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Llanrhidian, or Llanridian (Llan-Rhidian) - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
LLANRHIDIAN, or LLANRIDIAN (LLAN-RHIDIAN), a parish, in the union and hundred of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 11 miles (W. by N.) from Swansea; comprising a Higher and a Lower division, and containing 1760 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated in the peninsula of Gower, contains coal and iron-ore, but of these minerals no strata are at present worked within the limits. The village is pleasantly situated on the south shore of Burry River, immediately opposite to the town of Llanelly in the county of Carmarthen. The manufacture of woollen cloth is carried on, but only upon a very confined scale, employing no more than from six to eight persons. At the village of Penclawdd, in the Higher and more populous division of the parish, were formerly extensive copper-works belonging to the Cheadle Copper Company; but they are now neglected, that company possessing others in more convenient situations. A canal, called the Penclawdd canal, in connexion with which are some short tramroads, opens a communication with the coal districts of Swansea, Loughor, and Llangyvelach, and joins Burry River at Aberkeddy, in this parish. A fair is held on Palm-Monday.
The living is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at �12. 13. 4., endowed with �400 royal bounty and �1600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Trustees of G. Morgan, Esq.; present net income, �99. The church is dedicated to St. Illtyd. In the Higher division is a chapel of ease, where divine service is performed every Sunday by a curate, who also solemnizes marriages, christenings, and burials at the chapel, which is four miles distant from the parochial church. There are places of worship in the parish for Calvinistic Methodists, Independents, and Baptists; two Church day schools; and ten Sunday schools, one of which is in connexion with the Church.
Within a quarter of a mile of the estuary of Burry River, and near the western extremity of the parish, are the ruins of Weobley or Webley Castle, occupying an eminence commanding the navigable estuary, and affording an extensive view of the adjacent country. It appears to have been anciently of great strength and extent, to have been the head of a considerable manor, and, it is supposed, the property of the De la Beres: it afterwards came into the hands of Lord Mansel, whose youngest daughter conveyed it to the Talbots. Next to Oystermouth Castle, this is the most interesting Norman structure in Gower. Part of it has been converted into a farmhouse. On Manselfold farm is a strong intrenchment in a very perfect state, which appears to have been formed to defend the passage of two valleys leading up to the castle. Several other intrenchments are visible in the parish, but by whom they were constructed is not known: one of these occupies the summit of a lofty hill just above the village, and is supposed to have been thrown up by Ivor ab Cadivor, a chieftain of Morganwg, about 1110, during his wars with the English, from which circumstance it has obtained the name of C�l Ivor, or "Ivor's retreat."
On the summit of Cevn-y-Bryn is a large cromlech, called Arthur's Stone, a vestige of Druidical antiquity, which Camden and other writers describe as being composed of a different species of stone from any found in the district. This, however, appears to be erroneous, as it is the common pudding-stone, or millstone grit, of the country; and almost within the recollection of persons still living, a huge fragment, which had been broken off with great labour, by means of wedges, and intended for a millstone, was found totally unfit for that purpose, from the cavities left in the surface by the falling out of the pebbles of which it consisted. The principal, or covering stone, is fourteen feet in length and six feet and a half in its greatest breadth: it rests on several supporters, for fixing which the earth appears to have been excavated; and by the side of the cromlech lies the mass above-noticed. According to some accounts, the detached mass was only partly broken off by wedges, and subsequently fell into the place where it now lies in consequence of a severe frost and rapid thaw. A supposed miraculous well beneath the cromlech, which was said to ebb and flow with the sea, appears to be nothing more than a collection of water, after heavy rains, in the cavity formed for the insertion of the supporters, which fluctuates according to the weather, and which, as attested by intelligent persons residing near the mountain, is frequently dry in hot summers. This cromlech is thought to be alluded to in the historical triads of Wales, as one of the three herculean labours.
There are several mineral springs in or near the parish, to which medicinal properties are ascribed. Of these, the most celebrated is Holy Well, on Cevny-Bryn mountain, to which, in former times, miraculous efficacy was attributed: it was generally frequented on Sunday evenings during the summer season, by numbers of persons, who drank the water, and, according to an ancient custom, threw in a pin as a tribute of their gratitude. On Llanrhidian saltmarsh a spring has been discovered within the last thirty years, strongly impregnated with iron, and perhaps also with sulphur, and of a fetid smell, to which the inhabitants have given the name of the Stinking Well; it instantly discolours silver, and is considered to possess very powerful medicinal efficacy.
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