In the days of the coach road, the way west from Cardiff climbed out past Ely towards St Nicholas and Cowbridge. One of the landmarks on it was an inn called the Dusty Forge.
According to the story Marie Trevelyan heard, the name came from the smithy that stood there before the inn. The devil rode up one night and asked the smith to shoe his horse. The smith set to work, but before he could finish, the cocks began to crow. The devil fled in a rage, and one shoe was left half made on the anvil. Trevelyan notes that the same story was told of another old forge elsewhere in Wales, so it is a wandering tale that attached itself to a handy name.
The second memory she prints is more personal. One of her informants described riding with their parents to various places in Glamorgan as a small child and being shown the corners where the Evil One was said to stand with his arms akimbo, waiting to pounce on anyone who dawdled. One of them was a nook near the Dusty Forge on the Cardiff road. Every time they passed, the child closed their eyes and kept their head down until the horses had got over the great hill beyond.
The building still carries the name on Cowbridge Road West. There is no record of anyone claiming to have met the devil there. What survives is a place name and the fear it could put into a child on a dark road.
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