Llansanffraid Cwmteuddwr Radnorshire Family History Guide
Llansanffraid Cwmteuddwr is a parish in the county of Radnorshire, South Wales.
Alternative names: Cwm-Toyddwr, Cwmtoyddwr, Cwm-Dauddwr, Llamsantfraid-Cwm-Toyddwr
Parish church: St. Bridget
Parish registers begin: 1737 (for mar 1875-1971 see Nantgwyllt)
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Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
CWM-TOYDDWR, a parish in Rhayader district, Radnor; on the rivers Elan and Wye, on the line of the Mid Wales railway, at the boundary with Brecon, 2 miles S of Rhayader railway station, and 14 miles S of Llanidloes.
It contains the townships of Dyffryn-Gwy and Dyffryn-Elan; and its post town is Rhayader. Acres, 32, 000. Real property, £3, 266. Pop., 798. Houses, 150. Much of the surface is hilly and mountainous. The rocks include slates and lead ore. Cwm-Elan is the seat of L. Otway, Esq.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Davids. Value, £95. Patron, the Bishop of St. Davids. A new church was built in 1866. A school has £50 from endowment; and other charities £18.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1849
CWMTOYDDWR (CWM-DAUDDWR), otherwise LLANSANTFRAID-CWM-TOYDDWR, a parish, in the union and hundred of Rhaiadr, county of Radnor, South Wales, ¼ of a mile (W. S. W.) from Rhaiadr; comprising two townships, and containing 883 inhabitants.
The name of this place, signifying “the dingle of the two rivers,” is derived from its situation near the confluence of the rivers Wye and Elain, which unite towards the southern extremity of the parish. From this circumstance some etymologists have supposed the name to have been originally Cymmwer Dau Ddwr, signifying “the junction of two rivers,” from which they derive its present appellation; but the ancient name more probably was Cwmmwd-dauddwr, “the commote or district of the two rivers,” it being so named in old MSS.
The parish is situated on the western side of the river Wye, by which it is separated from the town of Rhaiadr; it is nearly ten miles in length, and in the central part nearly five miles in breadth, the total area being 32,000 acres. Of this extensive tract, a very inconsiderable portion only is under cultivation; the remainder, being chiefly mountainous, affords excellent pasturage to numerous flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, which are reared for the English markets.
The scenery in some parts is extremely wild, in others highly picturesque; the higher grounds afford pleasingly varied and interesting prospects, and some of the loftiest hills command a view extending to the Brecknockshire Beacons, and the mountains of Plinlimmon and Cader Idris. In the romantic vale of the Elain are the Cwm-Elain lead-mines, discovered in 1796, which have been for some time discontinued; and in other parts of the parish are quarries of tolerably good slate.
The veins of the lead-mine run from north-east to south-west; their sides are but imperfectly indurated, and the ore is of the species called galena, contained (with blende, or sulphate of zinc, quartz, &c.) in a mixed matrix of quartz and grey mountain rock.
Towards the end of the last century, an estate of about 10,000 acres at Cwm-Elain was purchased by Mr. Groves, a gentleman from Wiltshire, who built a mansion there, and planted extensively; it afterwards passed into other hands, and latterly belonged to the Duke of Newcastle, who sold it in 1843.
Cwm-Elain is perhaps the finest part of Radnorshire, and not far distant from the house of that name is the well-built mansion of Nant Gwyllt, also surrounded by romantic scenery.
The high road from Rhaiadr to Aberystwith, passing through the parish, gives a facility of intercourse with the neighbouring places.
The living is a discharged vicarage, endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £400 parliamentary grant; patron, the Bishop of St. David’s. The tithes have been commuted for three rent-charges, the Bishop and the vicar receiving £124. 3. 4. each, and an impropriator £62. 13. 4.
The church, dedicated to St. Bridget, and rebuilt in 1778, is a neat and well-constructed edifice of stone, well pewed and ceiled, and having a good gallery. At Nant Gwyllt, about four miles from the mother church, is a small chapel of ease.
The Rev. Charles Price, Vicar of Llanarth, in the county of Cardigan, in 1719 bequeathed, in trust to his heir-at-law, to the vicar of this parish, and the vicar of Nantmel, a house and lands here, called Llawr-y-llan, consisting of twenty-four acres and now paying a rent of £50, directing the produce to be appropriated to the instruction of poor children, and for the preaching of five divinity lecture sermons, in the parish church of Cwmtoyddwr, on the first Sunday in May, and in the four following months.
A school is kept, the master of which receives nearly all the rental above-mentioned; and three Sunday schools are also held, one of them in connexion with the Church, and the others with the Independents.
A house called Troed Rhiw, with thirteen acres of land attached to it, was bequeathed more than a century and a half since, by John Davies, for the reception of blind, maimed, and infirm poor of the parish: the land now produces £13 per annum, which income, increased by an annual sum of £4, the interest of a sum of money produced by a sale of timber on the estate, is divided among persons selected by the parochial officers. Jeremiah Powell, in 1696, charged a farm in the parish with the annual payment of £2 to the poor.
There are some remains of a military post within the parish, on the bank of the Wye, nearly opposite to the site of Rhaiadr Castle, with which it is said to have had a communication by a subterraneous passage under the bed of the river: part of this intrenchment was demolished in 1830, but an artificial mound is yet remaining near the lines, which, at some remote period, was probably occupied by the keep of a castle.
Vestiges of two ancient chapels are still visible, called respectively Capel Madoc and Aber Hênllan: they are supposed to be of earlier foundation than the original parish church, and, from their being respectively situated in the two hamlets into which the parish is divided, to have been, previously to the erection of the church, the only places of worship in the parish.
The name of a neighbouring farm, called Coed-y-Mynach, or “the monks’ wood,” has led to an opinion that there was anciently a monastery at this place; but no satisfactory account of any establishment of that kind can now be obtained; and it is more probable that the farm was an appendage to the abbey of Strata-Florida, in the adjacent county of Cardigan, to which a road may still be traced over the mountains. A mineral spring, the water of which is strongly impregnated with sulphur, has been discovered at Hîrnant, in the parish.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis 1849
Parish Records
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Powys Archives
Powys archives hold the following records:
(for mar 1875-1971 see Nantgwyllt)
Microfilm 185
- bap 1737-1811, bur 1737-1811, mar 1737-1754
- bap 1813-1858
- bap 1858-1897
- bur 1813-1852
- bur 1852-1936
- mar 1754-1812
- mar 1813-1837
- mar 1972-1978
Digital – shuttle 7:
9. bap 1897 – 1907 [part]
10. mar 1837 – 1921 [part]
13. banns 1897 – 1922 [part]
Findmypast: Vols 1- 7, 9-10, 13