered to be the finest representation of Modernist sanatorium
s in Britain and one of the last great Modernist landmarks remaining in the whole of Wales.
The classical and elegant Art Deco
structure was completed between 1932 and 1936 by the firm of William Pite, Son and Fairweathers who had won a 1931 open competition to design the new building. It was opened in 1936 by King Edward VII as a local 'cottage' general hospital.
The new hospital facility initially specialised in treatment of tuberculosis, together with heart and lung ailments but also had general surgery wards and its own maternity unit. In 1943 there was a Battalion of American Seabees, the US Construction Corps
, living on a merchant vessel tied up in Penarth docks, while they built a large number of Quonset hut
s for a rapid temporary expansions of Sully Hospital needed for the extra wartime pressure of additional patients, both military and civilian. Many of the Quonset huts remained in use as overflow accommodation until the mid-1960s. In 1993 the hospital switched to a speciality in residential psychiatric care until its final closure as an NHS Trust facility in 2001.
While standing vacant the hospital building was briefly considered as a potential location for the temporary housing of up to 750 Eastern European asylum seekers, but those plans were eventually shelved after a campaign and objections by local residents. In the last few years the building, which is protected by a Grade II listing, has been converted into individual luxury apartments by the investment property company Galliard Homes Ltd. The building has been renamed Hayes Point and its fine art deco external appearance was carefully retained and preserved.
There are no secondary schools in the village. Most children attend Stanwell School
and St Cyres Comprehensive School
in nearby Penarth
, or various schools in Barry. Sully School is a main feeder school for Stanwell School and other schools are selected by parental choice. Free school bus services are provided.
that includes a caravan park and holiday camp
and the Captain's Wife public house opened in 1977 after a conversion of several quayside cottages. There is foot access at low tide from the pub car park to Sully Island but tides are high and fast. There is an access time of only three hours each side of low tides and extreme care is advised.
/BBC Three
hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey, when the character of Ness, played by Ruth Jones
, moves into a caravan in the village with fiance Dave Coaches.
A referendum will be held to decide to change the name to Abersili. "A spokesman for the Welsh Language Board said the standard reference book, A Gazetteer of Welsh Place Names, recommended the form Sili, which was a “cymricisation” – or translation – of the Norman name Sully or Silly and was well established in Welsh writing and used widely both locally and nationally.".
However, local people argue that the name has different origins. "The Welsh name Abersili is derived from its situation at the mouth of the rivulet Sili. Sully is perhaps a corruption of Sili, hissing water ; or of Sylwy : syl — sylhi, to gaze ; and wy, water. Some think the word is the Norse for ploughed island, and others think it is a modified form of Sulwy or Sule, a woman’s name."
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...
, 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...
lying on the northern coast of the Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
, midway between the towns of Penarth
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
and Barry and 7 miles (11.3 kilometres) southwest of the Welsh
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...
capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
Medieval Sully
The village could be named as an abbreviation of "south lea" meaning "southern pasture" but it is more commonly understood to be named after the noble NormanNormans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
family of Baron Reginald de Sully, one of the 'Twelve Knights of Glamorgan
Twelve Knights of Glamorgan
Twelve Knights of Glamorgan were the legendary followers of Robert FitzHamon, the Norman conqueror of Glamorgan. They are figures in early Welsh history....
' who was awarded the Manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
around 1093 by the conqueror of Glamorgan Sir Robert Fitzhamon
Robert Fitzhamon
Robert Fitzhamon , or Robert FitzHamon, Sieur de Creully in the Calvados region and Torigny in the Manche region of Normandy, was Lord of Gloucester and the Norman conqueror of Glamorgan, southern Wales...
, probably under charter by William II of England
William II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
. In 1591 Sir Edward Mansel of Margam wrote his historical document recording 'The winning of Glamorgan' and recorded:
- "To Sir Reginald de Sully he (Fitz Haymon) gave the castle and town to be called Sully with the Manor of it, and the Manors of St Andrews and Dinas PowysDinas PowysDinas Powys is a large village and a community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales which takes its name from the Dinas Powys hillfort that dates from the Iron Age...
for his Granary and provisions. This Sir Reginald bestowed much land in fee frankliege to his men and came to be a man of wealth and fame. He had at Sully besides his Castle a fair Manor house built after a new manner, where he did live the most of his time, which house as well as the Castle was broke down by Owain Glendower"
De Sully also had extensive estates in Devon but he is recorded as having built a small fortified castle in Sully, the remains of which have mostly vanished, except for a short length of wall, located to the east of the Norman parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in the village. The site of a 13th century moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
ed manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
can still be observed on Sully Moors.
