Cardiff History

In Welsh Caerdydd - the fort on the river Taff.

If you’d come to Cardiff about 200 years ago it was just a quiet little fishing village with less than 2,000 people. Then coal was discovered to the north in the area known as the South Wales Valleys. The Marquis of Bute a rich Scotsman who owned the castle gambled some of his own money, dug some docks and Cardiff rapidly became the greatest coal exporting city in the world. By 1900 its population had reached almost 200,000.

The nineteenth century was the age of steam and Welsh coal was widely regarded as the best money could buy - Wales literally powered the world. The Titanic actually sank because it was burning Welsh Coal, had it been burning an inferior type it would never have reached the iceberg, so I’m afraid we have those deaths on our hands.

By the turn of the twentieth century Cardiff was a thriving metropolis, with a university, a direct rail link to London, six theatres, and scores of restaurants, pubs, churches and shops in stylish Victorian arcades, which still survive today. The biggest town in Wales, it was awarded city status in 1905.

Throughout the twentieth century lots of major institutions set up their headquarters in Cardiff including; the BBC, the National Museum, the regional offices of the Coal, Gas and Electricity Boards and Welsh National Opera. Cardiff became capital of Wales in 1955 and with many other public bodies being located there it was the obvious choice for the location of the Welsh Assembly in 1999.