Penarth Town Heritage Trail 00 [Board Title Template Board] Location: This board is located at: Next Nearest Board (Clockwise): Next Nearest Board (Anti-Clockwise): ​ Entries Anchor 1 / Anchor 2 / Anchor 3 / Anchor 4 / Anchor 5 / Anchor 6 / Boards List / Blue Plaques [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 1 [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 2 [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 3 [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 4 [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 5 [Landmark Title] [Information Text] Anchor 6 Other Boards Other Boards [Overview Map & Welcome Board] - TBC History of Penarth #1 – Clifftop History of Penarth #2 – Town Centre History of Penarth#3 – Paget Rd History of Penarth #4 – Alexandra Park The Americans – Paget Rd [Seafront Area] (Buildings and users + Dinosaurs) – Esplanade First Houses of Penarth – John St / Arcot St Penarth’s First Shopping Centre – Glebe St Holiest Street in Town – Plassey St [Headlands Area] – Headlands School Mansions & Wealth – Marine Parade [New Shops/Arcade/Library & Solomon Andrews] – Windsor Arcade Arrival of The Railway – Penarth Station Victoria Square & All Saints – Victoria Square St Augustine's Church & Yards – St Augustine’s Church Custom House & Docks – Custom House The Windsors – Windsor Gardens Empire & Colonialism – Windsor Gardens or Docks The Garden By The Sea – Alexandra Park Prominent Penarthians #1 – Alexandra Park Prominent Penarthians #2 – Alexandra Park Cogan – Cogan [Coastgards] – Coastguard Cottages Boards in [Square Brackets] denotes To Be Confirmed on board title. 01 Welcome & Overview 02 History of Penarth #1 03 History of Penarth #2 04 History of Penarth #3 05 History of Penarth #4 06 The Americans 07 The Seafront / Esplanade 08 First Houses of The Town 09 Penarth's First Shopping Centre 10 The Holiest Street in Town 11 The Headlands 12 Mansion & Wealth 13 Expanding the Town Centre 14 Arrival of The Railway 15 Victoria Square & All Saints Church 16 St Augustine's Church & Yard 17 Custom House & Docks 18 The Windsors 19 Empire & Colonialism 20 The Garden by The Sea 21 Prominent Penarthians #1 23 Cogan ___ 22 Prominent Penarthians #2 24 Coastguard & Cottages

Current and Recent News Recent News Penarth Civic Society Apr 29, 2021 5 min Penarth’s Victorian Lamposts 156 0 Post not marked as liked Penarth Civic Society Apr 28, 2021 1 min Penarth Society holds first Digital AGM 63 0 Post not marked as liked Penarth Civic Society Feb 22, 2021 1 min Upper Cosmeston Farm proposals. 138 0 Post not marked as liked Past Campaigns Whilst we campaign on a whole plethora of issues at all times, there are several landmark campaigns and initiatives that the Society has been involved in and these are detailed here. Past Campaigns Penarth Civic Society Penarth’s Victorian Lamposts Penarth Civic Society PENARTH BATHS Penarth Civic Society BELLE VUE SCULPTURE PROJECT Penarth Civic Society PROJECT TO RENOVATE THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE Penarth Civic Society COUNTY TREASURES Penarth Civic Society Victoria Square Penarth Civic Society Armistice day Tree memorial Penarth Civic Society Penarth Town Trails

Cogan Pill House Who built this late 15th/early 16th century house is not certain, but it was for generations, the home of members of the Herbert family. ​ Residents included William Herbert who sailed with Sir Walter Ralegh’s ill-fated expedition to Guiana in 1618-19, and his son, also William, who died when his Welsh regiment was cut to pieces at the battle of Edgehill in 1642. Back to Map >

The Committee has agreed to approach Vale of Glamorgan Council with a view to agreeing to erect a series of Information signs throughout the town. At the moment such signs are very few and far between and the ones that are erected have no real information on the history or heritage of Penarth. We anticipate around 20 to 25 Information Boards, coupled with a series of Blue Plaques attached to buildings and QR code information points which would enable mobile phone users to scan a code which would then give a link to our website which would have more detailed information about the building or person that is being featured. This project is in its early stages and we will consult fully with members to let you know what our plans are, this will also give you the opportunity to make your own suggestions and comments. We would anticipate the project taking some time, we will need to make a bid for National Lottery funding and will look to engage with the community and schools to help to build the information base for it. We feel that if adopted this project could be very a very valuable source of information for residents and visitors alike. You can support the work of the Civic Society by becoming a member, Individual membership costs £10.00 and it is £15.00 for a couple, per year. Please go to…… https://www.penarthsociety.org.uk/join-us

Penarth Civic Society is doing more and more in the town – and needs help from local interested people to do even more. We have excellent teams of volunteers helping with all our new trees, in Victoria Square, on the Railway Path and more. We are constantly checking planning applications and liaising with the Town and Vale Councils. We are looking for some helping hands and minds to assist us on the committee. So if you have any particular interests or skills along the lines of administration, community engagement, accounts, social media and so on, then we would very much like you to get involved. If you’d like to discuss it, we would be delighted to hear from you. Contact the Chair, Anne Evans, on 07818 280 336 or via www.penarthsociety.org.uk.

