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Penarth

Penarth is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately  3 mi  south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay.

Penarth is a seaside resort in the Cardiff Urban Area, and the second largest town in the Vale of Glamorgan, next only to the administrative centre of Barry.

During the Victorian era Penarth was a highly popular holiday destination, promoted nationally as "The Garden by the Sea" and was packed by visitors from the Midlands and the West Country as well as day trippers from the South Wales valleys, mostly arriving by train. Today, the town, with its traditional seafront, continues to be a regular summer holiday destination (predominantly for older visitors), but their numbers are much lower than was common from Victorian times until the 1960s, when cheap overseas package holidays were introduced.

Although the number of holiday visitors has greatly declined, the town retains a substantial retired population, representing over 24% of residents, but Penarth is now predominantly a dormitory town for Cardiff commuters. The town's population was recorded as 20,396 in the United Kingdom Census 2001. The built-up area had a population of 27,226, but this figure does not include nearby suburb Dinas Powys.

The town retains extensive surviving Victorian and Edwardian architecture in many traditional parts of the town.

Toponymy
Penarth is a Welsh placename and could be a combination of pen meaning head and arth meaning bear, hence 'Head of the Bear' or 'Bear's Head'. This was the accepted translation for several hundred years and is still reflected in the town's coat of arms which depicts bears. Modern scholars have suggested that the name is shortened from an original "Pen-y-garth", where garth means cliff, hence 'Head of the cliff' or 'Clifftops'. and the Welsh-English dictionary Y Geiriadur Mawr (The Big Dictionary: Gomer Press) reveals that penardd/penarth eb (feminine noun) means 'promontory'.

The civic town coat of arms was drawn by the town's architect in 1875 from a detailed brief prepared by the Town Board. It features a bear's head above a shield supported by two further bears standing. The shield contains a Draig Goch to denote that the town is in Wales and a sailing vessel recognising Penarth's long association with sea commerce.

Early history
The Penarth area has a history of human inhabitation dating back at least 5000 years. In 1956 several Neolithic stone axe heads were found in the town. A large hoard of Roman rings and coins were also discovered at nearby Sully.

From the 12th century until 1543 the lands of Penarth were owned by the canons of St Augustine, Bristol. The Norman church of St Augustine (on the headland) dates from this period. After the dissolution of the monasteries the ownership transferred to the dean and chapter of Bristol Cathedral.

The manor lands were leased to the Earls of Plymouth of St. Fagans Castle. In 1853 the family purchased the manor outright.

Because the surrounding land was owned by religious institutions from an early date, there was no need for a large family house in Penarth. The oldest building in the area is a Tudor mansion, owned by the Herbert family, on the hillside at Cogan Pill. This has since been converted into a chain restaurant.

Piracy was prevalent on the coast near Penarth and, in the 1570s, a Special Commission being set up to investigate and suppress it. Leading family members in Penarth were believed to be implicated.

Penarth's medieval walled Sheriff's Pound, an early form of multi-purpose gaol, remained in use until the late 18th century, as a place to retain stray sheep, cattle and pigs or to imprison thieves, rustlers and vagabonds. It was located roughly where the car park now stands, at the rear of the NatWest Bank in Plymouth Road.

In 1803, Penarth is recorded as having between 800 - 900 acre of land under cultivation as several farms. In the 1801 census, there were just 72 people living in the Manor. Even as late as 1851, Penarth was still little more than a small rural farming and fishing village since medieval times, with just 24 houses and 105 residents, being one of five parishes contained within the Hundred of Dinas Powys, with a combined population of just over 300. Before the pier and dock were built, there was a tiny fleet of local sail-powered fishing vessels based on the main town beach that tied up on the seafront quayside.

The Plymouth estate office retained control over the planning, building and development of the new town, offering 99-year leases and remaining the ground landlord. All householders in Penarth were tenants of the Plymouth Estates, paying an annual ground rent. The situation would not change until the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, that gave householders the choice of purchasing their freehold or negotiating 999 year extensions on their short leases.

The earliest homes built in the town were streets of terraced houses with busy corner shops and public houses on almost every corner, following the contours of the headland and in the rapidly expanding Cogan area near the docks. Local grey limestone, quarried from what is now Cwrt-y-vil playing fields, gave a particular character to the surviving older buildings of the town. To the south of the town centre, imposing detached villa residences along the cliff tops looked across the Channel to the Somerset coast and the islands of Flat Holm (Ynys Echni) and Steep Holm (Ynys Rhonech). The villas were built by wealthy shipping and dock owners from Cardiff who were moving out of the industrialised city for a more genteel and sophisticated lifestyle.

Victorian developments
By 1861, the number of people in the five parishes had increased to 1,898 and to 3,382 by 1871. In 1875, three of the constituent parishes - Penarth, Cogan, and Llandough - were merged into the Penarth Local Board, giving a population of 6,228 persons by 1881. This figure had doubled by 1891 with the opening of the railway and had increased even further by 1901 to 14,228 persons. The town of Penarth thus owes its development to the massive expansion of the South Wales coalfield in the 19th century. Its proximity to Cardiff, which was the natural outlet for the industrial valleys of Glamorgan, and its natural waterfront meant that Penarth was ideally situated to contribute to meeting the world's demand for Welsh coal through the construction of the docks. The development of the town continued to be rapid and Penarth soon became self-sufficient, with its own local government, a thriving shopping centre and many new community facilities. What is now the main shopping area of Windsor Road was originally residential housing, but the owners sacrificed their front gardens to build shop extensions, although the original house architecture can still be seen above the shops. Most of the town's fine architectural features owe their origin to the landowners of the time and the results of their vision can be seen by the many grand buildings and parks which make Penarth what it is today. Thanks to the generosity of those far sighted landowners, Penarth earned its wide reputation as "The Garden by the Sea" because of its beautiful parks and open spaces. Furthermore, many of the buildings and features of the town have led to a substantial part of the town being designated as a Conservation Area because of its Victorian/Edwardian architecture. Penarth's town library was opened in 1905, thanks to a donation by the Carnegie Trust. The town's gothic style Police Station and town gaol opened in 1864, opposite the Windsor Arms brewery.

With the arrival of the railway connection to the Welsh valleys in 1878 came the regular influx of day trippers, often hundreds of them at weekends and bank holidays. The developing summer holiday trade was supported by a large number of quality hotels that provided nearly two thousand bedspaces. The biggest and grandest of the hotels were the Esplanade Hotel on the seafront built in 1887, The Marine Hotel at the mouth of the docks, The Royal Hotel at the top of Arcot Street, The Washington Hotel opposite the library and The Glendale and Lansdowne hotels on Plymouth Road. Apart from the major hotels, accommodation was also available at the smaller Dock Hotel, Penarth Hotel, Ship Hotel, Westbourne Hotel, Plymouth Hotel, Windsor Hotel, Railway Hotel and dozens of mariners' lodging houses at the top end of the town. All have now closed with the exception of the Glendale and a handful of small and more recent bed and breakfast establishments.

A Royal Navy Hunt-class minesweeper was named HMS Penarth after the town in 1918 and survived the last nine months of the First World War, but only served for twelve months when it was sunk off the Yorkshire coast in 1919 after striking two mines. The vessel is remembered among the Royal Navy memorials at Portsmouth.

At one time, Penarth had two grand and decorative cinemas. The first was the Windsor Kinema on Windsor Road, originally converted from a 19th-century Territorial Army drill hall and later used as Monty Smith's garage until it closed in October 2015. The even grander Washington Cinema was built opposite the library in 1936 with a classical 'Art Deco' frontage, on the site of a former hotel and its tennis courts. The Washington closed as a cinema in 1971. After several years as a busy bingo hall, it has now been converted into a coffee house and art gallery, whilst retaining its original frontage.

Penarth's other distinctive art deco structure was the new General Post Office that was built in Albert Road in 1936. Closed in the 1980s, the building is Grade II listed and is now vacant. The rear yard, once used to stable horses for the horse-drawn Penarth to Cardiff bus service, is still used by the Post Office for mail and parcel sorting.