The castle at Sully was the smallest in Glamorgan by a very long way. It covered a site of only about half an acre and stood in a location that was, until only recently, called Castle Wood. Occupation of the castle lasted less than three hundred years till around the mid 14th century, probably as a result of the extinction of the de Sully family line. The present church dates from around the same time as the castle and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The resident Sully clergyman has always been referred to as the Rector which indicates the tithes that produced his annual income were never appropriated by a monastery and he was therefore probably supported by the Lord of the Manor directly, although appointed by the Bishop.
There is a mostly complete late medieval lime kiln on Ashby Road, Sully. Composed of stone and brick it is 40 feet long and 18 feet high by 13 feet wide. Buttressed with three brick on edge archways and draught holes on the south elevation. Five iron pegs are inserted into the face of the kiln. Briarside and Middleton Cottage on Cog Road is a yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
's cottage built in the mid 16th century with later 18th century additions. The cottage contains a Tudor-style archway and an original circular stone staircase. The remains of the village mill can be found at Hayes Farm on Hayes Road.
Changes in the Manor
The Manor of Sully reverted to Crown ownership and is recorded as being sold in its entirety to Sir Thomas Stradling in 1538. It remained in the Stradling familyStradling Baronets
The Stradling Baronetcy, of St Donat's in the County of Glamorgan, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 22 May 1611 for John Stradling, later Member of Parliament for St Germans and Old Sarum and Glamorgan. The second Baronet also represented Glamorgan in Parliament. The...
for exactly two hundred years after which it was administered first by Christopher Mansel
Baron Mansel
Baron Mansel, of Margam in the County of Glamorgan, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 1 January 1712 for Sir Thomas Mansel, 5th Baronet, previously Member of Parliament for Cardiff and Glamorganshire. His ancestor had been created a Baronet, of Margam in the County of...
and later by Bussy Mansel
Bussy Mansel, 4th Baron Mansel
Bussy Mansel, 4th Baron Mansel was a Welsh peer.He succeeded his brother Christopher Mansel as Baron Mansel of Margam in 1744....
until his death in 1780.
There followed a number of lawsuits with several landowners claiming rights to the manor until a private Act of Parliament granted the manors of both St. Donats and Sully to Sir John de la Fountaine Tyrwhit. It stayed in his family
Tyrwhitt Baronets
There have been three Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Tyrwhitt , one in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom....
until 1811 although the family had changed their name to Drake by then. When the last of the Drake family died without heirs the estate was sold by public auction
Public auction
A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority....
to a Mr Evan Thomas who resided in Old Sully House until he died in 1832. Thomas built Cog Farm between 1816-17. The rickstands at Cog Farm are probably contemporary. The eight circular rickstands are approximately 3 metres high, stone built and lipped at the top. In plan they form a right angle at the edge of the former rickyard. The rickstands kept unthreshed corn above the moist ground and the lips provided protection against rodents.
There was a six year gap while ownership was disputed until in 1838 the estate was finally taken by Sir Josiah John Guest of Dowlais
Dowlais
Dowlais is a village and community of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. As of 2001, it has a population of 6646.Dowlais is notable within Wales and Britain for its historic association with ironworking; once employing, through the Dowlais Iron Company, roughly 5,000 people, the works...
and Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
, whose eldest son would later became the first Lord Wimborne of Ashby
Viscount Wimborne
Viscount Wimborne, of Canford Magna in the County of Dorset, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1918 for Ivor Guest, 2nd Baron Wimborne. The Guest family descends from the engineer and businessman John Josiah Guest. On 14 August 1838 he was created a Baronet, of...
. In 1889 Lord Wimborne purchased the rights to use the Sully foreshore for the manor estate purposes.
