England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llangwm St Jerome

The Parish

The parish of Llangwm lies in southwestern Denbighshire roughly 17 miles west of the town of Llangollen and roughly 6 miles northeast of Bala. Llangwm sits just over 1 mile south of the A5 road which links Llangollen, through Snowdonia National Park, to Holyhead on Anglesey. Llangwm is a small and compact village sitting on the southern banks of the Afon Medrod, in a side valley separated by hills from that followed by the A5. The wider parish, however, is an extensive and mountainous upland area dotted with both remote farmsteads and small hamlets in the valleys. The mountainous nature of the parish defines its economy, hill farming of sheep dominated with around 40% of the parish acreage defined in early gazetteers as "waste", a term for unimproved moorland and upland grazing. the valleys saw richer pastures dominated by cattle and yet 35% of the acreage was engaged in arable, mainly of hardy cereals such as oats & rye. Today Llangwm and its wider parish is beloved by hikers seeking the remoter pathways whilst its rivers are celebrated for their quality of fishing, trout being the target for many. Llangwm is drained eastwards by the Afon Medrod but that soon meets Afon Ceirw and Afon Alwen before reaching the Dee to the southwest of Corwen, the Dee turns northeast, north and finally west to pass through Chester and onward to the Irish Sea through its estuary. Llangwm is sited at around 250 metres above the sea but its extensive parish encompasses heights such as Carnedd y Filiast at 669 metres on the county border and Foel Goch at 611 metres and only a little over 2 miles southwest of the village. The parish acreage approaches 10,000 acres within which it would have supported a largely dispersed community of around 1,000 parishioners. Like most of Wales, which did not cover the area, Llangwm is not mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Jerome's church sits within the fork of the main junction within the village, it sits in the traditional circular "llan" that denotes an early christian site, sadly the Clwyd/Powys Archaeological Trust report that the church is now closed with its windows boarded. Whilst the site may be early, today's church is a relatively modern construction of uncertain date, most of the fabric dates from a rebuild documented as being of 1747 although undoubtedly earlier fabric remains in situ or reused. The church is built as a single structure with no division between nave and chancel just an 18th century chancel arch to separate. Further restoration work is recorded in the early 1870s which also saw most internal fittings refurnished. There is a substantial parking area at the entrance to Trem Y Foil which served the church, the churchyard is open and uncluttered with no obstacles for the photographer.