Llangan (Llan-Ganna) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849) LLANGAN (LLAN-GANNA), a parish, in the union of Bridgend and Cowbridge, hundred of Ogmore, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 3� miles (N. W. by W.) from Cowbridge; containing 238 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises 1175 acres, is separated on the north by the river Ewenny from the parish of Coychurch, and on the north-east by a rivulet, called the Canna, from that of St. Mary Hill. Its surface is rather flat, and its northern boundary is subject to inundation; the soil is fertile, and in some parts argillaceous, and intermingled with fragments of the limestone which forms the substratum. The entire parish, with the exception of fifty-six acres, consists of rich arable and pasture land. The limestone is worked to a considerable extent, as also was formerly the lead-ore found imbedded in it; but the latter is now neglected. The valuable mine of Tewgoed, now exhausted, was on an east and west vein, called, from the colour of its contents, "the red vein," which was joined obliquely from the north-west by three others, called "blue veins:" at the junction of each of the latter with the former was a body of rich steel-grained ore, but that of the blue veins was galena, or laminar potters'-ore. The court leet of the manor is held by the Earl of Dunraven and Capt. Sir George Tyler, R. N., alternately.
The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at �12. 16. 0�., and in the alternate patronage of the Earl of Dunraven and Sir George Tyler; present net income, �244: the glebe contains about sixty acres of good land, with a glebehouse; and the tithes have been commuted for a rentcharge of �152. 10. The church, a small neat edifice, is dedicated to St. Canna, the mother of St. Crallo; the latter founded Coychurch, and was nephew of St. Illtyd, the founder of Lantwit-Major. In the churchyard is the stone head of a cross, sculptured like the crosses at Coychurch and Lantwit, and which, although it bears no legible inscription, is considered, from the inscriptions upon the latter, to have been erected by Samson, pupil and successor of St. Iltutus in the college of Lantwit, to the honour of his patron and master. In front of the church is a fine cross, in the early style of English architecture, with an elegant shaft rising from a pedestal which is ascended by four steps, and ornamented in the capital with well-sculptured representations of the Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, of our Saviour: this cross escaped the destruction to which, during the usurpation of Cromwell, these relics of our ancestors were commonly devoted, as monuments of superstition. There is a place of worship for Independents, with a Sunday school held in it, at Treos, a village situated in the western end of the parish.
A sum of �3. 15. is distributed at Whitsuntide among such poor as receive no parochial relief, being the produce of the following charities; namely, a bequest of �10 by Florence Rees, in 1781, and two others of �15 and �5 by Margaret Davids and an unknown donor, respectively, which sums were expended in repairs of the church, the interest however continuing to be paid from the parish rates; the moiety of the rent of a cottage and two pasture fields, in St. Mary Hill parish, yielding �4 per annum, bequeathed by Edward Thomas, in 1778; and lastly, the interest of �10, bequeathed by Lewis Thomas, in 1797. It appears also that Mrs. Mary Powell gave �100, the proceeds of which are applied to the same purpose.
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