By the early 20th century Lord Wimborne's estate began to sell off various lands within the parish, and during 1914 the last of the Sully estate interests were sold at public auction
Public auction
A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority....
to a number of individual private landowners, the main purchaser being Lieutenant-Commander Charles E. Evans, RNVR, who in 1917 split his overall Sully holding into a number of rented properties. These various properties then formed part of Evans' estate, which in 1956 was established as a private limited letting company (Evans' Estate (1956) Ltd), based in Newton Abbott, Devon.
Village Growth
In the 19th century Sully was almost entirely agricultural in nature and the population fluctuated between only 150 to 200 individuals. By 1920 this had still only increased to 550 despite the explosive growths of nearby Penarth and Barry. However, in just the past forty years Sully has grown steadily along the various commercial plastics factory developments and with the wider spread of private car ownership. Sully is now mainly a middle income dormitory suburb of Cardiff with a still expanding population of just over 5,000.From 1890 until the end of the 1960s Sully was connected eastwards to Penarth
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
and Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
and westwards to Barry and the South Wales Valleys
South Wales Valleys
The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...
by an extension of the Taff Vale Railway
Taff Vale Railway
The Taff Vale Railway is a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway...
line. The coastal spur fell victim to the sweeping Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
in 1968. Sully station, on Cog Road opposite the Sully Inn and Swanbridge Halt were closed. The redundant rail track bed and station buildings have mostly been sold into private ownership and built on, with any unsold stretches being overgrown and impassable as far as the Fort Road bridge at Lavernock. Between Lavernock and Penarth the track bed is a rural greenway and cycle track.
In the 1960s the local plastics factory and principal employers in the immediate area, a subsidiary of Distillers Company, built a new sports and social club at the east end of the village, opposite Swanbridge Halt railway station. In 1966 members of the club formed a rugby team initially known as 'Barry Plastics RFC' but now renamed as 'Sully Sports RFC'. Today the club fields three teams in the Cardiff and District Rugby Union and the sides are regular competitors in the Welsh Brewers Cup, the Mallett Cup and the Ninian Stuart Cup. Touring venues have included Holland, Spain, Germany and Belgium, as well as many within the U.K.
SS Pilton
was a ship that ran aground on Sully Beach in 1924. Owned by William J. TatemWilliam Tatem, 1st Baron Glanely
William James Tatem, 1st Baron Glanely , known as Sir William Tatem, Bt, between 1916 and 1918, was a Cardiff ship-owner and thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder.-Career:...
of Cardiff, Pilton ran aground during gale force winds in December 1924. She was aground for three months, and provided a steady source of income for Sully caterers from the large number visitors arriving by train to view the spectacle.
Sully Hospital
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
’s ‘The Buildings of Wales’ as “An outstanding example of inter-war architecture, which has survived almost unaltered” and is considered to be the finest representation of Modernist sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
s in Britain and one of the last great Modernist landmarks remaining in the whole of Wales.
The classical and elegant Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
structure was completed between 1932 and 1936 by the firm of William Pite, Son and Fairweathers who had won a 1931 open competition to design the new building. It was opened in 1936 by King Edward VII as a local 'cottage' general hospital.
The new hospital facility initially specialised in treatment of tuberculosis, together with heart and lung ailments but also had general surgery wards and its own maternity unit. In 1943 there was a Battalion of American Seabees, the US Construction Corps
Seabee
Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion, of the United States Navy...
, living on a merchant vessel tied up in Penarth docks, while they built a large number of Quonset hut
Quonset hut
A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I...
s for a rapid temporary expansions of Sully Hospital needed for the extra wartime pressure of additional patients, both military and civilian. Many of the Quonset huts remained in use as overflow accommodation until the mid-1960s. In 1993 the hospital switched to a speciality in residential psychiatric care until its final closure as an NHS Trust facility in 2001.
While standing vacant the hospital building was briefly considered as a potential location for the temporary housing of up to 750 Eastern European asylum seekers, but those plans were eventually shelved after a campaign and objections by local residents. In the last few years the building, which is protected by a Grade II listing, has been converted into individual luxury apartments by the investment property company Galliard Homes Ltd. The building has been renamed Hayes Point and its fine art deco external appearance was carefully retained and preserved.
