England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llangan St Canna

The Parish

The parish of Llangan lies in southern Glamorgan roughly 3 1/2 miles northwest of the market town of Cowbridge. Llangan sits just over a mile north of the A48 road which links Cardiff with Bridgend, in a shallow valley formed by the Afon Canna. Llangan is a small crossroads village formed around a T-junction of lanes with most properties gathered around that 3-way junction. Llangan sits within a rather fertile area of the Vale of Glamorgan and was intensely farmed with a rough 50:50 split between arable and pastures. In earlier times seams of lead or were present in the parish and were worked to exhaustion, the local limestone, however, is still exploited for both local building stone and for burning for lime. Llangan is drained westwards by the Canna with reaches the Ewenny at Coychurch, the latter continues southwestwards reaching the outer Bristol Channel after merging with the Ogwr at the start of its estuary. Llangan is sited at around 40 metres above the sea, views northwards are dominated by the isolated 120 metre knoll of St Mary Hill Down but most land hereabouts is gently rolling countryside. Llangan parish covered just under 1,200 acres and would have supported around 250 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llangan is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Canna's church stands at the northern edge of the village on the eastern side of the lane leading to Treoes. Sadly little remains of the medieval within this church as it was extensively, if not completely rebuilt in or around 1869, thus not the church in which these marriages would have been celebrated. Pevsner notes that the doorway to the rood-loft appears "early" but neglects to venture a date. This is a simple church of nave and chancel augmented with a southern porch and a western bellcote. Of more interest to students of the medieval is the 15th century churchyard cross which stands within the churchyard, a piece described simply by Pevsner as "magnificent". As the lane leaves the built area, there is a small circular green with a large tree, parking is found around that circle, the gates sit below shady trees and lead through over 50 metres of cover to the churchyard which has bordering trees but which do not cause issues for the photographer.