Cellan - Cheriton

Cellan

CELLAN, a parish, in the union of Lampeter, Upper division of the hundred of Moythen, county of Cardigan, South Wales 3 miles (E. N. E.) from Lampeter; containing 475 inhabitants. This parish is situated in a mountainous district, on the banks of the river Teivy. The living is a discharged rectory, rated in the king's books at £5. 7. 8½., and endowed with £200 royal bounty; present net income, £83, with a glebe-house; patron, the Bishop of St. David's. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient edifice, consisting of a nave and chancel; it contains two piscinæ, and the font is supported on a square pillar, on which is carved the face of a male saint. There are places of worship for Independents and Presbyterians, with a Sunday school held in the former building. The Rev. Moses Williams, F.R.S., who distinguished himself as a Welsh scholar and antiquary, by the share he took in the publication of Dr. Wotton's edition of the Laws of Hywel Dda, was a native of this place. He also compiled a catalogue of the books in the Bodleian library at Oxford, and wrote his own biography, which is now deposited in manuscript in that library. At his death, he bequeathed his books and manuscripts, which were of considerable value, to the Earl of Macclesfield.

The parish is remarkable for the number of intrenchments, cist-vaens, carneddau, and monumental stones comprised within its limits. The Roman road leading from Loventium, now Llanio, to the station at Llanvair-ar-y-Bryn, in Carmarthenshire, has been traced through it, from the banks of the Teivy to the mountains which form the line of boundary between that county and Cardiganshire. On a circular tumulus surrounded by a moat, is a stone, thirty-three feet in diameter, called Llêch Cynon, the burial-place of a person of that name, from whom a stream in the vicinity was called Frwd Cynon. On the mountain north of this river, are two cist-vaens, called beddau, signifying "graves," and two others on the mountain to the south, one of which is styled Bedd y Vorwyn, or the "Virgin's Grave;" they are all oblong, and consist each of four stones, placed in the centre of a small barrow, or sepulchre of earth and stones. Of the carneddau, the most conspicuous are two very large ones on a lofty mountain near the road leading from Llanvair to Llanycrwys; there is also one called Tair Carnau, all of them consisting of heaps of large stones, and supposed to be the graves of warriors. On the confines of the parish is another stone, termed Carreg tair croes, not sepulchral, but a boundary mark. There are also two very large stones on the mountain to the south of the river Frwd, which are supposed to have been placed there in commemoration of some great victory: one, called Byn, fifteen feet in length, and four in width and thickness, now lies prostrate on the ground; but the other, called Hirvaen Gwyddog, sixteen feet in height, is still standing. On another tumulus, surrounded by a moat, lies a very large stone, sixteen feet in length, termed Maen-y-Prenvol, or Maen Prenvol Gwallt Gwyn; and near it, on the same tumulus, stands another, about eight feet high. There are also three intrenchments in the parish; one on the top of a hill beneath which flows the river Frwd, called Gaer Morrice; another on the farm of Glanfrwd, which is exactly oval; and the third, which is circular and of a large size, between that farm and the parish of Pencarreg.

Cellywyon (Celliwion)

CELLYWYON (CELLIWION), a hamlet, in the parish of Llantrissent, union of Cardiff, hundred of Miskin, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, adjoining the town-hamlet of Llantrissent: the population is returned with the parish. Coal is procured here.

Cemmes (Cemmaes)

CEMMES (CEMMAES), a township, in the parish of Llanbadrig, hundred of Tàl-y-Bolion, union and county of Anglesey, North Wales, 5 miles (W. by N.) from Amlwch; containing 909 inhabitants. The parochial church, which stands on a cliff near the sea, is situated in this township. Cemmes creek forms a natural harbour, which has been greatly improved by the erection of a breakwater at an expense of £500 or £600, affording protection to a considerable number of small craft. Here also is a large village with a good inn and several respectable shops; the place is become much noted for ship-building, and a little increased expenditure would render it one of the safest harbours in North Wales. At present it affords facility for the exportation of the serpentine, or Mona marble, called by statuaries "verd antique," which is quarried in the adjacent parish of Llanvechell; and for landing coal and other commodities of general consumption. The township formerly maintained its own poor; but it is now united for that purpose with the township of Clygyrog, these two constituting the parish.

