England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Henllan St David

The Parish

The parish of Henllan lies in the extreme south of Cardiganshire forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Carmarthenshire. Henllan is located roughly 3 miles east of small town of Newcastle Emlyn and sits in a meander of Afon Teifi where the B4334 road links the two main roads flanking the river, the A475 (Newcastle Emlyn to Lampeter) road and the A484 (Newcastle Emlyn to Carmarthen) road. Henllan is little more than a tiny riverside cluster of properties and a church within one of smallest parishes in Wales. The area is extremely picturesque with early gazetteers waxing lyrical about the scenery and especially the cascades of Henllan Falls, the area still attracts tourists for its beauty. What little land there was in this pocket parish would have been set to pasture. Modern developments have been re-purposed, the railway line along the Teifi valley now operating as a heritage line, the Teifi Valley Railway. Henllan is drained westwards by Afon Teifi which heads for the coast and arriving at the Irish Sea through Cardigan. Henllan is sited at around 40 metres above the sea in its valley setting but away from the river land quickly rises to almost 200 metres in several close by spots. Henllan parish covered just 270 acres and supported barely 100 parishioners. Like most of Wales Henllan is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area

The Church

St David's church sits almost alongside the Teifi west of the B4334 and is accessed by a short footpath. The church has received 2 rebuilding during the 19th century such that nothing remains of the original medieval church, The first rebuild was of 1810 and it was quickly followed by a second rebuild in 1849, despite it being reported to have been done by a gentleman with good taste, Pevsner disagrees on that verdict. Further work followed in 1882 when the chancel was added to the church, Thus the majority of these marriages would have taken place in the results of the initial rebuild and just prior to that. Parking for the church is best sort at the top of the hill opposite to the old prisoner of war camp now a private industrial estate, it is short walk westwards from a bend on the hill to reach the church which stands within a churchyard with no obstacles for the photographer.