In early 2019 local residents were dismayed to see several of our iconic Victorian lampposts being removed and replaced with galvanised steel modern replacements. There were several protests and a great many letters to both the Vale of Glamorgan Council and the local media. The Vale Council had taken the decision to replace the posts with more energy efficient LED lighting units. There was a petition arranged by a local resident, Gemma Critchley and this attracted over 1200 signatures, the Civic Society also emailed the Council to protest and ask that the programme was halted, however we were advised that the programme had been announced as far back as 2018 and instructions had been put in place for contractors to carry out the upgrade.In July whilst walking his dogs in Victoria square one of our Trustees noticed that there were still some of the original posts and the Society decided to submit a Freedom of Information Request in a last attempt to save the posts. As a charitable body we hoped that we may be able to apply for grant funding to save them, 30/07/19 Freedom of Information Request Please can you tell me how many lampposts are still remaining and how many have been removed. We are interested in the possibility of investigating grant opportunities to save as many of the lampposts as possible. Therefore we would also like to ask for the additional information of just what is involved in the process of upgrading and a breakdown of the costs thereof. 68 columns have been replaced, 200 remain Cost of replacement in similar style Cast Iron Column £2500 (approximate costs) LED Lantern £700 Plant & Labour £800 Costs £4000 Cost of Standard Column Standard Column £100 (current standard residential spec) Standard LED Lantern £120 Plant & Labour £800 Costs £1020 However this answer did not answer our key question, of whether it would be possible to convert them, so we submitted a further Request. 27/8/19 Further Question You have not answered the key question, that is what the cost would be to CONVERT the present columns to LED lighting rather than replacing them. 28/8/19 Answer It is not possible to replace the old Victorian columns as they are either electrically unsafe or structurally unsound. Therefore we are unable to provide a cost for something that cannot be practicably achieved. We were unhappy with this broad brushstroke approach so submitted a further request with particular reference to two lampposts in Beach Lane which had already been converted to LED light. These posts were of an unsuitable design, pictured below, but at least they showed that conversion was possible 30/8/19 Further Question Thank you for your response, however it raises further questions. 1) How many of the 268 lampposts were actually inspected to see if they were either structurally unsound or electrically unsafe?. 2) Please can we see the results of any such inspections? 3) Of the 68 posts already lost, how many of them were found to be structurally unsound or unsafe once they were ripped out of the ground by the Contractors? 4) Two lampposts in Beach Lane/Kymin Terrace have actually been converted to LED units, how much did these cost and why were they converted? This resulted in a very interesting response 1/10/19 Answer Question 1 The existing cast iron columns have never been structurally tested. However, all the cast iron columns are in poor condition and this is evident from the connection boxes that have recently collapsed. Question 2 There were electrical test certificates but these have been archived. I have contacted the service area again to check if any of these can be made available. I have not had a response as of yet. If we are able to provide any of these within the time limit of 18 hours (as specified in the Freedom of Information Act) I will let you know. Question 3: No information available. Question 4: Council Policy was to convert all lanterns in residential areas to LED. Cast iron columns were part of this process however it was brought to our attention by the contractor that the spigot was too weak to support the loading of the new lantern. In the interest of health and safety, it was decided to stop the LED lantern replacement on this particular column type. With reference to costs, we can confirm that the cost for the lantern replacements in Beach Lane was approximately £160.00 per column. We then approached some other Councils and received very helpful advice from Canterbury City Council in particular, they put us in touch with some street furniture suppliers and contractors who had converted the lampposts in Canterbury to LED. We learned that the main issue they had was the fact that when the posts had been converted to electric lights from gas the junction box for the mains cable to the lamps was placed at the top of the column, this made electrical testing and maintenance more difficult than necessary because contractors needed a cherry picker to enable access at height. They had resolved this by installing a junction box panel at ground level. It then became clear that when the Vale Council was saying that the “electrically unsafe” element of their argument related to the fact that some of the junction boxes had burst open and had to be taped up with tape to hold them together. The “structurally unsound” element related to the fact that when a test lamppost in Beach Lane had been converted to LED the contractor had reported that the spigot which was used to attach the new unit did not look like it would be strong enough to support the new unit. This LED unit was not appropriate to the Conservation Area as it was of a modern design. Another structural issue was that some lampposts had started to lean due to subsidence issues. Our work with the street furniture suppliers suggested that a ground level junction box and LED lantern could be sourced for approximately £700.00 plus fitting. In October 2019 we wrote to the Chief Executive of the Vale Council, expressing our concern and the fact that in our opinion, rather than spending £1020 on replacing the columns, they could be upgraded with more appropriate lanterns at less cost than this. We were pleased to be invited to a meeting with Peter King, Councillor responsible for Neighbourhood Services and Miles Punter, Director of Neighbourhood Services. At the meeting we were told that following on from a change of control at the Council the Executive had reviewed the programme in the light of the huge public opinion backlash and that they had decided to replace the posts with a more sympathetic design, a modern reproduction post with a Victorian style lantern. We welcomed this gesture, but pointed out that we already have the genuine article and that we believed that they could be converted cost effectively. We decided as a group to work together with the suppliers that we had suggested to see if the existing posts could in fact be upgraded to LED units cost effectively. The suppliers came to a second group meeting and it was decided that a ground level junction box would be the best way to overcome the structural and electrical issues that had been causing the problems earlier. In fact it was Mr Puntland who suggested the final design box, having seen a similar one during a visit to the City of Westminster. A test lamppost conversion was ordered and this was completed in Rectory Road in May 2020. The conversion was a success and the Council is now going to go out to tender to convert all of the existing Victorian posts, as long as they have not started to lean too severely. The posts in Cwrt-y-Vill Road which had been removed have been converted to the reproduction columns. Penarth Civic Society would like to thank the Vale of Glamorgan Council for being big enough to listen to the argument, accept that we all have a responsibility to preserve our heritage wherever possible and reverse their original decision. We are pleased that we have all been able to work together in collaboration to save our Victorian Lampposts. The upgraded lampposts look lovely, they are much more in keeping with the conservation area and of course are also much more energy efficient than the old ones.