England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llannon St Non

The Parish

The parish of Llannon lies in southeastern Carmarthenshire roughly 6 miles north of the industrial town of Llanelli. Llannon sits on the A476 road which links Llanelli with Llandeilo. Llannon is the only significant settlement within what is primarily a rural parish, it is a crossroads village sitting at the junction of the A476 with the B4306 running in from Pontarddulais, most properties sit around that junction but the village extends southwards along the A476 for a short distance too. Much of the wider parish has a few settlement clusters but none are worthy of the name village and are little more than hamlets. The industrialisation of the north of the parish, however, lead to the establishment of mining villages such as Drefach, Tumble, Cefneithin & Cross Hands which all gather around the iron ore & coal source of Mynydd Mawr. For much of its existence the parish was almost totally agricultural, early gazetteers estimate that arable dominated pastoral methods by roughly 2:1 with some un-enclosed land on the higher ground being described as "waste", rough moorland grazing, the cattle of the area were, however, responsible for Llannon becoming noted for its salted butter. In the 18th century the area's coal and iron ore deposits began to be exploited, particularly in the area known as Mynydd Mawr or Great Mountain, the coal was of anthracite quality and powered iron furnaces and lead to the establishment of the above settlements. A tram road was built to transport the resulting steel to the port of Llanelli to the south. Much of that industrial infrastructure has now gone from the parish even if the 4 main villages still hold the majority of the parish's population, indeed Mynydd Mawr has been re-purposed as a woodland park. Modern developments have come to the parish, the former turnpike, now A48 from Swansea to Carmarthen has been upgraded to modern dual-carriageway highway and the western end of the modern M4 motorway just creeps into the southeast of the parish. The north of the parish is drained southwestwards by the Gwendraeth Fawr which reaches the outer Bristol Channel at Kidwelly, the south of the parish by way of contrast is drained southwards by the Afon Morlais which reaches the same body of water by joining the estuary at Loughor. Llannon is sited at between 150 & 210 metres above the sea on strongly rising ground, of the 4 industrial villages Tumble was the highest at 200 metres, the highest spot in the parish is Mynydd Sylen, to the west of Llannon, which summits at 284 metres, the parish being best described as hilly rather than mountainous. Like many parishes in Carmarthenshire Llannon covered an extensive area of almost 11,500 acres which would have supported a population of close to 1,750 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llannon is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Non's church (Non was the mother of the famous St David) stands on the eastern side of the A476, here named Heol-y-Plas, just north of the junction with the B4306. The first church constructed here was a simple chapelry dependent upon Kidwelly it as built in the late 12th or early 13th century as a single naved church built of the local limestone rubble. During the medieval period from the 14th to early 16th century the church was steadily expanded with the addition of a second nave, a 2-bay chancel, a 3-bay southern aisle and the massive 3-stage western tower, both tower and chancel being aligned off-centre but in line with the original northern nave. Soon after the completion of this transcript period the church was massively altered by the noted architect Edward Haycock, between 1839 & 1841 Haycock executed a sweeping, high-impact renovation that fundamentally stripped away the traditional interior layout, the medieval arcade was completely removed and made contiguous with the nave creating one large, wide, single-roofed worship chamber. The stark design was softened later in the 19th century by further work but the church remains a curious mixture of Haycock's modernistic treatment alongside traditional medieval. The A476 takes much traffic and there is no recommended parking immediately close to the churchyard, Heol Nant, to the north is probably suitable. The churchyard is steeply sloping, like much of the village, and this presents the single-most significant obstacle for the photographer in what would otherwise be an open and uncluttered churchyard.