Penarth Dock
The contract for the building of Penarth Dock was placed in 1859 and the dock was opened six years later, constructed by a workforce of around 1,200 mostly Irish 'navvies' under the direction of chief engineer Harrison Hayter and implementing the design of civil engineer John Hawkshaw. At the Welsh coal trade's zenith in 1913 ships carried 4,660,648 tons of coal in a single year out of Penarth docks. In 1886 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, originally a passenger vessel but later converted as a coal trader departed from Penarth Dock on what would become its final voyage. A disastrous fire, during the voyage, all but destroyed the vessel and she foundered on the Falkland Islands, where she remained until salvaged and returned to Bristol Docks for restoration in the 1970s.

One feature of Penarth Dock was the tunnel underpass that connected Penarth dock to Ferry Road Grangetown under the River Ely. Not quite wide enough for motor vehicles it was used by commuting pedestrians and cyclists as a short cut to work in Cardiff. The circular tunnel was about half a mile long with an entrance foyer at each end. Lined with cream and green coloured ceramic tiles, the route was lit originally by gaslight and later by electricity. Completed in 1899, from parts cast by T Gregory Engineering Works, Taffs Well, the tunnel remained in use until the autumn of 1965, when it was closed and the ends bricked up, after a series of violent muggings, repeated vandalism and the cost of maintenance becoming uneconomical. The tunnel entrance at the Penarth end was located near the lock gates, between the outer basin and the number one dock. This historic short cut route was 'almost' replicated and replaced in June 2008 with the opening of a pedestrian and cycle route across the new Cardiff Bay Barrage.

Penarth Pier
Because of the growing popularity of Penarth beach and the need for better communications with Cardiff, in 1856 the Cardiff Steam and Navigation Company started a regular ferry service between Cardiff and Penarth. This continued until 1903. Boats were loaded and unloaded at Penarth using a landing stage on wheels which was hauled up the beach.

In the 1880s, an attempt was made to construct a permanent pier. This was possibly because of the need to find a safer way to unload boats. However, construction ground to a halt at an early stage, when the London contractors went into liquidation.

The Penarth Pier Company was formed to make a second attempt at building a permanent pier. The foundations were laid in 1894 and the pier successfully opened in 1895, at 750 ft long.51.43509°N, -3.16651°W

In 1907, a small wooden "Concert Party" theatre was built at the seaward end. In 1929, the pier was bought by Penarth Urban District Council, who added a new pier-head berthing pontoon, and in 1930 the current art deco pavilion was added. In 1931, a fire started in the seaward-end theatre, which, after a sea and land-based rescue, saved all 800 people on board at that time. The pier was rebuilt, strengthened with additional concrete columns, but without the wooden theatre.

In 1947, the 7,130 ton steamship the SS Port Royal Park, under the flag of the Tavistock Shipping Company, collided with the pier, causing severe damage that was not repaired for several years.

In August 1966, a 600-ton pleasure steamer, Bristol Queen, hit the pier causing an estimated £25,000 damage.

In March 2011, planning permission was granted for a £3.9 million revamp of the pier to re-open the pavilion as a major tourist attraction. The new plans included a cinema and observatory. In September 2012, the restoration work began on the pavilion, with a projected cost estimated at £4 million, funded by the lottery, the Welsh government, the Vale of Glamorgan council, Cadw (part of the Housing, Regeneration and Heritage Department of the Welsh Government) and the Coastal Communities Fund. Work was completed and the pavilion reopened in Autumn 2013.

Early changes
With its busy commercial docks and the proximity to Cardiff Docks and steelworks, Penarth became a target for Nazi German bombing raids during the Second World War. The air raids started in 1941 and continued almost constantly for the next four years.

Penarth had its own Home Guard detachment.

Scrap metals were needed to build tanks and aircraft, so hundreds of Penarth homes lost their traditional Victorian iron railings from the front gardens during the war years. Even All Saints' Church in Victoria Square lost its magnificently ornate gates and the railing fence that surrounded the square's green.

Strict wartime food rationing meant that food had to be found wherever possible. The town's parks, recreation grounds, open spaces and front gardens of houses were dug up and converted to allotments planted with vegetables. The seafront and pier were packed daily with people trying to supplement the food rationing by landing fresh fish. There was a non-profit 'British Restaurant' at the top end of the Windsor Arcade, where families made homeless by the bombing, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help, could buy a three-course meal for ninepence.

Military developments
Many Penarth Yacht Club members volunteered for the Dunkirk evacuation and sailed their yachts and motor boats around the coast and across the English Channel to France.

The Glamorganshire Golf Club, in Lower Penarth, was the site of an experimental rocket battery that regularly scared residents during practice firings. Lavernock Point was the location of Lavernock Fort, with its heavy naval guns, anti-aircraft and searchlight batteries and the town's Royal Observer Corps observation post, that sounded the air raid sirens nightly in the town.

At the outbreak of the war, over 350 soldiers of the Royal Artillery were stationed on Flat Holm, which was armed with four 4.5 inch guns and associated searchlights to be used for anti-aircraft and close defence, together with two 40 mm Bofors guns. A GL (Gun Laying) MkII radar station was also placed in the centre of the island. The structures formed part of the Fixed Defences, Severn Scheme and protected the Atlantic shipping convoy de-grouping zones. In 1943 there was a Battalion of American Seabees, the US Construction Corps, living on a merchant vessel tied up in Penarth docks, while they built a large number of Quonset huts for the rapid temporary expansions of Llandough Hospital and Sully Hospital.

Air raids
One night, in 1942, All Saints' Church was hit by a stick of incendiary bombs and was totally gutted by fire, with only the outer walls left standing. The church was rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1955. Albert Road School was also hit by a stick of incendiaries and badly damaged by fire, although it was quickly patched up and in use again within the week. St Paul's Methodist Church, overlooking the docks, was totally destroyed by bombs. Dozens of ordinary homes were struck by bombs, including houses in Salop Street, Arcot Street, Albert Road and Queens Road.

Operation Overlord
In October 1943, a United States Navy Base was established at Penarth Docks (now Penarth Marina) – a base from which many of the troops which took part in the D Day invasion set out for the Normandy beaches. The base was under the command of Captain Arnold Winfield Chapin USN. Captain Chapin presented a painting of Penarth Docks in 1944 to "the people of Penarth", which now hangs in town council's Kymin House, Penarth.

In 1944, Penarth dock and the dock beach, as far as the Penarth Headland, was full of invasion barges that departed for the "Operation Overlord" D-Day landings. Many of the defensively equipped merchant ships were loaded with American Sherman tanks and their US Army crews that had been billeted in Penarth after training, housed in a vast village of Quonset or Nissen huts that had been built in 'Neale's Wood', now the Northcliffe Estate next to the present-day Headlands School.

British Commando units trained on the Penarth cliffs in preparation for scaling the Normandy cliff faces. Several of the invasion barges were not used and lay rotting on the dock beach well into the 1950s used as playthings by local children.

Aftermath
Thousands of incendiary and explosive bombs were dropped on Penarth during the war and as late as the 1970s unexploded devices were still being found in the silt and sand on the beaches between Penarth and Cardiff.

The town today
The coal trade from Penarth docks eventually petered out and the docks closed in 1936, only reopening for commercial and military use during World War II. From the 1950s, and up until 1965, the basins were utilised by the Royal Navy to mothball dozens of destroyers and frigates from the no longer needed wartime fleet of warships, until they were sold to foreign nations or broken up.

By 1967, after barely a hundred years of commercial operations, the docks area lay unused and derelict, and much of it was used for landfill. The largest basin, No 2 dock at the Cogan end, is now completely filled in, grassed over and surrounded by roadways.

In 1987, the new Penarth Marina village opened on the disused docks site. The No 1 dock and outer basin were re-excavated or dredged out to provide some 350 yacht berths, surrounded by extensive modern waterside homes and several marine engineering yards. The original dock office and Excise House is now in use as a popular restaurant, with only the Grade II listed Marine Hotel remaining derelict and boarded up, awaiting suitable redevelopment plans. The Penarth Marina development was one of the key catalysts to the similar later redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay area. Penarth is one of the most affluent areas in the Vale of Glamorgan and property prices continue to remain high. Marine Parade or 'Millionaires' row', with its grand, substantial Victorian houses or modern designer villas with views across the Bristol Channel, is considered to be the finest street in Penarth, although several larger properties are now split as apartments or adapted as residential care homes. Houses in Penarth vary from imposing three storey red brick Victorian houses found on both Plymouth and Westbourne Roads to compact stone terraces in Cogan and upper Penarth. Many of the Plymouth Road, Westbourne Road, Victoria Road and Archer Road houses, originally large family homes with servants' quarters on the top floors, have now been adapted for multi-occupancy as flats and apartments. Penarth Marina in direct contrast features trendy modern townhouses, apartments and designer penthouses.

