England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llangain St Cain

The Parish

The parish of Llangain lies in southern Carmarthenshire roughly 4 miles south of the county town of Carmarthen. Llangain is located on the B4312 road which connects Carmarthen along the estuary of the Afon Tywi to Llanstephan. Llangain is a small village with properties along the B road and also a narrow lane running south of the same. The local geology gave Llangain something of an advantage in growing cereals, their produce is claimed in early gazetteers to be of "a quality not surpassed in any other part of the principality"; quite a claim, indeed. Needless to say its estuarine position also gave it access to both the fish & shell-fisheries of the Tywi estuary & local shipping also employed a few. Various small streams drain off the low hill on which Llangain sits, all headed either for the estuary or directly into the outer Bristol Channel. Llangain is sited at around 100 metres above the sea on a prominent knoll which is only over-topped by a 141 metre point close to Llangynog. Carmarthenshire parishes are often fairly extensive, Llangain was one of the relatively smaller ones covering just under 2,700 acres within which a population of close to 400 parishioners would have been supported. Like most of Wales Llangain is not mentioned in Domesday Book which has no coverage of this area.

The Church

St Cain's church has been deconsecrated and was sold in 2017 as a private home, access is thus restricted from its religious role. The church, however, is not a medieval one having been built between 1869 & 1871 it is also not even the venue of these marriages. The former church was described as "a neat edifice" in early gazetteers but no trace remained for Pevsner to inspect. Today's former church is a plain and simple affair but graced with an elaborate western tower diminishing in stages to an octagonal ashlar turret, wholly out of keeping with the simple prayer box it adjoins. The church stood roughly a half mile south of the main village and had a substantial gravelled area for parking. Obviously the property should only be viewed from public roads and the privacy of the residents accordingly respected not that the building is merely secular.