Llangelynnin, Gwynedd

Llangelynin (Llan-Gelynin) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
LLANGELYNIN (LLAN-GELYNIN), a parish in two divisions, Higher and Lower, in the union of Dôlgelley, hundred of Tàlybont, county of Merioneth, North Wales, 6 miles (S. W.) from Dôlgelley; containing 1033 inhabitants. This parish, which stretches along the coast of Cardigan bay, was the residence of Ednowain ab Bradwen, one of the fifteen tribes of North Wales, in the time of Edward I.: vestiges of his house, termed Caer Bradwen, and Llŷs Bradwen, are still to be seen in the township of Cregennan; and near them are the remains of a Druidical circle. In the reign of Henry IV., Ednyved ab Aaron, grandson of Ednowain, entertained Owain Glyndwr after his defeat by that monarch, and secreted him in a cave near the church of this parish, which was from that circumstance named Ogov Owain, or "Owain's cave:" it is now almost choked up with sand. At a place called Castell, now a farmhouse, near Rhôs-Levain, an important battle is said to have been fought at some remote period, but no particulars are recorded of it.

This parish, the length of which is about eleven miles and the average breadth one mile, is bounded on the north by the parish of Llanaber, on the south by that of Llanegrin, on the east by that of Dôlgelley, and on the west by that of Towyn, from which it is separated by the river Dysynni. It comprises by admeasurement 8559 acres, of which, by computation, 2009 are arable, 2239 meadow and pasture, 99 woodland, and the remainder mountain sheep-walks. The lands in some parts are flat, in others considerably elevated; and command views of bold and romantic scenery, the beauty of which is much increased by oak, ash, larch, and fir plantations: the soil is in general a red earth, but comprehends some turbaries, whence the inhabitants obtain peat and turf. The parish contains the mansions of Arthog, Ynysvaig, Glanywern, Cevncamberth, and Hendre, all of which are modern except the last; and four villages, named Llwyngwril, Vriog, Tanyr-Allt, and Pwll Arthog: there are four corn-mills. The sea has made great encroachments on the shore of this neighbourhood, from which a remarkable sand-bank studded with rocks, called Sarn-y-Bwch, stretches into the great bay of Cardigan, at the mouth of the river Dysynni.

The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £15. 10. 2½., and in the gift of the Parry family: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £400. The church is dedicated to St. Celynin. The proprietary chapel of Arthog, in the parish, situated on the road from Llwyngwril to Dôlgelley, contains 140 sittings, of which 80 are free. There are places of worship for Independents, Baptists, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists; also a burialground for the Society of Friends. The Rev. Mr. Morgan, in 1739, bequeathed a tenement called Tŷcroes, and Miss Elizabeth Thomas, another, in 1803, called Pîg-yr-Allt, in trust: the rents, amounting to £18 a year, are paid to the master of a Church school, situated at Llwyngwril. Another Church school is held at Arthog; and the parish contains four Sunday schools, connected with the four meeting-houses above mentioned, in which they are held. On a farm called Llanvendigaid are the ruins of a chapel of ease. Near the village of Llwyngwril are vestiges of a British encampment; and on the hill above it, called Gwastad Merioneth, is a small plain, on which are numerous Druidical remains: from this plain a very extensive prospect is obtained of the surrounding country. In a turbary at Ty'n Coed, opposite to Barmouth, a copper urn, nineteen inches deep, and fourteen inches and a half in diameter at the top, and eleven and a half at the bottom, was found in 1826. At the farm Tyddyn Bâch lived Mary Thomas, an invalid, who subsisted for several years without any solid food, and almost entirely without nourishment; and in this parish was born the noted astrologer named Arise Evans, an impostor of considerable fame among the class which so much prevailed during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I.