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Early History
The early history of any
district can only be gleaned through archaeology. There being no
specific archaeological evidence in Gelligaer its early history cannot
be distinguished from the early history of South east Wales, and
Caerphilly County Borough Council
with their
Timeline provide an
overview of this period. That does not mean that there are no early
sites or ‘finds’ from Gelligaer.
Carn Bugail
(above Fochrhiw) is a megalithic site and a bronze age beaker at the
National Museum of Wales was discovered in a tomb in the yard of
Llancaiach-isaf farm.
We first begin to get some
written information on the area of Gelligaer, although not Gelligaer
specifically, with the arrival of the Romans. From them we learn that
the peoples or tribe who occupied this district were the Silures. Little
is actually known of them. Their area of influence covered most of
Gwent and east Glamorgan and they helped Caractacus or Caradog in
fighting the Romans until his defeat in AD 51, and later fought a drawn
out 'guerrilla' war against the Roman occupation before being finally
defeated in AD 78. It would have been subsequent to this that the Romans
came to Gelligaer, ultimately leading to the building of the
Roman Fort which is Gelligaer's
most notable archaeological feature, and which contributes to its name
(gaer = fort). The fort was build on a Roman roadway that went from
Cardiff to Brecon and traces of that road can still be found in Heol
Adam leading out and across the common. The Romans are believed to have
left the fort by AD 130, although Roman influence would have continued
until after their withdrawal from Britain in AD 383.
There then followed a
period of about 800 years which used to be called 'The Dark Ages', but
research has begun to shine some light on these years. For an overview
of this period see Caerphilly Council's Timeline
Birth of Wales. So far as Gelligaer is concerned the most well known
event concerns St Gwladys
who around 500 AD came to live the life of a hermit in Gelligaer, from
which grew the chapel which bears her name Capel Gwladys. In fact early
documents of the 13th and 14th century refer to the parish not as
Gelligaer but as Eglwys Gwladys. Another link with this period is the
Tegernacus Stone which was 'found' in a field adjacent to Capel y
Brithdir above modern day Tirphil, for an early description of the
stone's situation see
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/site/tirph.html
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