Cemmes (Cemmaes)

CEMMES (CEMMAES), a parish, in the union and hundred of Machynlleth, county of Montgomery, North Wales, 7 miles (N. E. by E.) from Machynlleth; containing 935 inhabitants, and comprising 9247 acres. The name of this place signifies a circle, or amphitheatre for games. The village is pleasantly situated on the southern bank of the river Dovey, and on the road from Welshpool to Machynlleth and Aberystwith, which, from a short distance north of it, runs parallel with the river for the remainder of its course. From Moel Eiddan is a fine view of the Vale of Cemmes and Mallwyd, bounded by the extended bases and lofty summits of Cader Idris, Aran Mowddy, Plinlimmon, and other hills. About one-third of the parish consists of sheepwalks belonging to the adjoining landowners: peat for fuel is obtained within its limits. Fairs are held on May 1st, September 9th, and November 24th. The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £7; patron, the Bishop of St. Asaph: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £340; and there is a glebe of four acres, with a glebe-house. The church, dedicated to St. Tydecho, is in the early style of English architecture; the gallery is adorned with fine carvings of flowers, &c., in wood: in the churchyard are four large yew-trees. There are places of worship for Calvinistic Methodists, Independents, and Wesleyans. A Church school was resumed in 1847, and a British school established in the same year: five Sunday schools are also held, one of them in connexion with the Established Church. A small plot of ground was bequeathed to the poor of this parish and that of Dârowen, by Derwas Griffith, in 1669: the income is £7 per annum, a moiety of which is distributed in small sums at Christmas, as are in like manner the proceeds of a benefaction of £20 by Grace Pryse, in 1784. Upon the summit of Moel Eiddan are the remains of a Roman encampment: and in a turbary near it, a brazen celt, and a circular ornamented brooch of brass, about three inches in diameter, were found, in 1824.

Cenol (Canol)

CENOL (CANOL), a parcel, in the parish of Llanvihangel-Cwm-Dû, union and hundred of Crickhowel, county of Brecknock, in South Wales, 5 miles (N.) from Crickhowel; containing 246 inhabitants. It forms the middle portion of the parish, as the name signifies, and is intersected by the small river Rhiangol, which is here crossed by a bridge: an ancient Roman road formerly passed through it. There are a few agreeable residences scattered in different parts of this pleasing little vale. A portion of the tithes belong to the Vicar of St. John the Evangelist's, in Brecknock, having been granted to the prior and monks by Pycard, a Norman knight.

Cerrigceinwen (Ceryg-Ceinwen)

CERRIGCEINWEN (CERYG-CEINWEN), a parish, in the hundred of Malltraeth, union and county of Anglesey, North Wales, 3 miles (S. W. by W.) from Llangevni; containing 550 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road leading from Bangor to Holyhead, and is bounded on the north-east by Llangevni, on the south-east by Llangrystyolys, on the south-west by Trêvdraeth and Aberfraw, and on the north-west by Hêneglwys. It comprises by admeasurement 1296 acres, of which 36 are waste, and the remainder chiefly arable. The soil is rather wet and clayey, but produces oats and barley in abundance; and at the south-western extremity of the parish is some fine pasture land: the scenery is uninteresting, except in the immediate vicinity of the church, where is a group of porphyritic rocks of a singularly wild and romantic appearance, which are the out-crop of a vein of coarse porphyry. A vein of iron-ore has been worked, but without success. In the parish is the house of Bodswyn, which was built by Mr. Hughes, about eighty or ninety years ago, and is now occupied by a farmer: the feoffees of Beaumaris free school are the chief landowners, and Lord Dinorben is lord of the manor. Mona Inn, the half-way hotel between Bangor and Holyhead, is situated in the parish.