In 1930, the General Post Office (GPO), later British Telecom (BT), built its main telephone engineers' college on the corner of Lavernock Road and Victoria Road, where engineers from all over the UK attended basic and advanced residential courses lasting up to eight weeks. The college closed in the 1980s and stood empty for many years before being demolished for a new development of residential housing.

In 1965, the combined Cardiff Universities built the multi-storey International House on Plymouth Road near the end of Cliff Parade to provide Halls of Residence for up to 300 overseas students attending University College, Cardiff and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. Abandoned in the late 1990s, after just 30 years in its original use, International House is now converted as a specialist residential care home.

Penarth has been used as a film location for several BBC TV series including several episodes of Doctor Who such as "The Stolen Earth". The scene where a Dalek shoots The Doctor was filmed at the junction of Arcot Street and Queen's Road. Scenes for Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures (notably 21 Clinton Road, where they filmed Sarah Jane's house in 13 Bannerman Road), Gavin & Stacey and Casualty have also been filmed in Penarth. Since 2021 the Netflix series, Sex Education, has been filmed in multiple locations around Penarth including The Paget Rooms and Penarth Pier. In July 2024 actor Timothy Spall was seen filming on Penarth Pier for the BBC series Death Valley.

Penarth was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017.

Economy
In the Victorian era, Penarthians relied on the tourist trade, which prompted the construction of Penarth Pier in 1894. Today, Penarth's high street (Windsor Road) is the focal point and commercial area of the town. Most employers in Penarth are local services but the town is also home to some larger companies, some of which operate globally, these include the AIM listed EKF Diagnostics, headquartered on Stanwell Road and the startup Robo-advisor Wealthify, acquired by Aviva in 2019.

Town Council
Penarth is split into four electoral wards. Plymouth, Stanwell, Cornerswell and St Augustine's. The first three are named after the key spine roads, whilst the latter is named after the landmark church situate on Penarth Head. Plymouth ward and Stanwell ward are traditional locations for professional families staking a claim in Penarth's Stanwell School. Cornerswell ward contains both the Cogan community and the Poet's Estate where residents live on roads named after Wordsworth, Milton, Tennyson and Chaucer.

The St Augustine's ward does not serve a natural 'community' but extends from the Marina development, over the Penarth Head area through the town centre and old Penarth as far as the junction of Stanwell and Cornerswell Roads. The wards of Cornerswell, Stanwell and St Augustine's representatives are all under the Labour Party banner, Plymouth ward is represented by the Conservative group in terms of Vale of Glamorgan County council representation. The leader of the council is Cllr Rhiannon Birch, the Deputy Leader is Cllr Mike Cuddy

The "Mother" of the Town Council, (the longest serving of the 16 councillors representing the town), is Cllr. Rhiannon Birch of the Cornerswell Ward and is currently leader of Penarth Town Council.

The present (2023/24) mayor is Cllr Melissa Rabiotti who represents the Plymouth Ward.

Vale of Glamorgan Council
Penarth's four wards elect county councillors to the Vale of Glamorgan Council. St Augustine's ward is represented by Cllrs Elliott Penn (Labour), Neil Thomas  (Labour) and  Ruba Sivagnanam (Labour).Plymouth Ward is represented by Cllr  Anthony Earnest and  Cllr Rhys Thomas (Conservatives ). Cornerswell Ward is represented by Cllrs Rhiannon Birch (Labour) & Ian Buckley (Labour). Stanwell Ward is represented by Cllr Mark Wilson (Labour) & Cllr Lis Burnett (Labour)

Westminster
The MP for Penarth is Stephen Doughty (Labour & Co-operative Party) who was re-elected on 10 December 2019.

Welsh Government
Vaughan Gething represents Cardiff South and Penarth in the Senedd (Labour & Co-operative Party), succeeding Lorraine Barrett.

There are four Members of the Senedd also representing the area: Joel James (Conservative), Andrew RT Davies (Conservative), Heledd Fychan (Plaid Cymru), Rhys ab Owen (Plaid Cymru).

Sea shore
Penarth lies 4 mile southwest of Cardiff by road and has a road infrastructure that has been much improved in recent years, together with a traditional rail link. The Cardiff Bay Barrage between Penarth Head and Grangetown was completed in 1999 and came into operation shortly afterwards. The impounding of the River Taff and River Ely has created 220.35 ha of freshwater lake in the Cardiff Bay. The promised pedestrian and cyclist short cut to Cardiff across the barrage finally opened to the public on Friday 27 June 2008, after numerous postponements.

An imaginary line drawn between Lavernock Point, just 2 mile southwest of Penarth and Sand Point, Somerset marks the lower limit of the Severn Estuary and the start of the Bristol Channel, hence Penarth is technically deemed to be in the Severn Estuary and not on the Bristol Channel. Because of the extreme tidal range there are very strong currents or rips close inshore, with speeds that exceed 7 knot, for several hours at each tide. The rise and fall of the tides at Penarth are the second highest recorded anywhere in the world and on occasions when certain moon phases coincide with the spring and autumn equinoxes the sea level can overspill the esplanade wall and flood the roadway, particularly if in conjunction with a high wind.

Soils
The general underlying sub-strata below the land and fields surrounding Penarth is of a limestone that was laid down under a prehistoric warm sea and subsequently ground down by ice age glaciers approximately 18,000 years ago. This produced the rich, brown and dry soil that provided an ideal growing medium for cereal crops during the medieval farming history of the area. The abundance of limestone was exploited for nearly a hundred years at the Cosmeston quarry that fed the Snocem cement factory in Lower Penarth until it closed down in 1970 and the quarry was converted into Cosmeston Lake at the new country park.

Cliffs
The town is located at the top of cliffs that have a distinctive strata rock formation that is world known and referred to as the Penarth Group of rocks or Penarth coeval strata wherever it appears in Britain. The Penarth cliffs are made of interspersed layers of limestone and alabaster, both of which are dry and crumbly rocks. The Penarth cliffs contain the largest known outcrop of naturally occurring Pink Alabaster anywhere in the world but, although decorative and highly prized by local gardeners to crown their rockeries, it is considered to be much inferior to the harder and hand-carvable whiter alabasters found elsewhere.

The main problem associated with the dry and crumbly nature of the limestone and alabaster rocks, that make up the cliffs that border Penarth, is the continuing and relentless erosion by the sea. Rockfalls are frequent and walkers using the beach should not walk too close to the base of the cliffs. A rusty sign can be seen where the town beach merged into the base of the cliff, with this trilingual message:

"Caution: Beware of stones falling from the cliff. Beware of being caught by the high tides. Rhybudd: Gochelwch y ceryg yn syrthio or dybin uwchben ar perygl o fod ar y traeth pan y mae y llanw yn dod i mewn. Avis: Attention à la marée montante! Attention aux debris de roc oui (sic = "qui") se detachent des falaises ".

The cliff has retreated many tens of metres even in living memory, with the area around Penarth Head remaining most at threat and several structures once on the clifftop already having been smashed on the beach below. A reinforced concrete and iron staircase that once led from Penarth Head to the beach, built by the war department just before the First World War, was already destroyed by advancing erosion as long ago as the early 1950s.

Demography
The demographic figures date from the United Kingdom Census 2001 are as follows:

 * Population:		22,083
 * Male:			11,031
 * Female:		12,214
 * Average age:		42
 * Retired:		5,904
 * Immigrants:		2,814
 * Degree educated 	7,457
 * Living in households:	22,805
 * Living in communal establishments: 440
 * Students away from home: 339

Regeneration of the seafront and town centre

Despite town centre improvements, since the 1980s Penarth seafront has seen many Victorian hotels and houses demolished in favour of modern apartment blocks. The theatre and bars on the town's pier were allowed to fall into neglect and disrepair, although the pier itself remains open to the public.

In August 2008 plans for the development of the pier's derelict pavilion were made public. The two million pound Lottery-funded scheme was planned to include a 98-seat cinema and theatre, a cafe and gallery, bar and a large multi-purpose area that will retain the Victorian vaulted ceiling. The Vale of Glamorgan council allocated a starter contribution of £800,000 to enable the initial Lottery Fund application to proceed, an application that was declined due to shortage of available funds. In the autumn of 2008 a Penarth Town Centre Task and Finish Group was formed to look for a positive way ahead for the town. In November 2009 the National Lottery Heritage Fund granted a £99,000 interim award to permit further planning to proceed. This eventually led to full funding being made available during 2011 and work on the refurbishment project started in February 2012.

