Cowbridge

Coordinates: 51°27′38″N 3°26′53″W / 51.4605°N 3.4480°W / 51.4605; -3.4480

Cowbridge (Welsh: Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of Cardiff (12 miles west of Cardiff Bridge). Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.

History

Roman times

The town lies on the site of a Roman settlement identified by some scholars as the fort of Bovium (cow-place). Recent excavations have revealed extensive Roman settlement; the town lies alongside a Roman road. There are 17th century references to a 'cow-bridge' over a tributary of the river Thaw (which flows through the town) but Cowbridge's Welsh name, Y Bont-faen, means literally 'the stone bridge'.

Middle Ages

The town centre is still arranged on its medieval plan, with one long street divided into "burgage plots". It is one of very few medieval walled towns in Wales, and substantial portions of the walls, together with the south gate, are still standing. On 13 March 1254, Cowbridge received its first borough charter from Richard de Clare, the Lord of Glamorgan. Richard de Clare was one of the most powerful Barons of the day, having huge estates stretching across much of South Wales and also lands in southern and eastern England.

Cowbridge (Roman town)

Cowbridge was a small castra in Roman Wales within the Roman province of Britannia Superior. Today the contemporary settlement, Cowbridge, has a population of roughly 3,600.

Its name in Latin is unknown, although it is the strongest candidate for Bovium (corrected from Bomio) of the Antonine Itinerary. Its remains have been discovered beneath Cowbridge in the Welsh county of Vale of Glamorgan, previously Glamorganshire.

A Roman bath house or Thermae, abandoned by the early 2nd century, has been discovered which had bricks stamped by the 2nd Legion, suggesting perhaps some kind of early military establishment on the site. There were certainly funerary monuments of persons of status at this early period, including a fine sculpted lion. The settlement later became a ribbon development of typical timber and stone strip buildings within ditched enclosures fronting a north-south Roman road. Industry included agricultural processing and large scale iron working. Occupation continued into the 4th century.