England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Strata Florida St Mary

The Parish

The chapelry of Strata Florida (known in Welsh as Caron uwch Clawdd), its mother parish being Tregaron, lies in the extreme east of Cardiganshire forming stretches of the county's borders with both Radnorshire and with Breconshire, including a 3-counties meet. Strata Florida is located roughly 6 miles northeast of Tregaron and stands a mile east of the B4343 road which links Tregaron with Devil's Bridge. Whilst Strata Florida is the most famous part of the chapelry being the home of the 12th century Cistercian Abbey ruins built in 1164 by Rhys son of the then Prince of Wales Grufydd. The largest settlement by far sits on the B4343 namely Pontrhydfendigaid which sits astride both that road and either side of the infant Afon Teifi. This is a mountainous area with upland grazing covering the vast majority of the chapelry, early gazetteers estimated less than 10% of the acreage as set to arable and much was described as "waste" or unimproved upland grazing occupied by hardy sheep. The valleys would have had cattle on the sweeter pastures. There was small-scale mineral extraction too with lead the main ore. The upper reaches of the Teifi was renowned for its salmon & trout fishing leading to development at Ponyrhydfenfigaid. Today it is outdoors tourism and the monastery ruins which attract the visitors with tourism a major source of income for the area.Strata Florida is drained southwestwards by the infant Teifi which flows through Tregaron & Lampeter before turning west to reach the Irish Sea through Cardigan. Strata Florida is sited at around 190 metres above the sea but the mountains of mid-Wales rise to many summits over 500 metres with Bryn Dafydd at 588 metres the highest local ground. Roughly 18,000 acres of the vast Tregaron parish was assigned to Strata Florida which would have supported a population of close to 800 parishioners. Like most of Wales Strata Florida is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Mary's church sits alongside the monastery sharing its graveyard and mighty venerable yew tree, Sadly this is not some medieval masterpiece, as the monastery must once have been, rather it was built in 1815 so many of these marriages would have taken place in its predecessor which was demolished. A small, single-celled church topped with a slate-covered bell-stage. The only old fabric within it comes from plunder of the monastery's assets. Both church and monastery are served by a substantial car park which is to handle the many trippers visiting the monastery. The churchyard is entered through a neat lychgate and has a slabbed pathway leading to the church, given the yew sat to the west as the only obstacle in an otherwise obstacle free churchyard.