Parc Tredelerch

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Link to Welsh translationParc Tredelerch

It may be hard to believe today, but the area north-west of the Wales Coast Path in this vicinity was once a licensed area for tipping waste. From 2001 to 2003 the area was cleared and landscaped to form a new park, known as Parc Tredelerch.

The park’s centrepiece is a lake of 40,000 square metres (four hectares). The surrounding land was landscaped and planted to provide wildlife habitats. The park’s 2km of public paths include a boardwalk across the lake. Species to look out for include mute swan, great crested grebe, coot and mallard, as well as dragonflies and butterflies.

Lamby Lake fishing club was formed to manage the coarse fish at Parc Tredelerch. Fish include tench, perch, golden rudd and several varities of carp. Some have grown to about 14kg.

A short distance south of the park, Lamby Way Landfill Site has been receiving refuse for decades but is due to close in 2014 because of the growth in other waste-disposal methods, especially recycling.

Lamby was the name of an early settlement, “the long farmstead”. As with Womanby Street in the centre of Cardiff, the second element in the name is the suffix -by which derives from the Old Norse býr (“homestead, farmstead”), the first part being the Old Norse langr (“long”).

Tredelerch is the Welsh name of the old demesne manor of Rhymni (Rumney) once part of the lordship of Gwynllŵg, in Gwent, and probably founded soon after the Norman occupation of Glamorgan and Gwynllŵg c.1093. The name is a compound of Welsh tref, in its early sense of “holding, farm, dwelling”, and the name of its probable original owner Telerch (of whom nothing is known). So Tredelerch means “the farm/holding of Telerch”.

West of Parc Tredelerch, the Wales Coast Path crosses the Rhymney river, which flows from the Brecon Beacons and down the Rhymney Valley before reaching the sea c.1km south of here. The Rhymney Trail, a footpath shadowing the river, leaves the WCP to pass through Parc Tredelerch on its way north.

With thanks to Professor Gwynedd Pierce, of the Welsh Place-Name Society

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