Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Growth and development at Cogan . .

The 1875 Wormall’s Directory of South Wales [131] lists the Penarth Brickfields Co. at Cogan Pill. The Cogan Pill Brickworks used the locally quarried Triassic clays as raw material to make the red marl brick, which may be seen in many buildings today in the locality. The works seems to have been built upon the pill, or on the banks of it. The London Gazette [100] of 28th March 1893 reported:

“The Cogan Pill Brick Company Limited. NOTICE is hereby given, that a General Meeting of the above named Company will be held at the Albert-chambers, Cardiff, on the 8th day of May 1893, at three o’clock in the afternoon precisely, for the purpose of having the Liquidator’s accounts, showing the manner in which the winding up has been conducted, and the property of the Company disposed of, laid before such Meeting, and of hearing any explanation that may be given by the Liquidator. – Dated this 24th day of March, 1893. James Cozens, Liquidator.”

Penarth became known as The Garden by the Sea and was perceived as a wealthy district of Cardiff. In Cogan the number of persons in domestic employment serving the professional classes and the new coal and shipping rich also increased significantly. Many large houses were built for the new rich in the leafy suburbs near the sea.

The Cogan Hotel was the first public house in Cogan and was built around 1850; referred to as the “Cogan Tavern” the landlord is named as William Williams within Butcher’s Cardiff Directory 1880-81. [132]

The River Ely was truly one of the industrial rivers of the region. In the publication of 1888 named “Industrial Rivers of the UK” [133] it states that: “The Taff Vale Railway is perhaps the most important local mineral line. During the first half-year of 1841 the receipts on the first section of 16 miles then open were £2,902 for passengers and £706 for goods. The Dinas branch was opened in the same year, and shares were sold at discount. The first dividend was 28s. per cent,. in 1841.