The historical travel writings and maps which reference Cardiff have been unveiled in a new website documenting a vision of Britain through time.
The site, which boasts to be "the largest collection of historical British travel writing on the web" has a Cardiff section which allows a unique insight into the perception of the city from a number of viewpoints in time.
For example, in 1887 John Bartholomew's Gazetteer described Cardiff like this:
"Cardiff, mun. and parl. bor., seaport, and co. town of Glamorgan, at the mouth of the river Taff and on the estuary of the Severn 29 miles W. of Bristol by water and 170 miles W. of London by rail -- parliamentary and municipal borough, pop. 82,761; 4 Banks, 5 newspapers. Market-days, Wednesday and Saturday. In 1801 the pop. was only 1018; in 1841 it was 10,077; and 59,494 in 1871. The rapid prosperity of the town is due to the abundance of minerals in the district. Its exports of coal and iron from the valleys of Taff, Rhymney, &c., are among the most important in the kingdom."
This extract sums up Cardiff as the main coal port for the UK, but some other extracts make for more fascinating reading, such as Charles Wesley's depiction of his travels through Bristol and Cardiff in 1745.
The Units and Statistics section also reveals some illuminating findings – and allows you to view recordings with the current figures – such as how the population of West Cardiff has increased in the last ten years, or the main cause of death in Cardiff between 1821 and 1911 (there was a surprising number of violent deaths).
I'd fully recommend visiting the Vision of Britain through time Cardiff section and having a browse here. Tell us what you found in comments below.
