CEN Benches

Anyone walking in certain areas of South Wales – the counties of Caerphilly and Newport in particular – is likely to have sat down on a solid, backless, wooden bench. The bench would likely have been located to give you a place to rest with a wonderful view, and, if you took the time to look at the bench you would see the letters CEN made with what looks like metal drawing pins and a number.

I didn’t give much thought to these benches over the years, but as I found more of them I became interested in who put them there, and, as they were numbered, how many there were and their locations. Google could not tell me anything about them but a chance encounter with a Newbridge resident led me to understand that a man in Newbridge named Cenydd was responsible for placing the benches around the region – with CEN being the first three letters of his name.

I am hoping to find out more, and whether a map exists of the locations of all the benches. In the meantime I will add locations below of the benches I discover on my continued exploration of South Wales. You can also view them on my custom Google Map, linked below, which includes lots of photos of each location.

View bench locations on Google Maps.