England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Eglwys Cymmin St Margaret Marloes

The Parish

The parish of Eglwys Cymmin lies in the extreme southwest of Carmarthenshire not to far from the county's border with neighbouring Pembrokeshire. The ancient church of Eglwys Cymmin sits roughly 5 miles west of the coastal town of Laugharne on the B4314 road which connects Pendine Sands with the Pembrokeshire market town of Narberth. This is a rural parish with no village whatsoever, the church sits alongside a couple of farms and the wider parish continues this theme with sporadic farmsteads and cottages spread across a broad rural area. Whilst most land is farmed this was not always the case as early gazetteers report parts of the parish were uncultivated land, today most land is set to pasture with small plots of arable interspersed. The parish has a singular and perhaps apocryphal claim to fame as the location for the negotiation and conclusion of an early peace treaty. The underlying rock is porous and many of the streams draining the parish follow a partially subterranean course en route to reaching the outer Bristol Channel to the east of nearby Pendine.  Eglwys Cymmin church stands at 160 metres above the sea in hilly but not mountainous countryside where several hilltops rise close to 190 metres above the sea. Eglwys Cymmin parish was rather extensive as is often characteristic of low-intensity activity, the parish covered a little over 3,700 acres and supported a population of close to 350 parishioners. Like most of Wales Eglwys Cymmin is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Margaret's church stands together with a pair of farms on the northern side of the B4314 a little under 2 miles east of the prominent crossroads & inn of Red Roses. Whilst this is an ancient site of worship, set within the traditional round "llan" that marks an early Christian site, the present church has uncertain dating evidence. Pevsner tentatively grants a date of the 14th century to the nave albeit this is in conflict with the splendid wall-paintings which some experts attribute to the 13th century. Pevsner rightly points out that externally the church is unremarkable consisting merely of nave and chancel augmented by a relatively small western bellcote and a more impressive southern porch. Much of the church actually dates from Victorian rebuilding, the chancel in 1878 followed work in 1856 on the bellcote which also replaced many windows, earlier still in 1848 work was done to create the existing southern door. Of more architectural interest, however, is the porch which surrounds that southern door complete with impressive stone barrel vaulting, this piece received Georgian attention in or close to 1800 but preserved its ancient feel. Opposite the churchyard is a broad roughly surfaced car park allowing a leisurely visit, a neat lychgate grants entry to a sunken pathway, the churchyard surface being raised above head height in places. Most aspects are available to the photographer as there are few obstacles present.