The turning point in the village`s history was the opening on April 1st, 1871 of a railway station at Llanishen on the railway line from Cardiff to Caerphilly. The line, owned by the Rhymney Railway Company, transported coal and minerals from the Rhymney and Taff valleys to the docks in Cardiff.

The opening of the station allowed fresh food and dairy products to be transported from the parish`s farms into the rapidly expanding town of Cardiff, and to other industrial settlements on the coastal plain of South Wales. The opening of the station in 1871 also presented opportunities for people to commute into the city on a daily basis, with a journey into the town lasting no more than ten minutes.

At the time, however, there were few people living in the village of Llanishen who needed to make such a daily journey into Cardiff, but all this was to change as the landowners started to sell off their land, so that grand suburban villas could be built, and all within a couple of minutes walk from the railway station.

The major landowner in the Llanishen area was the Marquis of Bute, the owner of Cardiff Castle, and many of the docks and dock-related businesses. The Marquis had already given land for the railway line and station to be built in the first place. The Bute Estate were also major investors in the Rhymney Railway, and were no doubt looking for some return on their investment. The Bute Estate had already gained by leasing land for house building in other parts of Cardiff. By the 1870`s, the Estate managers must have been aware of the high demand for decent housing in the suburbs, as many of the previous well-to-do locations in the inner suburbs had become overcrowded as Cardiff`s population grew dramatically.

The maps below show the changes which followed in Llanishen between 1881 and 1900, as the Bute Estate leased their property adjoining Station and Fidlas Road to allow house building to take place. It was a win-win situation in many ways for the Bute Estate - by providing land in Llanishen for high-class housing, they were meeting the demand for a pleasant residential environment, and they were stimulating demand to allow other land to be leased in the future. Moreover, they were gaining financially, firstly from the lease of land, and secondly, from the increased trade on the Rhymney Railway services.