Governance
- Sully is represented by a community council which is chaired by Mr. Malcolm Davies.
- Sully falls within the Cardiff South and Penarth parliamentary constituency and is currently represented by Alun MichaelAlun MichaelAlun Edward Michael is a British Labour Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth since 1987. He was formerly First Minister of Wales and leader of the Welsh Labour Party from 1999 to 2000.-Education:Michael was born at Bryngwran Anglesey, son of...
MP, a member of the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
(UK). - Jane HuttJane HuttJane Hutt AM is a Welsh Labour politician and a Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government. Hutt has represented the Vale of Glamorgan constituency since the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999...
, a resident of Barry, represents the Vale of Glamorgan in the National Assembly for Wales (Labour Party). - Ward representatives to the Vale of Glamorgan CouncilVale of Glamorgan CouncilThe Vale of Glamorgan Council is the governing body for the Vale of Glamorgan, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. It is run by the Conservative Party after the United Kingdom local elections, 2008, taking over the council from no overall control....
are Anthony Ernest (Con) and Mrs. S Sharpe (Con).
Education
Sully School moved to its present site in 1936. It is a primary school with a twenty-six place nursery unit. There are over 400 pupils and seventeen teachers.There are no secondary schools in the village. Most children attend Stanwell School
Stanwell School
Stanwell School is a co-educational foundation status comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales for children aged between eleven and eighteen...
and St Cyres Comprehensive School
St Cyres Comprehensive School
St Cyres School is a co-educational foundation status comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...
in nearby Penarth
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
, or various schools in Barry. Sully School is a main feeder school for Stanwell School and other schools are selected by parental choice. Free school bus services are provided.
Nearby areas of interest
Nearby (at ) is the hamlet of SwanbridgeSully Island
Sully Island is a small tidal island at the hamlet of Swanbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, four hundred and fifty metres off the northern coast of the Bristol Channel, midway between the towns of Penarth and Barry and 7 miles south of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...
that includes a caravan park and holiday camp
Holiday camp
Holiday camp, in Britain, generally refers to a resort with a boundary that includes accommodation, entertainment and other facilities.As distinct from camping, accommodation typically consisted of chalets – small buildings arranged either individually or in blocks. Some had three or four storeys,...
and the Captain's Wife public house opened in 1977 after a conversion of several quayside cottages. There is foot access at low tide from the pub car park to Sully Island but tides are high and fast. There is an access time of only three hours each side of low tides and extreme care is advised.
- The Bendricks, Vale of GlamorganThe Bendricks, Vale of GlamorganThe Bendricks is a stretch of coastline and an important paleontological site in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales located along the northern coast of the Bristol Channel between Barry and Sully at . It lies at the foreshore of the industrial port of Barry between the eastern breakwater of the...
- Sully IslandSully IslandSully Island is a small tidal island at the hamlet of Swanbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, four hundred and fifty metres off the northern coast of the Bristol Channel, midway between the towns of Penarth and Barry and 7 miles south of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff...
In popular culture
Sully is featured in the third series of the BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
/BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey, when the character of Ness, played by Ruth Jones
Ruth Jones
Ruth Jones is a Welsh TV actress and writer. She starred in and co-wrote the multi-award winning TV comedy Gavin & Stacey and has appeared in many other successful comedies over recent years...
, moves into a caravan in the village with fiance Dave Coaches.
Controversy over Welsh translation of name
Bi-lingual road signs at either end of the village announce Sully and "Sili". Some residents think the Welsh translation is inappropriate and ridicules the village.A referendum will be held to decide to change the name to Abersili. "A spokesman for the Welsh Language Board said the standard reference book, A Gazetteer of Welsh Place Names, recommended the form Sili, which was a “cymricisation” – or translation – of the Norman name Sully or Silly and was well established in Welsh writing and used widely both locally and nationally.".
However, local people argue that the name has different origins. "The Welsh name Abersili is derived from its situation at the mouth of the rivulet Sili. Sully is perhaps a corruption of Sili, hissing water ; or of Sylwy : syl — sylhi, to gaze ; and wy, water. Some think the word is the Norse for ploughed island, and others think it is a modified form of Sulwy or Sule, a woman’s name."