page_title: Ely, Cardiff
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Ely, Cardiff / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: British Trolleybuses - Cardiff The busiest trolleybus route in Cardiff served the large Ely housing estate. The services were provided in the form of a loop running out via Cowbridge Road and returning via Grand Avenue, or vice versa. The main service operated along Macdonald Road, which can be seen diverging to the left from Grand Avenue at this point. The trolleybus in the picture has come from Green Farm Road. This was an extra loop which was served in one direction only by about one in three of the journeys operating clockwise. This scene appears to have changed very little in 40 years, although there are now some trees in the reservation of Grand Avenue. For a slide show of British Trolleybuses in the late 60s https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=1773236&amp;displayclass=slide
context_page_description: Ely is a district and community in Cardiff, Wales. It is to the north of Cowbridge Road West. Caerau defines the boundary to the south as does River Ely to the east and in part to the north.
  Ely is primarily dominated by current and former council housing.
context_section_description: In 1855, the first horse race took place at Ely Racecourse, which took over from the Great Heath racecourse.
  The Ordnance Survey map from the early 1880s shows just how isolated the ancient Ely village was from the rest of Cardiff. Reports about travelling along the main road over Ely Common to Cardiff talk of potholes and no shelter and a terrible journey on foot. Most of Ely was still farmland feeding Cardiff's population. A railway station had only recently been constructed, and this gave the surrounding area further potential for mass housing development.
  The 'Ely Industrial School' on Cowbridge Road East was home to orphaned children originally from Cardiff. It had been set up to accommodate "pauper children" from 1863. It was very much a product of the Victorian age, and workhouse mentality, increased social awareness and responsibility saw it closing in 1903 and converted to additional workhouse accommodation for adults (though never used for that purpose), known as Ely Lodge. The children lived in what became as Ely Homes. The school was demolished some years later and an infectious diseases isolation unit was built on the same site.
  The land was once owned by the Earl of Plymouth, who dictated that alcohol may not be sold on the land. As a result, like other plots of land with similar conditions, the boundaries of the old estate can be approximated by the locations of public houses around the area.
  To attract business from nearby areas, establishments would be built as close to it as possible without actually being in Ely (local establishments are actually in Caerau and Fairwater).
caption: Grand Avenue, 1966
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