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

The Parish

The parish of Rhostie lies in the northern part of central Cardiganshire. Rhostie is a tiny place, it doesn't even merit a mention on today's Ordnance Survey maps. Rhostie is located about 7 miles southeast of the seaside town of Aberystwyth and just west of the A485 road which links Aberystwyth with Tregaron and Lampeter. Rhostie is not a village, just an area of remote countryside centred on the church of St Michael. A dead-end road heads west from Rhos-y-garth and leads to the church, the parish covered a small area around this site. The area is almost exclusively used for pastoral farming with sheep predominating on the poor pastures. Rhostie is sited at about 140 metres above sea level, although land rises to the southwest to over 200 metres. All of the drainage is headed northwards to join the Afon Ystwyth at Llanilar. Rhostie parish was also tiny and covered a very small area unlike its neighbours, it barely supported 150 parishioners. Like most of Wales Rhostie is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

As you head westwards from Rhos-y-garth the lane's tarmac ends at the farm of Ty-nant, from here a roughly surfaced track heads over the shoulder of the hill and into the shallow valley in which St Michael's church sits. The building is no longer used for worship and stands, roofless, in ruins. This is a rather sad site, the present ruin being the third to exist here. The present ruin was only erected in 1881, it replace a ruin built in 1816 which itself replaced a previous ruin. The present building clearly has little architectural merit as Pevsner dismisses it in a couple of lines. The graveyard is enclosed by a pole and wire fence with a gate to enter. The site is treeless with no impediments to photography.