The village of St. Bride's-super-Ely is quite ancient.

St. Bridget's Church and village cottage (now the Parish Hall), about 1900

Archaeological excavations and historical research show that Iberians, Beaker people, Goedelic and Brythonic Celts, Silurians, Romans, Normans -- all have resided here over the past 50 or so centuries.  The earliest discovery was made at Sant-y-Nyll.  The excavations found remains from the Iberians who resided here during the Neolithic Period (ca. 3,000-1,800 B.C.).

Archaeology staff at the National Museums of Wales were unable to trace a known settlement in the Parish between 400 and 1100 A.D.  Historian J. K. Knight, writing in the Glamorgan County History (p. 397) identified a possible 9th Century villa, Penn Onn, with St.-y-Nyll.  St. Bride's-super-Ely was partly in the ancient Welsh principality of Glynrhondda, its southern boundary cutting across the Parish.

Despite its proximity to important historical sites and events, this village is often overlooked.  Historians dwell more on its church than on the village itself.  C. J. O. Evans described the village in Glamorgan: Its History & Topography (Cardiff: William Lewis Printers Ltd., 1945, p. 406):

St. Bride's super Ely is a hamlet 6 miles west of Cardiff in the valley of the Ely river.  A little to the east is a tumulus, near the site of an old windmill.  The church of St. Bride is a rectory annexed to Michaelston-super-Ely and is partly of the 13th century with a late Norman arch on the south porch.  The chancel arch is modern in Norman style, and the font is of some antiquity.  The building consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and western tower with saddleback roof.  Over the western doorway may be seen the bishop's Consecration or Dedication Cross, one of the few ancient ones known to exist in the county.  A very old yew tree stands in the churchyard.

The yew tree probably marks a druidic worship site dating back 1,000 years or more.  During Roman occupation of Wales, local pockets of pagan worshippers remained intact in the country, with some groups assimilating some Roman pagan traditions.  The Celtic Catholic Church probably existed in Wales from the time that Joseph of Arimathea is said to have brought the religion to the British Isles.  Missionaries from Gaul brought Christianity into Wales early in the 5th Century.  The Celtic saints, Patrick, Columba, and Brigid, were integrated into the new Christianity.

Normans displaced huge numbers of Glamorgan residents and enforced a change in allegiance from the leaders of local bands to the newly arrived Norman lords.  They built castles, fortified villages, and suppressed the native Welsh people.  They forced Roman Catholicism on the local Celtic people.  In St. Bride's-super-Ely, the Normans built a church that is still in use today.

St. Bride's was peripherally involved in the Civil War.  In July, 1644, the King met 4,000 Glamorgan men at St. Fagan's and listened to their demands, ultimately acquiescing to them all.  Afterward, Philip Jones became a near-dictator in Glamorgan.  Major-General Rowland Laugharne assisted him.  The Vale gentry strongly objected to the religious policies of Laugharne's leadership.  In February, 1646, the Vale gentry mounted an armed protest.  Tensions continued until May, 1848, when the former Parliamentary troops formerly under Laugharne's command marched into Glamorgan under the King's banner.  Nearly every landed family in Glamorgan supported the troops.  The common people of the Vale joined the army in droves.  Observers noted at the time that the Welsh were strongly against Parliament; they used tactics such as deserting a village and rendering the smithy unusable to disrupt Cromwell's men.  One historian wrote that the Welsh involvement nearly changed history.  The two armies met at St. Fagan's on 8th May, just a few yards from the border of St. Bride's-super-Ely Parish.

Diarist William Thomas, of the neighboring parish of Michaelston-super-Ely, made two direct references to St. Bride's in his journals:

• When Captain William Watkins married in January 1764 he is referred to as "... my late Mate in persuing Mathematicks";
• Thomas Rimbron, a school master at St. Bride's-super-Ely, on 6 April 1766 "sent Lewis Griffith and Ned with some Foolish questions for me to answer."

The social and economic makeup of St. Bride's-super-Ely changed in the mid-19th Century when the Great Western Railway ran its route through the edge of the Parish.  The railroad brought people from all over Britain to work in the area.  Parish register entries at St. Bridget's Church show an influx of English surnames and birth locations from outside the immediate area during that time.

No one recalls there having ever been a pub in the village.  Records indicate a blacksmith shop was located near the main intersection of the main village road and the road to Peterston-super-Ely.  There was a post office in St. Bride's on the main road where the post box is now.  There was also a small sweet shop, which a Mrs. Cook ran from her front room in a house near the church in the latter half of the 20th Century.

For additional history and details about St. Bride's, Glamorgan, and Wales, visit the links on this site.  Items of particular interest include (or will as the site develops!) the Timeline of Welsh History, Wales on Britannia, Glamorgan Chronology, and transcriptions of marriage bonds, census enumerations, and 1841 tithe map/apportionments.

Suggested Readings:

• A. H. Dodd, Life in Wales (London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1972)
• C. J. O. Evans, Glamorgan: Its History and Topography (Cardiff: William Lewis Printers, Ltd., 1938 et seq.)
• Glamorgan Society, London, Historical Sketches of Glamorgan (Cardiff: Western Mail, Limited, 1907 et seq.)
• Stewart Williams (ed.), Glamorgan Historian (12 vols.) (Cowbridge: D. Brown and Son, 1963-)
• Stewart Williams edited a number of volumes on the Vale of Glamorgan.  Contact your favorite used bookseller. (Warning: The prices are high!)