Llangadwaladr (), formerly spelt Llancadwaladr in some sources, is an isolated mountain parish in

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. It was formerly in the historic county of

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, and from 1974 to 1996 was in Clwyd. Some 7 miles west of the nearest town, Oswestry, it covers an area of sparsely settled

hill farming Hill farming or terrace farming is an extensive farming in upland areas, primarily rearing sheep, although historically cattle were often reared extensively in upland areas. Fell farming is the farming of fells, a fell being an area of unculti ...

country around the valley of the Afon Ysgwennant beneath Gyrn Moelfre.

History

The parish was originally a chapelry of

Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant () is a village, community and an ecclesiastical parish in the extreme north of Powys, Wales; about 9 miles west of Oswestry and 12 miles south of Llangollen, on the B4580. It lies near the foothills of the Berwyn mountains ...

, but was later formed into a separate parish, consisting of the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

of Tre'r Llan, where the parish church was located, and those of Tregeiriog (the only village, in the neighbouring valley) and Nantyr, both of which were entirely detached from Tre'r Llan and surrounded by other parishes.Llangadwaladr

GENUKI GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

Samuel Lewis's 1849 ''Topographical Dictionary of Wales'' described the parish as having 234 inhabitants and covering 2900 acres in total. In the late 1980s, Tregeiriog and its surrounding areas were transferred to the parish of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog.St Cadwaladr's church
, Llanfyllin Deanery There was a corresponding

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

of Llangadwaladr, but following 1974 boundary and administrative changes, some of the area is now part of the civil

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

Llansilin Llansilin () is a village and local government community in Montgomeryshire, Powys, Wales, west of Oswestry. The community, which includes Llansilin village, a large rural area and the hamlets of Moelfre and Rhiwlas as well as the remote parish ...

; the remaining parts of the civil parish are now in Ceiriog Ucha in

Wrexham county borough Wrexham County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam) is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders England to the east and south-east, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the ...

. Before the rural depopulation of the late 19th century, the area was almost exclusively Welsh-speaking. The 1891 census recorded that 99.5% of the inhabitants of Llangadwaladr parish spoke Welsh, and that 88% knew no English whatsoever.Davies, J. 'Welsh', in Price, G. (ed.) ''Languages in Britain and Ireland'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2000, p.90 A correspondent in ''By-gones, relating to Wales and the Border Counties'', stated that an elderly local had told him about a form of "mob" or "folk" football formerly played between the parishes of Llangadwaladr and Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, where the opposing teams would "contend from morning even until night, and sometimes ..fresh help would be fetched up in the evening".''Bye-gones, relating to Wales and the Border Counties'', Oswestry: 1899, 175

St Cadwaladr's church

The Church in Wales parish church is dedicated to Cadwaladr Fendigaid and was mentioned as "Bettws Kadwaladr" as early as 1291. It is sheltered by yew trees, some of which are 1000 years old. Some of its current fabric dates from the 15th century, with major alterations made in 1883 by W. H. Spaull of Oswestry: a re-set mediaeval window survives in the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

.Church of St Cadwaladr, Llangadwaladr
Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust Lewis noted that St Cadwaladr's church possessed a "very elegant set of communion plate" presented by Sir John Trevor of

Brynkinallt Brynkinalt Hall ( cy, Neuadd Bryncunallt; or simply Brynkinalt (); also spelled as Brynkinallt or Bryn-kinallt) is a Grade-II* listed private property, built in 1612, near Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The hall is surrounded by an esta ...

Robert Williams

The Rev. Robert Williams (1810–1881), author of the ''Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum'', the first Cornish-English dictionary, was the vicar of Llangadwaladr from 1837 to 1879 and

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

of Rhydycroesau from 1838 to 1879. A native of Conwy, where his father was Vicar, he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating MA, and was appointed a Cursal Canon of St Asaph Cathedral in 1872. In 1879 he became Rector of Culmington, near Ludlow, in Herefordshire, where he died and was buried in the churchyard in 1881. His gravestone is the only one there made of slate; it has a Welsh and Cornish inscription and was provided by public subscription in 1899.Thomas 1900, p. 441.''Bye-gones'' 5 July 1899, p. 155.

References

{{authority control Historic Montgomeryshire Parishes Former subdivisions of Wales Villages in Powys