Landmarks and attractions

Cosmeston Lakes Country Park has been a popular attraction, throughout the years since it was developed in 1970. Apart from the lake and a wide range of water fowl there are acres of pleasant walks in woodlands and on the heath. Cosmeston Medieval Village is open daily and features historical re-enactments during the summer weekends and on bank holidays. The reconstruction of the historical village has been described as the best of its kind in Britain. Turner House Gallery is located at the top end of Plymouth Road and is the exhibition pace for Ffotogallery the national photography development agency for Wales. It features regular exhibitions of photography, video and new media art. The gallery was opened in 1888 by local resident, James Pyke Thompson, originally to house his personal art collection. There is also a small art gallery located at the Washington Buildings, a tastefully converted 1930s art deco cinema in the front.

The Paget Rooms hosts dances, occasional pop concerts and plays by local dramatic societies. The 1970s singer Tom Jones played one of his final UK concerts at the Paget Rooms before moving to America. Welsh band Man once recorded a live album at the Paget Rooms, using the famous Decca mobile studio that also recorded The Rolling Stones and today pristine copies of the limited edition vinyl pressing, named (incorrectly) Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth [sic], now change hands for substantial sums of money.

The beach front promenade remains a popular draw for visitors and tourists. The surviving element of the original Victorian pier is a summer staging point for the various pleasure steamers, that ply their trade from time to time in the Bristol Channel and the pier is used as a popular winter sea fishing venue. There is also the historic Penarth Yacht Club, built in 1883, stood next to the new RNLI lifeboat station and its associated shop, together with a wide range of popular cafes and restaurants available on the seafront. The seafront remains uncommercialised with none of the amusement arcades that can be found at other traditional Victorian holiday resort frontages. The town's swimming pool and baths built in the late 19th century was closed in the 1980s and, after a short reincarnation as a bar and bistro, has recently been converted into flats while retaining its Victorian exterior.

The clifftop walks to the bays of Lavernock, St Mary's Well and Swanbridge with their beaches and the historic hut where Marconi first transmitted radio messages over open sea remain popular with residents and visitors alike. The old trackbed of the railway that once connected Penarth to Cadoxton and Barry Island and was closed by the Beeching Axe is now a rural greenway and cycle track from the Archer Road rail bridge as far as the Fort Road bridge in Lavernock. The remaining main section of the Lavernock Fort gun battery has been listed as an Ancient Monument. The Lavernock Point Nature Reserve is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales.

The town has mounted the two-week-long Penarth Holiday Festival each July since 1966 that features special events and celebrations all over the town. These have included pop concerts, yacht regattas and power boat races, donkey derbies, parades, fairs and fetes in the parks, tea dances, stage shows, art exhibitions and spectacular firework displays. In 1970 the festival was closed with an air display by the Red Arrows above the clifftops and sea front.

Urban parks
Alexandra Gardens is the town's main Victorian park, opened in 1902, with flowerbeds, glades, an ornamental fishpond, bandstand and the town's Cenotaph memorial to the fallen of two world wars. The park leads from the town down to the seafront, almost connecting up with the Windsor Gardens Park that runs above and parallel to the esplanade. On the seafront itself is the Victorian Italian Garden that displays many unusual palm trees and exotic plants. All three parks are included on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Alexandra Gardens at Grade II*, and Windsor Gardens and the Italian Gardens at Grade II.

Secondary schools
St Cyres Comprehensive School, formerly Penarth County Secondary School has employed a keen focus on its Welsh Baccalaureate programme, where it has led the way in delivering this new qualification, associated to the International Baccalaureate programme. Spread over two sites with years seven to nine located in both Penarth and nearby Dinas Powys, and years ten to thirteen on just Penarth, the bigger of the two sites. Work to complete the new school completed in 2012 with the completion of the Penarth Learning Community providing enviable facilities in the £48 million development. The main feeders schools for St Cyres are Llandough Primary, Fairfield County Primary, Cogan Primary and all the primary schools in Dinas Powys. In the autumn of 2008 St Cyres became the first fairtrade secondary school in Penarth and in March 2022 became the first School of Sanctuary in the Vale. Stanwell School, formerly Penarth County Grammar School, is a co-educational comprehensive school for 11- to 18-year-olds. The school has been subject to a substantial investment of several million pounds in new buildings, facilities and equipment in the last decade. Specialist teaching accommodation has been provided for Science (featuring eleven modern laboratories), drama, music, media studies, P.E. (including sports halls), Information Technology, Art and Design Technology. The school has approximately 2,000 pupils including a thriving sixth form. The main feeder schools for Stanwell are Albert Road, Victoria, Evenlode and Sully Primary School. Westbourne School is a small coeducational independent day school, nursery and prep school for children between the ages of 3 and 18 located on the corner of Stanwell Road and Hickman Road. There are 162 pupils on roll. The school is housed within two buildings, approximately half a mile apart. The first houses the nursery and infants, the other the prep school and senior school. With 24 permanent staff and 2 teaching assistants the class sizes remain small, varying from a maximum of 17 down to as low as 9 in some subjects. Westbourne School opened its new 6th form in the Autumn term of 2008 and major building works are still in progress. The school introduced the speciality of the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. The academic results are consistently excellent with 100% passes at GCSEs in 2007 and Westbourne School is nationally recognised as a high achieving school. The school is now owned by the Montague Place Group of Independent Schools.

Junior and nursery provision
Primary schools include Cogan County Primary, Ysgol Pen-y-garth (Welsh medium), St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary and Nursery School, Fairfield County Primary, Victoria Primary, Albert Road Primary, Evenlode Primary and Llandough Primary School.

Religious sites
Local church sites are:
 * St Augustine's Church is just off Church Place on Penarth Headland. The Penarth parish church of Saint Augustine stands on the headland site of a much earlier church probably dating from 1240. The original church was demolished in 1865 and the new much larger church built in 1866 at a cost of £10,000, financed by Harriet Windsor-Clive, 13th Baroness Windsor. It was designed by the famous Victorian architect William Butterfield and it is described as one of his best polychromatic churches. The interior uses a mixture of coloured bricks and stone in yellow, pink, red, black and white. Because the distinctive tower of the old church it had appeared on navigational charts. At the request of the Admiralty a similar saddle-back tower was kept in the new design. The new tower was 90 feet high, much larger than the old church. St Augustine's is a Grade I listed building. The churchyard cross is medieval and dates from the original church, but is much weathered and most of the detailed decoration has vanished.

 * St Peter's Church also known as Old Cogan Church Church in Wales is located off Sully Road and may have originally been a wooden structure built as early as 800. "The present structure is one of the earliest ecclesiastical buildings surviving in the Vale of Glamorgan and the Diocese of Llandaff. There is a reference to it in 1180 so it was probably constructed just before that of thin lias limestone slabs, a local stone, in a herringbone pattern more typical of earlier Saxon times."
 * All Saints Church in Wales is located in Victoria Square. Built by the Earl of Plymouth in 1892, on a greenfield site previously used as the town's cricket and rugby field and donated by wealthy Penarth butcher David Cornwall, the church is now surrounded by a square of later housing although the original grassed area has been retained and landscaped with trees. Destroyed by a German air raid in 1943, the church was rebuilt and reopened in 1955.
 * St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is on Wordsworth Avenue. The church relocated from an earlier premises in the triangle opposite the old Royal Hotel, where Arcot Street meets Queen's Road. The original church and school was built by Bishop Hedley in 1873.
 * Trinity Methodist Church is in Woodland Place. The present church, built 1901 in a Gothic style, has the only spire left in the town and was designed by Henry Budgen. The congregation had met since 1890 in a corrugated iron building on the site known as 'Playter's Church' built in the 1880s. In 1896 a schoolroom had been built alongside the iron church. Trinity was damaged several times by bombing during World War II, and its stained glass windows were removed for safekeeping to the Coed Ely Coal Pit, Gilfach Goch. In 1970 a day centre for the elderly was established and in 1986 a radical remodelling of the original school accommodation provided meeting rooms, a thriving youth club, kitchens and toilets.
 * Eden Church Penarth meets in the Upper Hall of Trinity Methodist Church in Woodland Place and was established in 2014.
 * Albert Road Methodist Church is at Albert Road and Albert Crescent.
 * Tabernacle Baptist Chapel is in Plassey Street
 * Hebron Church is on Pill Street, Cogan
 * The United Reformed Church is on Elfed Avenue
 * The Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall is on Plassey Street.

