St Hilary Community Website

The Village Today

St Hilary has a population of around 260 living in approximately 80 houses. There is a 12th century church, active village hall and historic pub.  There is a cobweb of narrow lanes and roads linking all parts of the village. The village is situated two miles east of Cowbridge which is an attractive market town.

History of the Village

Whilst the major land-owning families can be traced from the medieval period onwards members of the wider community of St Hilary are rarely identifiable before the 18th.  The total population of the parish at the end of the 17th century was 150.  Many of the families would have spoken Welsh as their first language.

Throughout the 19^th century St Hilary changed little from the small rural community it had always been.  The majority of it inhabitants derived their income from agriculture and associated trades.  Cottages provided homes for agricultural labourers, blacksmiths and wheelwrights, thatchers, carpenters and masons, whose skills were essential in the rural economy.  Most of the cottages would have been ‘two up and two down’ and would have accommodated large families. 

The Cowbridge and Aberthaw Railway opened in 1892 and although originally intended for fright transport subsequently carried passengers and introduced steam railcars or ‘motor cars’ on the line.  In 1905 a passenger platform, or holt, was provided in St Hilary close to Old Beaupre.  The holt was closed to passengers in 1920, the same month that the first daily bus service between Cardiff and Cowbridge was inaugurated.  

19^th and 20^th century maps of St Hilary show a parish dotted with old mine workings, old lead shafts and quarries.  Lead was mined in the late 18^th century and it is probable that lead deposits in the parish had been mined in the Roman period.  

Like every other parish in the Vale, St Hilary saw it men march off to war in 1914-1918.  A memorial plaque in the church lych-gate names those who returned home.  Memorials within the church remember the fallen.  New Beaupre, like many other large houses in the county, was used as a military convalescent hospital during the Great War.  A simple obelisk erected on St Hilary Down in 1922 commemorates the men of the Glamorganshire Yeomanry. 

The village still maintains its nucleus of properties around the church but many of the small thatched cottages and obsolete farm buildings have either been demolished or transformed into substantial modern residences.  The 18^th century pig sty still remains within the garden of Church Cottage opposite the Bush Inn. 

Village Farm used to be an estate of 600acres.
Coed Hills used to be called Cole Hills
Manor Cottage was the first home of the post office; it moved to Tyr Eglwys, now known as Abbotswood 

J.C Johnnie Clay is a legend in cricketing history.  His career spanned over a quarter of a century.  He captained Glamorgan from 1924-27 and in 1946 established batting and bowling records that stood unchallenged for many years.  He died in 1973 and is buried in the church grounds. 

Source: St Hilary: a history of the place and its people.  Hilary M. Thomas