The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to that of Llangrystyolys: the rectorial tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £129. 3., and the rectorial glebe consists of three acres, valued at £5 per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Ceinwen, is supposed to have been founded originally about the year 450, but it is uncertain at what time the present edifice was built. It is a small low structure, of plain appearance, measuring forty-six feet long by twenty feet wide externally, with a single bell-gable at the western end, on the wall beneath which are some characters faintly visible but not legible. A small decorated-English doorway, under a modern porch, leads into the church on the southern side; and over this doorway is a crossed tombstone, of early date, used as a lintel. The eastern window, though small, is one of the purest models, as to proportions and workmanship, extant in this part of Wales. In the church is a monument to Morris Lloyd, of Plâsbâch, in the parish, who was buried on the 3rd of October, 1647: tradition represents him as a gallant royalist, who defended his house against a party of thirty parliamentary soldiers, eight of whom he killed, before he surrendered his own life. In the churchyard, on the southern side, is a holy well, formed naturally in the rock, and once much resorted to as a spring that could cure many diseases.

The Rev. Dr. Lewis, a native of this parish, and rector of Allhallows, London Wall, in 1681, bequeathed £3000, with which an estate was purchased in the parish of Llanelhaiarn, in the county of Carnarvon. This estate now produces about £200 per annum; but with accumulations in the three per cent. consols, the whole income amounts to about £260, for several benevolent purposes. Among these he directed that £25 per annum should be paid for a sermon every Sunday in each of the churches of Llangrystyolys and Cerrigceinwen; £5 to the poor of the two parishes, being 50s. to each; £10 for teaching two boys of the latter parish; £10 to each of eight exhibitions, in preference from the county of Anglesey, for four years at the Universities, but at present limited to Jesus' College, Oxford; £5 for the same number of years to each of four widows of clergymen; and £15 for the benefit of Beaumaris school; nearly all of which charities are now in full operation, under the sanction and superintendence of respectable trustees. By an inclosure act, passed in 1812, for this parish, and those of Llangevni, Llanddyvnan, and Pentraeth, it was provided that six acres should be allotted in each place for supplying the poorer inhabitants with peat for fuel, and if there should be no peat in the parish, the allotment to be let, and the rent accruing to be appropriated to a similar purpose. On the inclosure in this parish, under the act, an allotment of four acres and four perches was made, whereon the parish built two cottages, in which two poor families are permitted to reside rent-free; the remainder yields a rent of 18s. per annum, which is carried to the aid of the poorrates. A cottage and several small pieces of land, containing in the whole about four and a half acres, and producing £3 per annum, exclusive of the cottage, which is occupied by the parish-clerk rent-free, were left by unknown donors for the repairs of the church. A bequest of £4 by the Rev. Dr. Roberts, formerly Bishop of Bangor, has been lost.

Cerrig-Y-Druidion (Ceryg-Y-Drudion)

CERRIG-Y-DRUIDION (CERYG-Y-DRUDION), a parish, in the union of Corwen, hundred of Isaled, county of Denbigh, in North Wales, 10 miles (W. N. W.) from Corwen; containing 1039 inhabitants. The name of this place signifies "the stones of the daring ones," and not "of the Druids," as some have interpreted it; and is in allusion to a vast heap of stones, minutely described in Bishop Gibson's additions to Camden's Britannia, in a communication by Mr. Llwyd, but which are now entirely dispersed. Several of them have been used in constructing the stone fences of the adjacent fields; the largest has been removed to a considerable distance, and now serves as a gate-post: the site has been broken up by the plough. Local tradition represents this collection of stones to have been the rude prison in which Cynvrig Rwth, a lawless chieftain, confined his captives: among them were some of a superior size, forming a cist-vaen, or stone chest, but every vestige has been removed. The parish is situated on the high road from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, and contains about 20,000 acres, including a large tract of dreary mountain and moorland. The breeding of cattle and sheep, the digging of peat for fuel, the spinning of woollen yarn, and the knitting of stockings, form the principal occupations of the inhabitants. The neighbourhood abounds with good grazing land, a great portion of which is let by the proprietors to the Anglesey dealers, for the pasturage of cattle, on their way from that isle to the midland counties of England. The village is situated on a gentle eminence, and was formerly a thoroughfare on the great Irish road, which, by an improvement in the route, was afterwards diverted to a short distance from it, but still passes for several miles through the parish. The traffic on this line of road has much diminished since the opening of the Chester and Holyhead railway, in 1848. A postoffice has been established here. A market was at one time held on Friday, but it has fallen into disuse: fairs take place on March 14th, April 27th, August 24th, October 20th, and December 7th.

