Our next meeting:
Our latest blog:
Whoever would have guessed that Kenneth More’s mother was a Roath girl. She, and her father before her, were both baptised at St Margaret’s church. Read about Kenneth More’s connection with the area in our latest blog: Kenneth More and his Cardiff Roots.
Barnum & Bailey Circus
I see the Barnum Musical is coming to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.
About 125 years ago, Cardiff-born George Auger visited the Barnum & Bailey Circus in London. When the show was over he approached the giant actor of the time only to discover he was taller. It is said it didn’t go unnoticed by the show’s management and he was encouraged to travel to America to join the company.
George was born in Gough Street, Temperance Town, outside the railway station where the BBC building now stands.
Read more about George Auger:-
Newsletter:
Our February Newsletter is now available online and contains the following interesting articles:-
- Stanley House/47 The Walk, Tredegarville, Cardiff – its History Part 1 by Nicky Macartney
- Forewarned is Forearmed – the Royal Observer Corps in Cardiff during the Cold War by Jon Roberts
Latest Addition to the Roath Virtual War Memorial
JOSEPH XUEREB
Private, 6th Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment (Service Number: 15009)
Joseph Xuereb was born in Malta in 1891 to Joseph Xuereb, a seaman, originally from Malta and Annie Xuereb nèe Ahern, originally from Cardiff. In 1901 they were living at 67 Wimbourne St, Splott. Joseph played football for the Splott Crusaders. In 1911 the Xuereb family were living at 20 Llanelly St and Joseph was working as a steel worker. He married Mabel Moore Jones, daughter of the manager of the Wimbourne Hotel on 25 Jul 1914. They went on to have two children together; Mary Margret Xuereb (b.1914) and Joseph Xuereb (b.1915) and lived at 45 Eclipse Street, Adamsdown. He signed up for the army in Oct 1914 joining the South Lancashire Regiment. The 6th Battalion fought in Gallipoli and moved to Mesopotamia in 1916. Joseph Xuereb was killed in action in Iraq on 14 Feb 1917, aged 26. He has no known burial place but is remembered on the Basra Memorial (panel 24). He is also remembered on the Splott war Memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.
You may like to consider joining our new Roath Local History Society Facebook group. It is another way of sharing some of the fascinating history of the area and of advertising our society.
Just follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/roathlocalhistorysociety
You will be asked to answer one simple question on joining: ‘What city is Roath in?’ This may seem strange but it is to try and prevent robots joining the group.
Society Background:
Roath is a suburb of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Our area of interest is not just Roath as we know it today but all areas that were in the ancient parish of Roath. That includes the suburbs of Adamsdown, Splott, Tremorfa, Pengam, Plasnewydd, Penylan, parts of Cathays and Cyncoed as well as Roath itself.
Our lively and interesting meetings are held at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of the month from September through to May. See Programme for details.
We meet at St Edward’s church, Westville Road, Pen-y-lan, Cardiff. CF23 5DE.
Annual membership is just £13 (membership form) and visitors are welcome to attend any meeting for £3.
In June and July we undertake a series of trips to places of historic interest in both Cardiff and the wider South Wales area.
We are now over 40 years old. More information on our activities can be found on the Society page. A Short History of Roath Local History Society has also recently been added and can be found on the Society page.
We have published a number of books about Roath history. These together with links to other books of interest can be found on the Publications page.
On our Links page we have listed websites that ma be of interest to people studying local history in the Cardiff and surrounding areas.
In our Local History section we have started to assemble articles on a whole range of topics connected to the old parish of Roath.
Finally, we draw your attention to our Blog. We hope you enjoy the posts and having a wander around the website.
Thanks for visiting.
Roath Local History Society 