England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Aber St Bodfan

The Parish

The parish of Aber (or Abergwyngregyn to give it its modern village name) lies in northern Caernarvonshire forming a stretch of its coastline with the Irish Sea. Abergwyngregyn lies roughly 6 miles east of the city of Bangor and sits on the busy A55 (North Wales Expressway) which connects Bangor with Chester. Thankfully the village is now bypassed by the bust dual-carriageway but since the coastal plain is extremely narrow between high ground & sea the road is by necessity just a few hundred metres to the north. Abergwyngregyn is a rather linear village largely built upon the former route of the A55 at the very edge of the coastal plain with most properties just west of the crossing of the fast-flowing Afon Rhaeadr Fawr which runs down from the nearby mountains. Abergwyngregyn has a long history, anciently it held the residence of the princes of Gwynedd with Llewelyn the Great having his main castle here. The coastal location and varied topography of the parish would have given Abergwyngregyn a very varied economy. The coastal plain saw largely cattle on the grazing marshes whilst the high mountains of the interior gave extensive sheep grazing as well as the extractive industries for which North Wales is well known, in addition the locals would have exploited the Irish Sea for both fishing, shell-fishing and coastal transportation of goods. Modern developments, other than the Expressway, have come to the parish as the main railway line from Chester to Holyhead passes through without granting Abergwyngregyn a station. Today the village earns much from tourism with the local attraction of Aber Falls together with the nearby mountains and newly established Welsh Coastal Trail making it an attraction for hikers. Abergwyngregyn is drained the short distance of little more than a half miles by the Afon Rhaeadr Fawr. Abergwyngregyn is sited at around 30 metres above the sea, just sufficient to keep it dry, inland mountain rear up dramatically to local heights of 580 metres on nearby Moel Wnion and 849 metres on Llwytmor, both within the bounds of the extensive parish. In a county of exceptionally large parishes Abergwyngregyn was no exception, covering over 8,800 acres it would have supported a population of around 500 parishioners. Like most of Wales Abergwyngregyn is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Bodfan's church sits at the western end of the village quite close to the nearby A55. Sadly this is not some medieval masterpiece nor indeed the venue for these marriages as the small original church was replaced by today's church in 1878. Today's St Bodfan is an example of the florid designs of the famous Victorian architect Pugin and was built in homage to the style of the early Decorated period of the 14th century. The church is unusual in having the tower not at the west rather offset in a northwestern position. The main village lane passes westwards tight to the A55 then performs two right-angled bends to resume its westwards course, at the second of those bends one finds the church, a stub of an access leaves room for a single car to get off-road. Sadly the churchyard is one which provides a thorough challenge to the photographer, tightly hemmed in from all sides by trees  there is nowhere to gain even a half-decent set of images of this Pugin piece.