Cogan, Vale of Glamorgan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cogan | |
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  Cogan shown within the United Kingdom |
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| OS grid reference | |
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| Principal area | Vale of Glamorgan |
| Ceremonial county | South Glamorgan |
| Constituent country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | PENARTH |
| Postcode district | CF64 |
| Dialling code | +44-29 |
| Police | South Wales |
| Fire | South Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| European Parliament | Wales |
| UK Parliament | Cardiff South & Penarth |
| List of places: UK • Wales • Vale of Glamorgan | |
Cogan is a suburb of Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Cogan contains one of the vale's four major Leisure Centres.
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[edit] History
Just two hundred years ago Cogan was a small village of a few scattered houses and farms within the Hundred of Dinas Powys. In 1875 Cogan was reallocated to the new Penarth Local Board in a major administrative reorganisation. The building of Penarth Docks in 1865 and the town's rapid growth prompted an explosion of house building in Cogan providing mostly terraced housing, local shops and public houses for dock workers. Most of the building in the village took place over the ten years between 1859 and 1869.
The majority of the many small local Cogan shops, butcher, baker, greengrocer, hardware store, chemist, barbers, newsagents and general crocery shops located on Windsor Road, down Pill Street and on almost all of the street corners in the village had closed by the early 1950s and been converted to residential housing. Since Cogan's Post Office on Pill Street closed in April 2008, only a taxi control office, a ladies hairdressers and a Chinese fast food takeaway remain.
Cogan railway station is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line and provides services to Barry, Rhoose, Bridgend and Cardiff. Until 1968 Cogan had two further platforms across the other side of the main Windsor Road and located on the Penarth and Sully branch line, from the Cogan Junction points down the coastline to where it rejoined the main line at Cadoxton. The through link was closed under the effects of the Beeching Axe and the rail spur now terminates at Penarth. Dingle Road Halt and Penarth station remain open but the platforms at Cogan were closed when the line was reduced to a single track branchline. Most of the station buildings still stand and have been used by several private businesses including a shooting range, a garden centre, a second hand car lot and a marine chandlers. The area originally covered by the Cogan and Penarth dock's railway sidings now contains a large Tesco supermarket.
Cogan used to be connected to Llandough by Andrew Road which is now closed off to all but public buses. Conversely Pill Street was a dead end until the 1970s when a connection was driven through, up the slope to the newly built Cowslip Estate housing development. There has been no new housing built in the village since the early 1970s when the Cogan Garden Village was completed and any further housebuilding is prevented through lack of space to develop; The village is bounded on two sides by the railway tracks, by the Cowslip slope on another and by the Poets Estate on the fourth side. The only land now not built on is the sports fields attached to the Penarth Leisure Centre, land that originally formed the common land of the village green where small holders grazed their animals in medieval times.
[edit] Education
The only school in Cogan is Cogan Primary School in Pill Street, administered by the Vale of Glamorgan Local education authority. It is a Mixed school of Non Denominational religion. The school building is a well maintained Victorian structure.
[edit] Sport
Penarth's premier football club is located in Cogan and forms part of Cogan Coronation Sports Club, playing their games at the Leisure Centre's playing fields. Cogan Coronation AFC's first team plays in the South Wales F.A. Senior League 1st Division and the club is fielding eighteen teams of all ages during the 2007/2008 season.
