Colwinston (historically sometimes Colwinstone; ) is both a village and a community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately southeast of the centre of Bridgend and west of the centre of Cardiff. The village is located within of the A48. The population in 2005 was approximately 400 but with recent building development, the population is now estimated at over 600 people. The novelist Agatha Christie was a frequent visitor, and her descendants still live at the former manor house of Pwllywrach. History Archaeological and early historical evidence Bronze Age axe heads discovered on land at Highfield Farm and Iron Age kilns suggest that the area was settled during prehistoric times. The impetus for the development of an agrarian village may have been the local geography: a gentle valley going east to west towards the village, providing a water supply and creating a natural bowl, with a present-day exit leading down Church Lane. Steep slopes in the central part of the village make it unlike other Vale of Glamorgan villages in its topography. The watercourse is now underground but rises to the surface in prolonged wet weather. The older village houses are situated on the higher ground overlooking meadows, possibly built on the sites of older simple dwellings. It is thought the area between Garden and Penlan Cottages and Church Cottage provided protection and water for livestock. Title Deeds and old census records call this area "The Square". A village well is present near Ty Draw Farm, and it is likely that watercress was harvested from the open water course there. There is evidence of Roman activity in the Vale of Glamorgan, and their link to West Wales was along what would become the route of the A48. Llantwit Major Roman Villa, for example, is thought to have been built on a site occupied since the British Iron Age. (There was another excavation in 1971.) Following the end of Roman rule in Britain, the area was ruled by the medieval "princes" of Morgannwg; their kingdom included the area later known as Glamorgan. During this period the settlement came to be called "Colwinstūn", possibly from an old English name "Colwine" linked with "tūn", meaning farm or settlement. Norman rule and new land ownership Caradog ap Gruffudd and Iestyn ap Gwrgant from the north and west usurped the princes in about 1070, and Robert Fitzhamon led the Norman invasion of the area from