The notes below, and the five pages which follow, trace the development of Llanishen, a well-to-do suburb, some four miles to the north of the centre of Cardiff.

Today, it is an integral part of the built-up area of the Welsh capital city, yet back in 1800, it was a tiny village, with a 12th century church, a village pub and a blacksmith. By the 1841 Census, the parish of Llanishen had 418 people, 20 major farms and many smallholdings, utilising the excellent loam soil which had developed on the sandstone and limestone base. The Census returns show that over 80% of the heads of household in Llanishen were engaged in agriculture, with the remaining 20% pursued rural trades such as milling and woodcutting.

By 1900, Llanishen had become a free-standing suburb in the rural-urban fringe of northern Cardiff. Rather than being a farming village, Llanishen was now the home to several thousand people, many of whom worked in the thriving businesses based in the city and docks of Cardiff . The maps below show how Llanishen changed in form from a small village in 1881, to a sprawling suburb in 1920.

These pages outline how and why Llanishen changed from a tiny village into one of Cardiff`s most popular suburbs.