The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £10. 8. 1½.; present net income, £500, with a glebe-house; patron, the Bishop of St. Asaph. The church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, is a spacious structure, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a lofty chantry chapel adjoining the south side. There are three places of worship for Calvinistic, and two for Wesleyan Methodists, two for Independents, and one for Baptists; also four Sunday schools, conducted gratuitously by the dissenters. Ellis Davies, in 1689, bequeathed an estate in the parish containing about ninety-one acres, towards the relief and better maintenance of poor people, not being paupers, and the rent was for a number of years so administered according to the will of the donor; but about 1790, the property was sold by a descendant of one of his nephews, who acted as trustee, when a suit was instituted in chancery which extended over many years, and was attended with considerable expense to the parish and all the parties interested. At length it was terminated in favour of the parish, and an order was made to have all the arrears paid up. These amounted to nearly £2000, and were vested in the three per cent. consols, and three per cent. reduced annuities; the land is let at a rent of £42, and the whole income from rent and stock is about £110 per annum. Within the last few years, a sum of £200, forming part of this charity, was sold out of the funds, for the purpose of defraying the expense of building a school-house; £30 are applied annually from the income of the charity towards the salary of the schoolmaster, and £5 for books and premiums for the scholars, leaving at the same time a sufficiency for distribution among the poor.

An almshouse for six aged men was founded in 1716, by Robert Price, Esq., Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of William III., who endowed it with property in the parishes of Denbigh and Henllan, consisting of twenty-two acres and a quarter, now producing an income of £97. 10. per annum. From an increase of the funds of the original endowment, which was only £20 per annum, three almsmen have been added, and the income of the whole number of nine extended from 4s. per month to 14s.; also they receive 1s. each on the festivals of Christmas, Easter, St. Mary Magdalene, and Whit-Sunday, a pair of shoes annually, and a great coat of the value of a guinea every two years. The almshouses are in good repair, and have a garden attached: the inmates, who possess a vote for the county, are selected by Sir Robert Price, of Foxley, Herefordshire, Bart., who is the sole trustee. In 1689, Thomas Parry bequeathed £100, the interest of which is distributed among the poor on the 6th of December, in sums varying from 1s. to 5s.; and they also receive the interest of a bequest of £5 by Rowland Edwards in 1722, annually, in bread. The above-named Mr. Price, whose memorable speech in the House of Commons against the grant of the lordship of Denbigh and other property in Wales to the Duke of Portland, drew upon him the especial notice of his sovereign, was born at Giler, in the parish.

Ceulan

CEULAN, with Maesmawr, a township, in the parish of Llanvihangel-Geneu'r-Glyn, union of Aberystwith, Upper division of the hundred of Geneu'r-Glyn, county of Cardigan, in South Wales, 8 miles (N. E.) from Aberystwith; containing 597 inhabitants. It appears to derive its name from the rivers Ceulan and Maesmor, the former of which runs through the township, and joins the river Lery within a short distance, whilst the latter runs along the northern extremity of it: the road from Aberystwith to Machynlleth crosses at the point of junction of the Ceulan and the Lery, where the neat village of Tàl-y-bont is situated. At this place the partial views of the ocean, on one side, and on the other the stream tumbling over rocky precipices, in picturesque cascades, overhung with a great variety of trees and shrubs, are peculiarly enlivening. An ancient seat, belonging to the family of Price, stands here between the right bank of the Ceulan and the high road, and within its grounds are some fine fullgrown oak and fir trees. On a mountain in the neighbourhood, called Pen Sarn Ddû, is that ancient monument termed Gwely Taliesin, or "Taliesin's Bed," a more particular description of which is given under the head of the parish.

