Radyr, United Kingdom

The Norman motte in the "mound field" is a flat-topped mound 30 metres (100 ft) in diameter at the base and 3.8 metres (12 ft) high, surrounded by a ditch 7 metres (23 ft) wide. An adjoining bailey to east of the motte could indicate the boundary between Norman and Welsh land. The motte was surrounded by a timber palisade around a wooden keep and formed part of a defensive line with similar mottes at Thornhill and Whitchurch. The early settlement that became Radyr developed around the Norman church and manor house in what is now Danescourt. Surveys in 1307 describe an agricultural hamlet surrounded by arable fields. The 14th century Welsh Lord of Radyr, Cynwrig ap Hywel, followed by his descendants, farmed the area until it was devastated by the Black Death and by battles between the Marcher Lords in 14th and 15th centuries when the whole area was laid waste.

In 1469 Thomas Mathew (died 1469), the third or fourth son of Sir David Mathew (died 1484) of Llandaf, inherited the land by marriage to Catherine, heiress of Radyr, and built Radyr Court, a manor house on the site of what is now the Radyr Court Inn in Danescourt. The house was used as a court. Although it was destroyed by a fire in the 19th century, the three large dungeons survived and can still be seen at the Inn. On Thomas' death, his lands passed to his eldest son David and then to his younger son William Mathew (died 1528), who was knighted by King Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Sir William accompanied Henry VIII to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. His successor was his eldest son Sir George Mathew, who became MP for Glamorganshire and in 1545 Sheriff of Glamorgan.

Sir George created a deer park that ranged far north of Radyr. Tenant farmers there were evicted, and the loss of rental income contributed to the decline in the family's fortunes. He had 24 children, eight of whom were illegitimate. Many were daughters, and Sir George needed large sums of money for their dowries. On his death Sir George's lands passed to his eldest son William, who also became an MP and invested in the Pentyrch ironworks. This was an astute move as feudalism was giving way to early industrialisation. William's descendants inherited a diminishing fortune. Captain George Mathew, the last of the family to live in Radyr, married Elizabeth Poyntz, and the couple left Radyr to live on her estates at Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1625.

Radyr's new owner was a wealthy landowner, Sir Edward Lewis, who was knighted by James I. Sir Edward owned St Fagans Castle and its surrounding lands, scene of the Battle of St Fagans in the English Civil War. The Lewis fortune passed to Elizabeth Lewis, who married Other Windsor, 3rd Earl of Plymouth, the principal landowner in Cardiff, Penarth and Barry.

A survey in 1766 shows that the Plymouth family owned the freeholds of most of Radyr. It continues to do so today. Plymouth Estates sold 22 acres (9 ha) of residential land in Radyr in 2007.

Many residents of Radyr worked in the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works, on the other side of the River Taff in Whitchurch. The works opened in 1749 and closed in 1957.

Samuel Lewis' 1849 Topographical Dictionary of Wales says of Radyr:

"A parish, in the poorlaw union of Cardiff, hundred of Kibbor, county of Glamorgan, in South Wales, 3½ miles (N. W. by W.) from Cardiff; containing 279 inhabitants. This parish probably derives its name, signifying "a cataract," from the rushing waters of the river Tâf, by which it is bounded on the north-east. It was formerly comprehended within the hundred of Miskin, but has been recently separated therefrom. It comprises about eleven hundred acres of arable and pasture land, inclosed and in a profitable state of cultivation: the surface is in some parts elevated, and in others flat, but nowhere subject to inundation; the soil is a strong brown earth, favourable to the production of good crops of grain of all kinds, potatoes, and hay. The substratum is partly a hard brown stone, and partly limestone of very good quality. Radyr Court, formerly the seat of the family of Matthew, ancestors of the late Lord Llandaf, has been partially taken down, and the remainder has been modernised, and converted into a farmhouse. The turnpike-road leading from Cardiff to Llantrissent passes a little to the south of the parish; and the Tâf-Vale railway runs through it, nearly parallel with the river, which is crossed by the line in this vicinity. Some of the inhabitants are employed at the iron-works in the parish of Pentyrch.