The many businesses that traded on the bridge:
The road through Cowbridge crosses the River Thaw by the ‘pont faen’ or stone bridge, right in the heart of the town.
It was re-built in the 1950s when the river was straightened, having previously been positioned several yards east – the river then took a dog leg turn to its present flow through the park. A row of three-storey town houses now stands to the east of the bridge on its southern side, but what was here before them?
The earliest deeds found so far by Cowbridge History Society, from the Cornish, Aubrey, Deere papers, date around 1704, when they refer to a hostelry ‘formerly the Swan but now the Plough or Harrow’, and records of 1760 refer to ‘the Swan on the bridge’ with a leasehold stable nearby.
In 1776, mention was made of ‘the workhouse’ near the great stone bridge ‘at the south side thereof’. In 1779, a lease was given by Thomas Edmondes to Edward Ballard, skinner, of a courtyard and wain house called the limes yard. The 1843 tithe apportionment refers to Edward Ballard’s ‘kiln yard’ owned by Thomas Edmondes, and in the 1871 census a dwelling here was housing the young coal merchant Thomas Jenkins and his family, nine in all.
By 1901, Thomas Tucker, general dealer in glass and china, born in Martock, Somerset, was living and trading from here and his shop features in several early 20th Century photographs of the town centre. Mrs Betty Read, who lived in the Limes, remembered it being a very large shop, its gable end abutting the Limes entrance, with ‘three very pretty cottages run as a laundry business.’
During World War Two, the former Tucker’s shop became a waste paper storage depot. A garage was constructed on the main road, owned by Frank Sanders (whose brother Arthur ran the shoe shop in High Street) and with a ‘lovely pear tree in the back garden’. It burnt down when a petrol delivery tanker backed into a brazier and all the neighbouring properties had to be evacuated.
By 1957, the new bridge had been constructed and the river diverted. The Bridge Garage was re-built with concrete blocks; the garage pumps were moved back twelve feet and two condemned houses there were pulled down. The garage operated here, with auto repairs behind, through until 2003 when the site was redeveloped with its present row of town houses, Riverside Mews.
There must be many people in Cowbridge today who can correct or add to this report. Cowbridge History Room, open on Wednesday mornings in Old Hall, welcomes visitors and memories. Some of the volunteers there have drawn up a summer quiz, particularly with families in mind, to walk about the town and find out more about its buildings. Sheets are held in the library (free to collect) – why not pick one up and spend an hour or so exploring?
Betty Alden
🌟 This article first appeared in the printed edition of the Glamorgan Star on 11.08.22. Read it in print first!
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