With their eight companions in dry weather, they set off along Mill Road and crossed the bridge over the Cadoxton River following a path leading into the steep sided Cwm George where in the magnificent beech wood, the wild garlic leaves and a few stray flowers, plus celandines are just beginning to come out, a sure sign that spring is not far away.
Exiting from the woodland track there were great views towards Michaelston-le-Pit and Casehill and Penyturnpike Woods and re-crossing the Cadoxton River which was running fairly fast and exiting onto Cwrt-yr-Ala Road, they moved northwards towards the Michaelston valley, with views towards Garth Hill away in the distance.
A metal gate led them into a field and gradually uphill into the delightful Limekiln Wood to exit into Cwm Slade and dropping down through the huge meadow, a new kissing gate replacing an awkward stile, brought them out onto Station Road East.
Passing lambs in the surrounding fields and primroses in full bloom on the banks beside the track, they made their way downhill to Wrinstone Farm.
In the 12th century Wrinstone was a hamlet with a castle which stood at the site of the present farm and a manor house, chapel and cottages surrounded it, surviving until 1713 after which all traces of buildings disappeared, except for the farm.
Then on past Wrinstone House, built in 1818 on the site of an old gamekeeper’s cottage, before crossing a field and passing through a gate into woodland.
The uneven pathway led them downhill beside the Wrinstone Brook which feeds the ponds and weirs, where water was thundering over at the Salmon Leaps following weeks of rainfall.
The path led them onwards below Cwrt-yr-Ala House where the first mansion was built by Robert Rous around 1805.
Later in the early 1900’s it was let to WH Brain, the cricketer and owner of Brains Brewery, before being purchased by Sir Herbert Merrett in 1937, who demolished the previous building and built the present house.
During the Second World War the house was requisitioned by the RAF and used as accommodation and as a headquarters for the decoy site built on fields at The Lawns, where lights were set up to distract the German bombers from the munitions factories and docklands at Cardiff.
Exiting out onto the road and making their way to the village of Michaelston-le-Pit, the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels beckoned them in for a stop for lunch.
The church was most likely built by a member of the Reigny family and was originally known as St Michael de Renny in 1254.
The present church dates from the 14th century and was first restored during the 19th century when the area was a small hamlet with a mill, a farm and only a few cottages.
During the Great War twenty-eight men from the parish were lost and the carved oak lych gate stands as a memorial.
It is Grade II listed with a Welsh slate roof and bears a brass plate indicating it was dedicated on June 28, 1920, to all those who fell and served in the Great War 1914-1919.
Carved at the top are the words “Greater love hath no man than this – That a man lay down his life for his friends” and it is decorated with quatrefoils and bunches of grapes with leaves.
Refreshed and moving on past the pot-bellied pigs and re-crossing the Cadoxton River once again, thick muddy tracks on the riverbank led them back to the Millfields and by track and pavement back to their start point.
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