Cardiff has a rich and varied heritage, here are some of the many facts that make up Cardiff’s history, from Pirates, Romans, Daleks to Radio and Film firsts and Big Friendly Giants!
- The Romans settled in Cardiff in 55AD and built a military fort where Cardiff Castle stands now.
- Cardiff is one of the flattest cities in Britain.
- Cardiff is a city of parks and has more green space per person than any other UK core city.
- The world’s first £1million deal was signed in Cardiff’s Coal Exchange in 1907.
- Cardiff is home to the world’s oldest record store – Spillers, which opened in 1894.
- Over 100 years ago, Captain Scott left Cardiff for ill-fated journey to the South Pole.
- Children’s writer Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff, Cardiff. His chief claim to fame in school was slipping a dead mouse into a jar of sweets in a Cardiff shop owned by an unpleasant shop keeper.
- Llandaff Cathedral stands on one of the oldest Christian sites in Britain and dates back to 1107.
- The creator of the Daleks (no, not Davros), Terry Nation was born in Cardiff.
- Cardiff Castle was used as an air raid shelter during World War II.
- One of the most infamous pirates, Henry Morgan, was born in Llanrumney in Cardiff in 1635.
- The first ever British news film was filmed in Cardiff in 1896 when the Prince & Princess of Wales opened an extension to the Central Library. This was also the first ever motion picture of the prince.
- Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted the world’s first radio signals across water between Flat Holm and Lavernock near Cardiff in 1897.