Lost Religious Buidings

 * Christ Church Penarth was a grand Victorian Church, built in 1897 on Stanwell Road. The library was designed to compliment it. It was demolished in 1989 due to termination of the 99 year lease.

Sports and recreation
Penarth has both a Men's (established 1911) and Ladies' (established 1896) Hockey Club playing at a high level. The Men's 1st XI were promoted in both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons to reach what was then the best league position, but has since surpassed that with further successive promotions in 2015/16 - when they also won the Welsh Trophy cup competition - and 2016/17 to play in the Championship division of the GoCrea8 League that covers South Wales and the West of England, just two further promotions from the UK national league. The league and cup success also led to Penarth's first European venture after an invitation to play in the EuroHockey competition in the Ukraine in May/June 2017.

The club's 2nd and 3rd XIs were also promoted in recent seasons, with the former now moving into the combined Wales and West section of the GoCrea8 League for the first time. The club returned to fielding four sides in league competition in 2016/17 after a gap of 30 years. The Men's first team play in North Division 1 of The Davis Wood Hockey League (2011/12).

Both Ladies teams compete in the South Wales Premier 1 division (2011/12).

Penarth Cricket Club was founded in 1851 and is one of the oldest cricket clubs in South Wales. It plays in the South Wales Premier League. They originally played their home matches at the site where the Masonic Hall now stands on Stanwell Road. The club have now played at their current site at The Athletic Ground on Lavernock Road since 1924 when the site was gifted to the town by the Earl of Plymouth and shares the facilities with Penarth Rugby Club, Penarth Hockey Club, and in recent years, Penarth Lacrosse Club. Penarth Lacrosse Club have developed several players who have gone on to represent Wales at National and International level. The cricket club operates 4 regular league sides on a Saturday. The first XI plays in the South Wales Premier League. A number of current and former players have played for Glamorgan CCC, and Wales MC, and there have been many players who have gained junior representative honours.

The once-renowned Penarth Rugby Football Club is based at The Athletic Ground, Lavernock Road, Penarth, where it played Wales' and the West Country's premier clubs until the creation of the Welsh League system in the early 1990s. It has had somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, and in season 2006-07 won promotion to Division 3 South-East of the Welsh National Leagues by finishing runner-up in Division 4 South-East. Penarth RFC used to host the world-famous Barbarians Football Club each Easter Good Friday, until 1986. This fixture was the start of the "Baa-Baas" annual South Wales tour from the team's spiritual home of Penarth, which also encompassed playing Cardiff on the Saturday, Swansea on Easter Monday and Newport on the Tuesday. On the Thursday before Good Friday, the Barbarian rugby squad would be allowed free use of the Glamorganshire Golf Club, when they would play a match amongst themselves using only two golf clubs. On Easter Sunday, the Golf Club held its annual tournament for club members for a trophy titled the Barbarian Cup. The grand Esplanade Hotel, located on the seafront at Penarth before being destroyed by fire in May 1977, would host the gala party for the trip. Penarth has a second and more recent rugby union club Old Penarthians RFC, originally formed out of 'old boys' from Penarth County Grammar School, but no longer applying that restrictive membership criteria.

Demonstration Motor Cycle Dirt Track (Speedway) races were staged at The Athletic Ground, as part of a four-day festival, on 25 August 1934.

Penarth has three football (soccer) clubs. The longest established is Cogan Coronation AFC, known locally as the 'Coro' that was founded in 1960, playing their home games at the Penarth Leisure Centre recreation fields. The senior team features in the South Wales F.A. Senior League 1st Division and their best season was 2000/2001 when they finished the year in second position. The club fielded eighteen teams at various age groups in the 2007/2008 season. Cogan Coronation players Mark Eley, Liam Beddard and goalkeeper Stewart Owadally have been selected to represent the Football Association of Wales on a number of occasions. The second longest established is Inter Penarth AFC which has been running for over 12 years with a good structure of mini's,junior's and a senior team. The club has had three name changes in its brief history. Penarth Town AFC was founded only a handful of years ago and plays in Division 2 of the Vale of Glamorgan Senior Football League.

Glamorganshire Golf Club is located in Lower Penarth and is considered to be one of the finest golf courses in the Principality. The course was established in 1890 and, in 1898, the club was the testing ground of Dr Frank Stableford's revolutionary new Stableford golf scoring system still used all over the world today.

Penarth has two tennis clubs. Penarth Lawn Tennis Club and Windsor Lawn Tennis Club, Penarth. Both clubs compete regularly in the Tennis Wales South Doubles Leagues and have junior representation in the National Junior Club League and Vale of Glamorgan Mini Tennis Club League. Windsor Lawn Tennis Club is situated in Larkwood Avenue in a residential area. It has 7 hardcourts and a grass court area. Penarth Lawn Tennis Club, in Rectory Road, is the second oldest tennis club in Wales (established 1884) and has 6 floodlit hard courts and one of the longest continually used tennis clubhouses in the world. In recognition of the significant upgrading and refurbishment of facilities Penarth Lawn Tennis Club was recognised as Welsh Tennis Club of the Year by Tennis Wales (LTA) at its 2014 awards ceremony. This achievement was emulated by Windsor LTC two years later at the 2016 awards.

Penarth has a Men's (established 1911) and Ladies' (established 1896) Hockey Club. The Men's first team were promoted in both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons to play in their highest ever league. The Men's first team play in North Division 1 of The Davis Wood Hockey League (2011/12) Both Ladies teams compete in the South Wales Premier 1 division (2011/12).

Cogan Leisure Centre is a modern leisure centre sports venue that provides the town with a full range of sporting facilities including a leisure pool and extensive playing fields. The new Cardiff Sports Village is just under two miles (3 km) from the town centre.

Penarth Sea Cadets are located in the town.

Cardiff Morris perform traditional dances from Wales and England and feature several members from the town. They are the prime performers of Morris dances from the Nantgarw tradition. They meet and rehearse weekly throughout the year, alternating between The Anchor in Taffs Well and the Windsor Arms public house in Penarth. In recent years the group have performed in locations across the UK. Of particular interest are their renditions of genuine Welsh morris dance as collected by Margaretta Thomas in the village of Nantgarw in Taff Vale, the key dance being Y Gaseg Eira (The Snow Mare).

Penarth Amateur Boxing Club now meets in Station Road, after the closure of their club at St Pauls Church.

Penarth Bowls Club is located on Rectory Road at a bowling green built on what was once a deep limestone quarry.

South Wales Comedy Writers Society is based in Penarth.

Penarth is also home to a Waterski club, with a slipway to the east of the pier. The club has history as one of the top clubs for Waterski Racing in Europe, producing Regional, National and European champions. With once c.90 boat members, today the club has one team that is actively racing.

Transport
Penarth railway station serves the town and is the terminus of the Penarth branch of the Vale of Glamorgan Line from Cardiff. It is on an extension of the line originally built by the Taff Vale Railway in 1865 to serve the newly created docks. Penarth Dock railway station once served the docks area, but closed in 1962. All services on this line are operated by Transport for Wales as part of the Valley Lines portion of the National Rail network. Dingle Road station is also close to the town centre. The Barry branch of the Vale of Glamorgan line passes through Cogan railway station, near Cogan Leisure Centre.

Penarth is served by Cardiff Bus services from Cardiff City Centre, with some services continuing to Barry. Penarth falls into the Cardiff fare zone for Cardiff Bus fares. Penarth is also served by First Cymru from Cardiff City Centre - Llandough which continues on to Barry.

Penarth is linked to west Somerset and North Devon seaside resorts such as Minehead, Ilfracombe and Lundy Island by the Paddle Steamer Waverley and MV Balmoral (1949), which have sailed from Penarth pier for over 60 years, continuing a steamer tradition that started when the pier was built. Devon's tourist trade in the late 19th century was expanded when the paddle steamers spent weekends cruising the Bristol Channel taking the South Wales tourists on cheap excursions from Penarth to places such as Lynmouth, Ilfracombe, Bideford and Clovelly. The traditional summer daily service to Weston-super-mare ceased in 1994 when Weston's Birnbeck Pier was damaged in a storm, declared unsafe and closed to visitors.

