History

The City - 6                                             Go to pages: 1  2  3  4  5  6

The construction of Western Avenue in 1930-33 followed the line of the prehistoric track way used more than two thousand years ago.  The old corn mill near the River was demolished during the construction of the road.

In 1941 a German landmine fell near the south wall of the Cathedral and once again the building was in ruins.  After the war yet another restoration was started, this time in the hands of George Pace.  It was completed in 1960.  The interior was given a cathedral-like atmosphere where none had existed before.  Prichard’s open timber roof over the nave was replaced with a flat ceiling, incorporating Sir Jacob Epstein’s ‘Christ in Majesty’.

The Cathedral School was transferred to the former’s Bishop’s Palace at Llandaff Court in 1958,  and a decade later the village school was moved from its nineteenth century building in the High Street.  

A site on Llantrisant Road was chosen as the new headquarters of the BBC in Wales.  It was opened by Princess Margaret on St David’s Day in 1967.  It  became famous known as the creative home of Doctor Who and Torchwood but in 2014 the site was closed and sold for housing, and a new BBC Wales centre built by Cardiff Central station. 

 

By Donna Howard

Taken from: Llandaf Past and Present by John B Hilling, published by Stewart Williams Publishers, Barry, 1978; and Llandaff Society’s Occasional Paper No. 3 - Speed Revisited - by NA James and JM Lewis.

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Further reading:

Occasional Papers by the Llandaff Society
Llandaff’s Pubs by Nevil James
1907 Royal Visit by Vanessa Cunningham

If you have stories of old Llandaff, we would love to hear from you.  Please contact the webteam.

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