Pentre

infobox UK place
country = Wales
welsh_name=
static_

constituency_welsh_assembly=Rhondda
map_type=
official_name= Pentre
latitude= 51.654736
longitude= -3.492269
population= 5424 [ [http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=3&b=6078455&c=Pentre&d=14&e=16&g=419367&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1218137176012&enc=1 Office for National Statistics: 2001] Includes the population of Ton Pentre]
unitary_wales= Rhondda Cynon Taff
lieutenancy_wales= Mid Glamorgan
constituency_westminster= Rhondda
post_town= Pentre
postcode_district = CF41 7
postcode_area= CF
dial_code= 01443 77
os_grid_reference= SS968961
OldMapsYear=
OldMapsEasting=
OldMapsNorthing=
OldMapsCounty=

Pentre is a village and community, near Treorchy in Rhondda valley, falling within the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales. The village's name is taken from the Welsh word Pentref, which translates as homestead, though Pentre is named after a large farm that dominated the area before the coming of industrialisation. The community takes in the neighbouring villages from Gelli and Ton Pentre.

Early and industrial history

Pre-1850, the area which is now Pentre was made up of several scattered farms tended by tenant farmers for absentee landlords. With the discovery, in the early 1800s, of economically viable coal deposits in Dinas Rhondda it was not long until expeditions reached the mid valleys. In 1857 Edward Curteis of Llandaff leased the mineral rights of Tyr-y-Pentre from Griffith Llewellyn of Baglan and soon had two levels opened, the Pentre and Church. During the early part of 1864 deeper shafts had been sunk by the Pente Coal Company. The mines in the Pentre were some of the most profitable of all the collieries in the Rhondda.

By the early 1900s, Pentre was a busy town and the main shopping area for the upper Rhonnda and was also the centre for local government, with the local council offices built in Llewellyn Street in 1882. Pentre is also home to St Peters Church (1890), ["The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales". John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg750 ISBN 9780708319536] the 'Cathedral of the Rhondda', the largest religious building in either valley.

Two of the most notable businesses to have existed in the Rhondda were both formed in Pentre; the Pentre Breweries and the Rhondda Engine Works.

Notable former residents

* Rhydwen Williams (1916-1997), poet and novelist, winner of the National Eisteddfod Crown.

References