Caerau - Gazetteers

Extract from A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833) by Samuel Lewis.

"CAERRA (CAERAU), a parish in the hundred of KIBBOR, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, 3 1/2 miles (W.) from Cardiff, containing 77 inhabitants.

This parish, part of which was given by Fitz-Hamon to Sir John Fleming, one of the Norman knights who attended him in the conquest of Wales, constitutes a prebend in the cathedral church of Llandaf, valued in the king's books at £3. 10. 7 1/2., and endowed with the tithes not only of this parish, but also of the parishes of Penterry and Llandogo, in the county of Monmouth.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaf, endowed with £1000 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Prebendary of Caerau in the Cathedral Church of Llandaf. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is chiefly remarkable for its situation within the precincts of a Roman camp, which is one of the most extensive and entire in the principality. Its form is that, of a regular parallelogram, rounded at the angles, and enclosing an area of about twelve acres: it is defended on the north side, where the ascent is steep, by one single rampart, on the south and southwest by two, and on the east side, where was the praetorium, by three ramparts. The praetorium, which is still visible, is of a circular form, guarded by a steep rampart, and communicating with the camp by a very narrow passage. From its situation within a small distance of the river Ely, its magnitude, the disposition of its arrangements, and its excellent preservation, it has been identified with the Tibia Amnis of Richard of Cirencester: no coins, however, or any Roman relics of antiquity, have been discovered near the spot, to confirm the supposition.

The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor is £65. 11."

[Last Updated : 5 Oct 2002 Gareth Hicks]