Cevn

CEVN, a hamlet, in the parish of Kîlken, union of Holywell, Northop division of the hundred of Coleshill, county of Flint, North Wales, 3½ miles (N. W. by W.) from Mold; containing 302 inhabitants. It occupies a lofty mountain, as the name implies, on the left bank of the river Alyn; and the road from Hawarden to Denbigh passes along the northern side of it.

Cevn

CEVN, a hamlet, in the parish of Gellygaer, union of Merthyr-Tydvil, hundred of Caerphilly, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 5 miles (S. S. E.) from Merthyr-Tydvil; containing 611 inhabitants. It is partly situated on the declivity of the lofty mountain from which the parish takes its name, and the Bargoed Tâf forms the boundary between it and Merthyr-Tydvil. There are several neat residences in the hamlet, and some parts of it are ornamented with plantations, though other portions are bleak and barren.

Cevnllys

CEVNLLYS, in the county of Radnor, South Wales.—See Kevenlleece.

Cevnpawl

CEVNPAWL, a hamlet, forming that part of the parish of Abbey Cwm Hîr which is in the hundred of Kevenlleece, in the union of Rhaiadr, county of Radnor, South Wales, 7 miles (E. by N.) from Rhaiadr; containing 130 inhabitants. It is situated on the left bank of the Clywedog brook, in a fertile, pleasant, and well-wooded valley, near Llanbadarn-Vawr church. One of the most perfect carneddau in the county, consisting of about thirty or forty cart-loads of stones, thrown loosely together, with a hollow in the centre, is observable on a hill a short distance south-west of this place.

Cevnpennar (Cevn-Pennar)

CEVNPENNAR (CEVN-PENNAR), a hamlet, in the parish of Aberdare, union and borough of Merthyr-Tydvil, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 2½ miles (E. S. E.) from Aberdare: the population is returned with the parish. This hamlet, which is well wooded, is situated on the western declivity of the Twyn-Mawr mountain: and the Aberdare canal passes close to, and parallel with, the river Cynon, in the lower part of it.

Chapel-Ilterne

CHAPEL-ILTERNE, county of Glamorgan, South Wales.—See Llanilterne.

Cheriton

CHERITON, a parish, in the union and hundred of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 13½ miles (W.) from Swansea; containing 282 inhabitants. This parish, according to some, derived its name from the quantity of cherries abounding in the neighbourhood, and which formerly grew wild in the hedges. It is situated on the southern shore of the Burry estuary, and contains the villages of Cheriton, and Landymor or Llandemore. Landymor Castle, called by the country-people Bovehill Castle from the farm on which it is situated, stands on the side of a hill, overlooking a small valley; it was originally an important edifice, and though the remains consist of little more than a rude curtainwall, foundations are to be traced as far as a bold rock that overlooks the Burry. The parish is destitute of wood, and the only stream running through it is Cheriton brook: there are some quarries of limestone. The living is a rectory, rated in the king's books at £9. 7. 3½., and in the patronage of the Crown; present net income, about £160. The church, dedicated to St. Catwg, is a small venerable edifice, consisting of a nave and chancel, between which rises a square embattled tower: the churchyard is bounded on one side by the brook. A dayschool in connexion with the Church of England was established in 1846 at the village of Landymor, where also are two Sunday schools on Church principles. The Calvinistic Methodists, likewise, have a place of worship in the parish, with a Sunday school held in it.

Cheriton

CHERITON, county of Pembroke, South Wales.—See Stackpool-Elidur.