IN JANUARY 1976, the Cadoxton Conservation Area was passed by the council, and was amended in 1979 and again in 2009, when various parts of the area were sold off to developers to build on.

Part of this ground was owned and administered under the Welsh Church Estates Act and at one time administered by the Glamorgan County Council and is now run by a committee whose chairman is a Vale of Glamorgan councillor.

I understand that the portion of land at the bottom of Church Road may be used for building, but before Cowbridge Street was built it was part of the Glebe Land belonging to St Cadoc’s Church (the Old Village church) which was not completely walled around and was used as part of the church graveyard.

In 1892, a story was published in a local newspaper about a builder who leased an area of land from the church estate at the bottom of Church Road to erect houses.

When digging the foundations, they came across a large number of human remains. The builder decided not to carry on with building on the rest of the ground he had leased and only erected five properties.

His houses, which were stone-faced, are the only ones in the road not to have decorative ceramic motifs above the door and windows, which were supposed to help keep evil spirits from entering.

When asked why he did not have these above his houses, his reply was that his houses were already built on consecrated ground.

During the war years a large static water tank was built on the ground on the opposite side of the road in front of the church, where more bones were found. Who on the Welsh Church Acts Committee decided to sell off this former graveyard or didn’t they know that it was there?

Tom Clemett

Church Road

Barry