By Karl-James Langford

Readers, this week in our Barry and District, we take a look at the unusual, and something that is overlooked. We are examining the Green Lane between Cadoxton Church and the modern day Victoria Park.

There are surprisingly quite a few lanes dating to the early 1800s and beyond surviving throughout Barry and the District, Old Village Road being a prime example.

The Green Lane, at Cadoxton, has been earmarked for a revamp many times. The brick copings that have long since been removed on the central pier of the two stone sets of steps, could so easily be replaced, with the steps being in fairly good condition, having been laid down more than 100 years ago.

The main issue is the rest of the surviving route, that heads north from the steps towards Cadoxton Church, that is sadly becoming clogged up with brambles and the like in the summer months.

But what is so special about this green lane?

The steps were not always there, landscaping in the late 1800s, then into the 1900s altered the landscape.

The route heading all the way from the Coldbrook direction (north easterly) and North Westerly from Pencoedtre, this headed past Cadoxton Church, along to the route of todays Green Lane; only to head along a short sunken track to the summit of Cadoxton Common.

The Common originally belonged to the community: grazing rights offered through many generations to the 'common folk' of mainly cattle and sheep were enacted.

After 1884, those rights were revoked, and the local politicians ripped up the ancient rule book, and a civic park was created, that still exists today.

OTHER NEWS:

At the summit of Cadoxton Common, you were once met; without the distraction of buildings, with beautiful views over towards Bristol, with a view that swept away your dreams into the thoughts of myths and legends of old.

If you then carried down this natural hillock, in a Southerly direction, you would have been met by the once mighty 'Cadoxton River', taking it's water and silts out to the great Bristol Channel; then at hightide, the open sea, as the 'Sheeping Moors' became inundated.

The Sheeping Moors, is where we find number two dock today, and all the streets that run off from Cardiff Road.

Of a final note in regards to our Cadoxton Green Lane, is that it may have acted as a pilgrimage route heading from the coast towards Cadoxton Church. This is something that Richard Enos and I examine in a forthcoming book.

Many thanks for joining us this week, more delights from the Barry and District next week.