England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llansamlet St Samlet

The Parish

The parish of Llansamlet lies in western Glamorgan forming a short stretch of the county's coastline with the outer Bristol Channel and sitting roughly 4 miles northeast of the port of Swansea. Llansamlet sits immediately south of the A48 road which links Swansea with Cardiff. Llansamlet is a much changed parish, prior to the industrial revolution it would have been primarily a pastoral farming parish with some extraction of coal from early times on a subsistence basis; the industrial revolution saw rapid expansion of not only the coal industry, growing to a peak of 70,000 tons per annum but also to the heavy industry smelting both copper and zinc which were mainly exported using the navigable Afon  Tawe which forms the western boundary of the parish. In consequence the village of Llansamlet grew from a small crossroads settlement sitting south of the church into a substantial industrial town. Later developments added vast housing estates to former hamlets at Trallwn and Winsh-wen. The upper division of the parish, however, retains something of the former pastoral landscape that once existed here. With the mines closed and the heavy industry much reduced the sites of these enterprises have been redeveloped into a vast light industrial estate lying between the village and the river. Modern developments abound around Llansamlet, the railway lines linking Swansea with Cardiff and one bypassing Swansea to its north en route to western Wales both pass through the parish as does the modern M4 motorway carving its way through less than a mile north of the parish church. Llansamlet is drained by the Afon Tawe which makes its way in just a handful of miles to the outer Bristol Channel through eastern Swansea. Llansamlet is sited at around 10 metres above the sea but land rises dramatically northeastwards reaching 272 metres on Mynydd Drumau within 4 or so miles and dominating inland views. Llansamlet parish was, like many in western Glamorgan, rather extensive covering close to 5,000 acres, the parish population was rapidly expanding during the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded is a good indication that it averaged around 2,500 to 3,000 parishioners during this period. Like most of Wales Llansamlet is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Samlet's church sits roughly 400 metres north of the course of the A48 and the centre of the village, it sits on the western side of Church Road. Sadly today's church is not that which would have seen these marriages as it was built to replace a medieval predecessor and completed only in 1869. The church is built in a rack-faced sandstone and uses Bath limestone as dressings. Whilst considered to be the master-work of its local Briton Ferry architect, H. Francis Clarke, Pevsner is scathing viewing many features as "awkward". Despite completion in 1879 the western tower was only added in 1915 and uses a differing architect. The entrance is widened to allow a car or two to safely park off-road. The church sits within an extensive cemetery, a line of trees marrs views from the southwest but otherwise all other angles are unimpeded.