The Cardiff Waterbus operates a passenger water taxi service daily between 10.30 am and 5.00 pm, sailing from the Penarth end of the Bay Barrage and the Mermaid Quay on Cardiff's waterfront with seven crossings at hourly intervals. The first boat leaves Penarth at 10.30 am and the last boat back departs Cardiff at 5.00 pm.

The Pont y Werin pedestrian and cycle bridge opened in July 2010, completing a 4.2 mile circular route between Cardiff Bay and Penarth.

Overseas connections
The town shares its name with Penarth, Delaware in the US.

Penarth is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Saint-Pol-de-Léon Brittany, France. The fortieth anniversary of the twinning charter took place in 2010. In the 1970s and 1980s there were regular joint civic meetings and events often in conjunction with Penarth Holiday Fortnight, coupled with annual student exchange weeks between the two towns of up to fifty young people. Since 2003 when the French town's long serving mayor retired and there were changes to their committee no cultural exchanges or joint civic events have taken place. In March 2010 it was announced that both towns were keen to reconnect and an appeal was made for local organisations and interested individuals to become actively involved. In Penarth marina there is an address named after the twinned town, "Plas St. Pol De Leon".

Notable people

 * See Category:People from Penarth

Those who have either been born, lived in, or associated with Penarth have included politicians such as Plaid Cymru founder Saunders Lewis, Remy Walton national treasure, James Childs Gould MP, Alun Michael MP, John Smith MP, and three recipients of the Victoria Cross, including Dambuster's leader Guy Gibson.

Sports stars associated with Penarth include Colin Jackson, Dame "Tanni" Grey-Thompson, and professional NFL American football and former professional rugby union player Louis Rees-Zammit.

Penarth is associated with a number of people in the performing arts, including novelist Eric Linklater, actor Colin McCormack, actor Ronan Vibert, actress Erin Richards, musician Sharmelly Rey, composer Joseph Parry, French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley, singer-songwriter Jem, singer-songwriter Shakin' Stevens, and drum'n'bass producer Lincoln Barrett (also known as High Contrast), and singer-songwriter Martin Joseph.

title: Penarth


text:
Talk:Reactionary/Archive 2

Is "Reactionary" a pejorative word?
To the sense that being a reactionary is a pejorative word I can not find that in the Oxford English Dictionary (20vol). Not there. Please delte or provide scholarly evidence!!!!

 * You seem highly confused with respect to semantics. Being a reactionary is a state of a person, not a word. "Pejorative" is a word. And, indeed, in modern usage, "reactionary" is most often used as a pejorative word. This does not need "scholarly" quote – for historical scholarship discusses history, not current political speech. David.Monniaux 20:28, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

As to that Reactionary is a bad thing,

Jer 18.15; "For my people?fail in their ways, leaving the ancient tracks, to enter upon impassable paths." A reactionary statement.

Jer 6.16; "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths of the Lord; and see what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification for your souls." A reactionary statement

Sirach 2.10; "Look at the generations of old, and see; A reactionary statement

Wisdom 8.8; "If a man desireth much experience, she knoweth things of old,?" A reactionary statement

Prov 8.21; "I will remember also to recount the things of old". A reactionary statement

Job 22.15; "Wilt thou not mark the old way, which righteous men have trodden?" A reactionary statement

Deut 32.7; "Remember the days of old,?ask thy father, and he shall relate to thee, thine elders?" A reactionary statement

Psalm 142.5; "I remembered the days of old". A reactionary statement

Sirach 39.2 "He will keep the sayings of renowned men". A reactionary statement.

 * Totally besides the point. The article does not claim that "progress" or "change" is good. It says that "reactionary" is used as a pejorative words by some who assume that some beneficial progress has taken place against people accused of willing to reverse that progress. David.Monniaux 20:28, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

In Progressive society, there is no "looking back". On the other hand, you have just proven that God is a reactionary. I am with God. I am a reactionary and damn proud of it. Jesus said, O Palios Xristos estin, the Old is Good.

 * So? How is that relevant? David.Monniaux 20:28, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Oh, really? Then how do you explain this:

 * And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
 * And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all [men], as every man had need.
 * - Acts 2:44-45

 * Jesus Himself was quite clearly socialist, or perhaps even communist by our standards. Read Matthew 19:16-24.

 * And saying "the Old is Good" is worthless as long as you don't explain what "the Old" actually IS. Do communists in post-soviet Russia count as "reactionaries"? Mihnea Tudoreanu

The Liberal German Christians did at the Statz plaza was held a meeting and the first thing they did was throw out the Old Testament. That is the Swatika culture. No thank you.WHEELER 20:16, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * I don't see the link between the "liberal German Christians" and the swastika, either as a Buddhist or Nazi symbol.
 * Please stop stopping pushing your POV through illogical statements. David.Monniaux 20:28, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

To be precise: the article does not endorse any "progress" or claim that changes are "good" or reactionaries "bad". It claims that in modern usage, the word "reactionary" is mostly used by groups that endorse some kind of "progress" and accuse others. David.Monniaux 20:30, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

David the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't say that so please put in a reference or delete it. Or I will delete it.

 * The Oxford English Dictionary does probably say that "fragging" means killing somebody in Quake, nor does it say that "Socialist" is used as a pejorative word by right-wing American politicians. Yet, these are facts, and we should discuss them. Remember, we're writing an encyclopedia here.
 * Read the press, hear politicians. You'll notice a pattern of using "reactionary" as a pejorative word. That's the most common usage nowadays. David.Monniaux 20:55, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Reference: "Depuis la Révolution française, et particulièrement depuis le début du vingtième siècle, le terme réactionnaire est presque exclusivement utilisé dans un sens péjoratif, en lieu et place des mots "rétrograde", "passéiste" ou "conservateur"."
 * words of a priest"I understand that for some people "reactionary" is a pejorative term,"

Hitler and reactionaries
"Hitler's attempt, in co-operation with General Ludendorff, to unseat the German government in November, l923, through an open rebellion in Munich, was foiled through the efforsts of the local Reichswehr under the command of Von Lossow, and the refusal of Von Kahr, Bavarian Prime minister, to accommodate the Fuhrer. (Von Kahr and Von Lossow were murdered in the Reichsmordwoche, the "Blood Purge", June 30, l934.).  From that time on Hitler's hatred for the Junkers, the Reichwehr and all clerical politicians was boundless:  his paladins in the army were in the end all non-Junkers such as Jodl, Guderian and "die Keitel".  P. F. Drucker was quite right when he said of Hitler's relation to the German army that the Fuhrer "hated it just as much as any German Liberal did."   The Church, ably led by Cardinal von Faulhaber, also opposed Hitler on principle." Liberty or Equality pg 260. WHEELER 20:36, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * What does it have to do with the topic at hand?

 * I guess WHEELER sees significance in the vons who opposed Hitler early on. I guess no one has told him that Crown Prince Wilhelm joined the Nazi party in the 1930s along with several of Prince Philip's relatives. AndyL 23:08, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Sure. Nazism was a bourgeois and populist movement that ruffled the feathers of some in the nobility! David.Monniaux 07:24, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Crown Prince Wilhelm never joined the Nazi Party, although he did announce he was voting for Hitler in the presidential election of 1932. john 01:22, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

"True American Liberalism denies the whole creed of socialism", Herbert Hoover, The Challenge to Liberty.
 * This quote does not talk about being reactionary. I assume that WHEELER thought that it would explain Hoover's position better and moved it accordingly. David.Monniaux 07:24, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Does the word "Why" mean anything to you David? Why was he reactionary??? What did he oppose?  Have you read any thing of Herbert Hoover?  NO  because this contradicts YOUR opinion which is based on NOTHING.  I read "The Challenge to Liberty".  I understand.  WHY did his enemies call him a reactionary?  Explain that one.

 * I don't know why you are attacking me. I did not delete the Hoover quote, just reformatted the two quotes inside a single paragraph, and added parentheses around some words. From what I gather from your excited and half-incoherent, question, you are arguing that Hoover being called a reactionary is explained byh his quotation on American liberalism. That's just what I said two paragraphs earlier.
 * Ah, and please drop personal accusations. I haven't read anything from Herbert Hoover, but I haven't expressed any particular opinion on him either.
 * I'm sorry, but I think that you should calm down quite a bit. Adding extra interrogation points and all-capital words does not make you convincing - it just makes you come across as some overexcited person with an agenda to push. ~

David.Monniaux 15:22, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I am getting pretty sick and tired of being questioned by you people. I have to pass the guantlet to put anything on this website. David, John, Slrubenstein, Jrwronsigweig, can all put things up without being questioned. But I have to be run thru the ringer.

