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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Thomas Deacon

The bizarre reason some Cardiff street signs have two different spellings

You can tell a lot about Cardiff's history from its street names.

From its industrial past to the people who built the city, they often reveal glimpses into its long and rich past.

But there are a few street names in the capital that have raised more questions than answers.

A discussion in the popular Cardiff Now & Then Facebook group found a number of streets have signs showing two different spellings.

Several streets from Wentloog Road to Treorchy Street all have different spellings on different signs at either end of the street.

And it turns out it was all down to human error.

A Cardiff council spokesman confirmed the "very old" street signs were spelled in error when translating from Welsh to English. It turns out that someone a long time ago just guessed what the English spelling would be and those versions were used.

Here are some examples of different spellings of names of the same street.

Wentlloog Road to Wentloog Road

How it's spelt one end (Mark Lewis)
And here's a different version nearby (Mark Lewis)


Mortimor Road to Mortimer Road

How this Pontcanna road was spelt (Mark Lewis)
And this is how it ended up (Mark Lewis)

Caermarthen Street to Carmarthen Street

How this street in Canton was spelt (Mark Lewis)
This is how it looked after the 'translation' (Mark Lewis)


Sanquhar Street to Sanquahar Street

At one end the sign looks like this (Mark Lewis)
But at the other it says this (Mark Lewis)


Llantrisant Street to Llantrissant Street

One sign with one S (Mark Lewis)
The other sign with two (Mark Lewis)


Treorky Street to Treorkey Street (and it's spelled Treorchy on Google Maps)

This street has three different spellings depending on who you ask (Mark Lewis)


This is right opposite the other sign (Mark Lewis)


Do you know of any other examples? Comment below or email thomas.deacon@mediawales.co.uk

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