Bedwas

Morphology: originally “bedwos”
Phonetic: bed-wass

Often mistakenly attributed to a corruption of "bedd y gwas" or servant’s grave, the name actually comes from the word "bedw" which means birch trees. "Bedwos" is an old word that means "grove of birch trees". Many historic spellings have the ending -was or -wes rather than the original -wos. The place name goes back over 900 years with variations such as Bedewas c. 1100, Bedeways 1263, Bedves 1476, Bedwesse 1535, Bedwes 1536-9 and Bedwast c.1700. The current form of Bedwas appears from at least the 18th century, for example on a map of Glamorganshire in 1796.