Your hypocrisy grows. Jrwosewieg deletes my whole article on Defintion. I have to prove with 32 footnotes. Yet his site of Republic has not one quote. I put up three quotes on the reactionary side. They get all deleted and their information has NO quotes. They are free yet I am questioned about mine. They deleted Herbert Hoover but now I can repost because I have a quote. Proved them wrong in their opinions. Why was he called a reactionary????????????? I am getting sick and tired of this behavior.WHEELER 14:42, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

They have all deleted the REASONS of reactionary.
 * Oh, please. Learn how to write, learn how to make statements that make sense, learn how to quote in context. I'm getting sick and tired of trying to have a discussion with somebody whose expression would warrant a D in any college. David.Monniaux 20:07, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * What was the White Russians reacting against???
 * What was Hoover reacting against??
 * What was FR. Coughlin reacting against???
 * What was the Catholic Church and the monarchists reacting against????
 * What am I fighting against????
 * The Bolsheviks
 * FDR and his Socialist NEw Deal
 * FDR, New Deal and the socialism and communism among the Jews
 * Jacobism and Democracy
 * Obsurantism censorship.

Obscurantism is clear on that page of "Reactionary". The WHY is never presented. REACT means to REACT against something.WHEELER 15:32, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Yes, so? And it's Jacobinism, not Jacobism. Furthermore, Jacobinism pretty much died early in the 19th century in its true sense, so the Catholic Church and Monarchists were truly mostly fighting Democracy. Isn't that mentioned in the article?
 * The problem is that, when explaining what people were fighting against, we must not endorse their point of view. See the difference between: "the Foobitarians fought for the return to the Law of God" (which endorses the existence of a so-called "Law of God") and 'the Foobitarians explained they were fighting for the return to the "Law of Good"' (it's clear that it's the Foobitarians' opinion that such a law exists, and it's also clear that it's their definition that is sued).David.Monniaux 15:52, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hey David, Read any Herbert Hoover????WHEELER 15:32, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * No, why, should I? I'm not that much interested in American conservative politics. Note that I haven't deleted the Hoover quote. David.Monniaux 15:52, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

"Reactionary" is a pejoritive word. It seems that Herbert Hoover was quite proud of the title!WHEELER 15:36, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * So? "Reactionary" is generally used, nowadays, as a pejorative word. Similarly, "racist" is now generally used as a pejorative word. Still, Adolf Hitler was quite proud of being a racist!
 * In modern political parlance, "reactionary" is generally an accusation that political groups or politicians throw at other groups of politicians in an attempt to discredite them.
 * That's a fact. Of course, we do not say that "reactionary" is in essence a pejorative word, or that all uses of "reactionary" are pejorative, nor do we say that some people were not proud of being reactionaries (I'm pretty sure Charles Maurras was). The issue is that many people use "reactionary" as some others use "communist" - as a kind of insult, and it's actually the most frequent usage nowadays. David.Monniaux 15:52, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

"Clerical Philosophers In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the French state was in constant turmoil between the forces of restoration of the right and revolutionaries on the left. This left the Bourgeois Liberals in the middle and they sought to "preserve the revolution and combat the revolution". Their solution was to recreate a psychology of obedience to the rule of the Bourbons among the French people. They sought to keep the liberalization brought by the revolution and on the other hand defend the right of property. Herein arose the clerical philosophers Joseph de Maistre, Vicomte de Bonald, and François-René de Chateaubriand."
 * First, I don't see where Joseph de Maistre or Chateaubriand were seeking to "keep the liberalization" brought by the revolution. De Maistre is notorious for his reactionary opinions of going back to an authoritarian regime.
 * Second, you make, again, the mistake of assuming that the revolutionaries were against private property and thus that the French revolution was a fight between those in favor or against private property. This may be related to the fact that the definition of left vs right was different in those days.
 * Napoleon Bonaparte was a revolutionary, yet he was strongly in favor of private property. In fact, I don't see any major revolutionary against private property, like a Communist or Socialist would be, except perhaps Gracchus Babeuf.
 * Therefore, unless you provide strong evidence to the contrary, I'll edit this paragraph to say that those 3 people were revolutionaries who sought the return to an authoritarian monarchy, and say nothing about private property, since this was not a defining trait of the reactionary attitude at the time. David.Monniaux 20:07, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * My information comes directly from Liberalism and the challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France 1815-1870 by J. Salwyn Schapiro, Professor Emeritus of History City College of New York, 1949. I use the word reactionary where he does and used practically the same words he did.  He classifies them as the Clerical philosophers.  The Dictionary of Ideas uses De Maistre and De Bonald together.WHEELER 23:54, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Did this professor claim that one main motive of those reactionaries was the fight for private property? Note that the Directory and Napoléon's regime were very much in favor of public property (perhaps more than the Monarchy, whose taxation policies were very much a spoliation of some classes of society to subsidize some other classes). David.Monniaux 00:20, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I meant the Bourgeois liberals wanted to keep the liberalization. I will make it clear. De Maistre and Bonald wanted to return. Chatebriand wanted to keep the liberalisation.WHEELER 23:57, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * I indeed would not like to lump Chateaubriand with De Maistre and Bonald. De Maistre is considered an arch-supporter of the return to absolute monarchy (see Charles X of France). Chateaubriand is more of a Romantic writer.
 * Where did you get the idea that Chateaubriand did not really believe in Catholic teachings? Ok, he was known for his womanizing, but so was Louis XIV. Is there any evidence that, in spite of his numerous writings about Christian teachings, he did not believe in them and considered them merely instrumental in political goals? David.Monniaux 00:20, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Spelling and other presentation issues
WHEELER: It's called Jacobinism, not "Jacobism". The word is NOT in allusion to somebody named Jacob, Jacques or James, but to the use by this political club of a convent formerly used by Jacobine monks. David.Monniaux 06:31, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The Jacobin monks, at any rate, were named for someone named Jacob, Jacques or James, weren't they? (An utterly substanceless post!)john 06:33, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * You're right. They were named afted Saint James. My point was that the Jacobins were NOT called Jacobins because they followed a political leader named Jacob, Jacques or James – which would rightly lead to the English Jacobism. David.Monniaux 06:52, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

WHEELER: When you describe some political group's position, please make sure to use quotes or other devices around the necessary political feelings. If you don't, this make your text express a POV endorsing the analysis of that political group.

Compare (example taken about 20th century politics):
 * The LVF fought the incoming Bolshevik threat. (POV; endorses the LVF's view that there was an incoming Bolshevik threat, which is not a historical fact.)
 * The LVF fought the "incoming Bolshevik threat". (NPOV; the quotes express the fact that the incoming Bolshevik threat is the LVF's opinion.)
 * The LVF claimed the existence of an "incoming Bolshevik threat" and affirmed they would fight this threat. (NPOV)

I think that's the reason why so many of your edits got re-edited; they made it appear that Wikipedia was endorsing the positions of the reactionaries discussed. David.Monniaux 06:52, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Also: when making allegations about some groups fighting against "Socialism" or for "private property", please double-check your claims. You stated several times that the Reactionaries opposing the French revolution did so to preserve private property, but, in fact, very few French revolutionaries were Socialists (Gracchus Babeuf is probably the best known, but you may note that he was quite isolated among the revolutionaries) or opposed private property. David.Monniaux 06:52, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * The French Revolution is the beginning foundations of socialism.WHEELER 14:16, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * The French Revolution established the foundations of the modern democratic state, which in turn became the foundation of socialism. But other than this vague connection, the only socialist thing about the French Revolution was its motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

 * Perhaps Socialists consider it to be a founding moment in their movement. However, what matters is not the opinions of socialists about the foundations of their movements, but historical facts. The French Revolution was not a Socialist revolution. There was little political will to make means of production collective or to abolish private property.
 * You'll also note that many Socialists/Communists consider that the French Revolution was a bourgeois revolution.
 * I'd even go as far as to say that the Revolution, or at least many revolutionaries, was more in favor of private property than the Monarchist regime. The pre-revolutionary tax system was essentially spoliating the third estate of its property to subsidize the lifestyle of the nobility and the Catholic Church. David.Monniaux 14:37, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

WHEELER, your reference to the JBS is correct. Note, however, the change I made. You said: "It strenously defends the original intention of the U. S. Constitution." This is an endorsement of their political analysis and breaks the NPOV.

