England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Pentrefoelas Parish Church

The Parish

The parish of Pentrefoelas lies in southwestern Denbighshire not too far from its western border with neighbouring Caernarvonshire. Pentrefoelas is situated roughly 14 miles southwest of the county town of Denbigh and sits on the junction of the the A5 (London to Holyhead) road with B5113 which connects through to Llanrwst. There is very little to modern day Pentrefoelas, a small scatter of properties either side of the two major roads and a broader scatter of farms and cottages across the wider parish. This is very much an upland parish with an extensive area of mountains and moor lying between it and Denbigh. The economy was one of upland farming, mainly pastoral with cattle in the valley bottom and sheep on the uplands although some cereals were also grown. Penrefoelas sits on the northern banks of the Afon Merddwr which flows westwards the short distance to the nearby Conwy, the latter flowing northwards to reach the Irish Sea through the port of Conwy. Pentrefoelas is sited at around 200 metres above the sea but land rises steeply onto the moors to the northeast reaching 532 metres on the summit of Mwdwl Eithin just over 2 miles away and also a similar height at Garn Prys to the south. Like most upland parishes Pentrefoelas was extensive, in this case covering just over 8,100 acres which would have supported a population of around 600 parishioners. Like most of Wales Pentrefoelas is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

The parish church (it has no known dedication) lies just into the course of the B5113 just a hundred or so metres from the junction with the A5 and on the eastern side of that B road. Sadly this building is not that in which these marriages took place, the church in which these events were staged being replace in the 1850s by today's church. In turn that demolished church had been constructed in 1766. The replacement church is a simple nave & chancel church with a transept and a bellcote which Pevsner disparagingly describes as "a very ordinary....affair". Clearly this church did not have great architectural interest for the man. The churchyard has a rough stone wall surrounding and the main entrance is almost hidden within trees, a tight fit to the churchyard edge and further trees severely restrict the angles available for photography making for a challenging subject to adequately capture.