An Online Community Newsletter published by the Pencoed Town Council
More Recent Times
In order to suppress any insurrections by the local inhabitants, the Normans built various fortifications in the area. The Pencoed area was controlled by the castle at Coity (two miles to the west) although there appears also to be a motte (castle mound with wooden stockade) alongside Llanilid church that dates from this period.
Not So Long Ago
Pencoed’s Industrial Past
It is in the 12th century, that the first authenticated mention of the name Pencoed (then Penkoyt) appears. Pencoed, of course, was at this time only a very small hamlet, one of four in the area, the others being Hendre, Penprysg and Felindre. Anyone of these hamlets could have grown to finally give the town its name, but, with the coming of the railway in 1860, it was Pencoed that developed absorbing the others as it went. From 1860, when the four hamlets boasted a population of a few hundred, Pencoed has developed into a town with a population of over 10,000 people.
Although there is now little sign in Pencoed of its coal mining past , up until quite recently (1960's) many people from the town were dependent in one way or another on the coal industry. With the closure of the nearby Wern Tarw and Llanharan (PD's) collieries in the 60's, coal mining in the area started to become a thing of the past. New industries on the Bridgend Industrial Estate, at Waterton, Pontyclun and, of course, the giant Sony UK plant in Pencoed itself, led to new lifestyles and the old village atmosphere of Pencoed was gone forever.