Five Mile Lane’s Hidden Past
FIVE MILE LANE’S HIDDEN PAST
Most of us will have been familiar with the old narrow twisty, turny, downright dangerous section of the A4226 “Five Mile Lane” immediately north of Barry. The Vale of Glamorgan Council had plans to improve this section of road but before construction could commence a range of environmental studies had to be undertaken.
It has been long known that this area has a rich historical heritage spanning the preceding 6000 years. Witness the evidence provided by the neolithic burial chambers at St Lythans and Tinkingswood, the unearthing of various Bronze and Iron Age structures and artifacts locally and the well known remains of Roman villas at Barry Knap and Witton Lodge, the latter being actually on the alignment of the Five Mile Lane.
So, alongside special environment studies, the Council and the Welsh Assembly Government commissioned the archaeological investigations firm Rubicon Heritage in the period 2017 to 2019 to add to the knowledge previously gained in earlier studies.
The “dig” undertaken by Rubicon encompassed the full extent of the footprint of the envisaged new road. The revealed treasure trove of burials (some 456 in number), artifacts, foundations of buildings and the like exceeded all expectations. In fact, beyond the pre-historic and Roman attributes, it also revealed a surprising glimpse into early medieval life (5th to mid 13th centuries).Prior to this study that medieval period of Welsh history had been poorly understood. For instance it was found that during this period pre-historic burial mounds were re-purposed as witnessed by some 378 burials in that period. This image is of a Medieval Christian burial located within a re-used Bronze Age burial monument.
In summary, the dig uncovered a previously unknown multi-period landscape which has been used in many ways since humans first settled in this area.
The archaeologists were able to trace the development of this swathe of land, uncovering many surprises along the way.
One cannot help but wonder how much more of our history lies buried in the Vale of Glamorgan for future generations to discover.
The purpose of this article has been to present a brief overview of the study and the findings to date. For a comprehensive insight visit https://www.rubiconheritage.com/ publications-and-articles.html and follow the links to Volumes 1 and 2 of their Five Mile Lane articles.
Alternatively, copies of those publications have been placed in the Wenvoe Hub for reference.
Tony Hodge, who thanks Rubicon for permission to reproduce the illustrations.
Fun Fact: The Five Mile Lane as we know it is only four miles long. The missing mile is now Pontypridd Road, Barry.