England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Eglwys Fach St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Eglwys Fach (also frequently known as Ysgubor-y-Coed) lies in the extreme north of Cardiganshire forming not only a stretch of the border with Merioneth but also with Montgomeryshire, it is also a coastal community with a long Irish Sea coastline too. Eglwys Fach is located roughly 5 miles southwest of the Montgomeryshire market town of Machynlleth and sits on the A487 road which connects Machynlleth with Aberystwyth. Eglwys Fach is very much a linear strip of a village, not large and barely, today, bigger than a hamlet it lines the A487for almost a half mile north of its crossing of the Afon Einon. Eglwys Fach was previously a chapelry of the large parish of Llanfihangel Geneur y Glyn until created a full parish in the 18th century. It's position at the highest navigable point of the Afon Einon made it a small port and consequently mills for smelting and processing the "Royal Mines" for their gold and other metals grew up alongside, Furnace on the opposite bank of the Afon Einon is a reference to this trade. Besides smelting and the usual traffic of a small port, the landscape was almost totally pastoral, the coastal salt-marshes for cattle and the steep and rocky hill inland for sheep. Modern developments have come to the parish, the Birmingham to Aberystwyth railway line passes across the salt-marsh but doesn't grant a station. In much more recent times the creating of the Ynys Hir wildlife reserve by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has generated much interest and resulted in the welcome return of the Osprey to this part of the country. The Afon Einon drains northwestward to meet with the Afon Dyfi in a joint estuary leading into Cardigan Bay, the Irish Sea. Eglwys Fach is sited at mostly below 10 metres, barely above marsh level, but inland land rises steeply into mountainous terrain where local heights reach 479 metres on nearby Foel Goch. Eglwys Fach parish was extensive, covering almost 11,300 acres of mostly mountain & moor, despite this it would have supported a population of about 650 parishioners. Like most of Wales Eglwys Fach is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Michael's church sits alongside the A487 just south of the lane leading to the RSPB reserve. Sadly this is not some medieval masterpiece and indeed only the last few marriages took place within this structure as it was built in 1833. Described by Pevsner as a simple "three-bay stone box" it has nave and chancel in one and all topped off by a simple bellcote at the west and an apse to its east. That affectation was added to the original structure in 1913 but is a welcome addition. Unusually for a Georgian church the builders choose to style the windows on the much later Tudor-style rather than emulating the traditional medieval. The A487 is a rather busy road so it is welcome that a small parking area lies outside of the stone lychgate that marks the entry, careful approach is still required despite the speed-limit imposed through the village. Whilst most of the churchyard is open and uncluttered, the western end is tight to the surrounding edges leaving it difficult to acquire imagery of the bellcote and western end.