Note the enormous difference with: "It claims to strenuously defend". This, now, is NPOV.

Several of your earlier edits were removed or greatly edited exactly for the same reason: you wrote in such a way that the text expressed blatant support for the political analysis of the groups you quoted.

Instead of thinking about the issue, you instead alleged some nonexistant "socialist" bias in the other contributors. You should instead improve your expression in English so as not to make such blatant mistakes. David.Monniaux 16:37, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

American Parochialism
Parochialism is seeing things in one's own context. We are writing articles for the whole world. European reactionaryism is different from American reactionaryism. People from around the world will be reading this, It has got to broad and deep. Every article discusses the HISTORY of the word.WHEELER 14:16, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Of course, and I fully agree with that statement. The word "reactionary" is heavily connoted, and has designated different political positions in different contexts.
 * The fact that people around the world will be reading this article is all the more a reason not to push right-wing American obsessions about Socialists and Communists on issues that have little to do with Socialism or Communism. Doing this would be historical revisionism, which, I understand, you are against – and rightly so, if by "revisionism" you mean "lying about the past to advance an agenda".
 * It is true that in the context of a Socialist or Communist revolution, people supporting private property are often called reactionaries. However, your statements were about the clerical philosophers, which were in the context of post-revolutionary France, in which private property was not much of an issue. David.Monniaux 14:37, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Action Française
David, I see that you have put Action Francais everywhere in the article. I ask you please to at least delete it before the Clerical Philosophers it doesn't go there.WHEELER 14:39, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * The phrase "Action Française" appears only twice inside the article, if I'm not mistaken, so "everywhere" is a gross exaggeration. The reference DOES belong to the Clerical Philosopher section, since the AF essentially followed De Maistre's thinking. Note that the AF is not cited as an organization of the same era, but as a heir. David.Monniaux 15:37, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * It belongs at the end of the article not at the beginning. Action Francaise is a minor blip in history.  De Maistre had huge impact.

 * Actually you have it four times because you want to mention Maurras alot to. don't you think this is a little overblown for such a little group.  How many scholary journals quote from this group or man?

 * I'm sorry, but the AF is not some unimportant little group. AF was the quintessential French reactionary group between the Dreyfus Affair to WWII, whereas De Maistre was the quintessential reactionary thinker under the Bourbon restoration, which lasted less. The group was so well known that its magazine was actually prohibited by the Pope (who disagreed with their instrumentalization of religion, as far as I know).
 * As for scholarly journals, a simple search on www.jstor.org in the journals in the category of "history" for "Charles Maurras" yields pages and pages of scholarly citations (at least 11). A search for "Joseph de Maistre" yield 8 pages.
 * (jstor.org is a site where academic journals on various scholarly topics are archived. Unfortunately, access is by subscription.) David.Monniaux 16:11, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Is it Wikipedia policy to only link the word once when shown. I see that one word especially your Maurras character is linked everytime it appears in text.  Is it not supposed to be linked once where it appears the first time?

 * Feel free to remove the links.

 * Also, I quoted from the Oxford English dictionary and you have removed the different spellings.  Are you better than the Oxford English dictionary?  What gives?  WHEELER 15:57, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * You pretended that "reactionary" and "reactionism" were synonymous. They are not. Reactionary is an adjective; reactionism is the characteristic political ideology of a reactionary. It's the difference between "true" and "truth".
 * I checked in my own dictionaries, and "reactionaryism" was not cited in Webster 1913 nor in WordNet. If you affirm it is cited in OED, feel free to reinstate the spelling. David.Monniaux 16:11, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * I see that, again, you asserted that "reactionary" and "reactionaryism" were synonymous. Do you read what people explain you in talk pages? Do you understand what I said in the preceding paragraph? If not, I suggest you get a beginner's English grammar and look up the definitions of "noun" and "adjective". I also suggest you get acquainted with the semantic difference between "socialist" and "socialism". David.Monniaux 16:18, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Reactionary/Archive 2


text:
Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber

Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber was a comedic sketch on the American television show Saturday Night Live which first aired on April 22, 1978. The title character was a barber surgeon played by comedian Steve Martin, a frequent host of the show. The central gag revolved around Theodoric's belief in bloodletting as a solution to his patients' maladies. The character was brought back in a sequel, "Theodoric of York, Medieval Judge" on November 4 of the same year, in which Theodoric applied the same unenlightened methods to jurisprudence.

As an example of his method of procedure, in the initial sketch, Theodoric explained to the mother of a sick girl:

"You know, medicine is not an exact science, but we are learning all the time. Why, just fifty years ago, they thought a disease like your daughter's was caused by demonic possession or witchcraft. But nowadays we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a toad or a small dwarf living in her stomach."

At the climax of both sketches, Theodoric would propose profound, innovative ideas that had the potential to change the course of history, but would ultimately dismiss them, as in:

"Wait a minute. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps I've been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a "scientific method". Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance!...Naaaaaahhh!"

The second of the sketches, "Theodoric of York, Medieval Judge," lampooned both the medieval and modern judicial systems. In this skit, Martin's character would summarily pass judgment based on the outcomes of trials by ordeal, such as throwing a woman accused of witchcraft weighted into a river to see if she would drown: if the accused floated, she was determined to be guilty (because only by using her occult powers could she have risen to the surface), and if she sank and drowned, she was innocent. Upon deciding the accused was guilty, Theodoric would refer to the Writ of Common Wisdom (a huge, dusty tome) to decide appropriate punishment. In the case of a man found guilty of adultery (having previously been tried of stealing and lying), Theodoric finds the punishment in the Writ so embarrassing, he can't read it publicly, and instead whispers it in the defendant's ear.

As with "Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber," the "Medieval Judge" skit ended with Martin's proposing modern legal concepts such as trial by a jury of one's peers, provision of defense counsel, innocence until proven guilty, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments, etc., but end by saying... "Naaaaaaaahhh!"

On October 14, 1978, SCTV aired a skit called "Master Ralph Roister Doister" (named after (but not in any way based on) the actual 16th century play by Nicholas Udall) similarly satirizing the supposed ignorance and uncleanliness of medieval times. This focused on a poverty-stricken medieval couple (played by Dave Thomas and Catherine O'Hara with burlesque English accents) attempting to survive famine, plague, high taxes, and the harassment of the local sheriff (Joe Flaherty).

title: Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber


text:
User talk:Jiggar

Hi Jiggar. Welcome to Wikipedia. If you need more help on how to write articles, try Welcome, newcomers. You can ask questions at Newcomers' help desk.

I notice that you created the article Sean Ward which seems to have very little content and about somebody not well known. It is currently on Votes for deletion and will probably deleted unless you explain why this person is notable.

You are, I trust, aware that there is a prohibition on creating articles about yourself here.

Happy editing DJ Clayworth 15:26, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jiggar


text:
2709 Sagan

2709 Sagan, provisional designation, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6.7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 March 1982, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, and named after astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan.

Orbit and classification
Sagan is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest families of stony asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.3 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,188 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic.

Physical characteristics
In the SMASS classification, Sagan is classified as a S-type asteroid. It has an albedo of 0.26, according to observations made by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and subsequent NEOWISE mission. The body has a rotation period between 5.254 and 5.258 hours and a brightness variation between 0.09 and 0.63 magnitude (U=3/3/3/3).

Naming
This minor planet was named in honor of Carl Sagan (1934–1996), planetary scientist at Cornell University, science popularizer, editor of the journal Icarus, and founder of The Planetary Society. Sagan participated on a number of planetary space missions, including the Voyager mission to the outer planets and the Mariner 9 and Viking program to Mars.

Sagan's research encompassed studies of the greenhouse effect on Venus, the atmosphere and surface of Titan, windblown dust on Mars, and the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligent life. Sagan won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1978. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 August 1982 (M.P.C. 7158).

An asteroid discovered in 1998, 4970 Druyan, is named after Sagan's wife Ann Druyan and is said to be in a "wedding ring orbit" with respect to 2709 Sagan.

title: 2709 Sagan


text: Wikipedia:WikiProject Evolutionary biology