England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llanfachreth St Machreth

The Parish

The parish of Llanfachreth lies centrally within Merioneth roughly 3 miles north of the administrative capital of Dolgellau. Llanfachreth sits just over a mile east of the A470 road which links Dolgellau with Blaenau Ffestiniog. Llanfachreth is merely a small village lying in the south of an extensive and mountainous upland parish, the parish church is the principal building with a few cottages and farms close by. The wider parish has scattered hill-farms across the extensive area which today includes large areas of forestry within the managed forest of Coed y Brennin. The parish is dominated by the estate of Nannau which sits just over a miles southeast of the village, a site at over 225 metres above sea level is challenging to develop a parkland landscape but close to the house they succeeded even if further away it merged into the rocky natural landscape. The Vaughan family which took over from the Nanneys were ambitious for the parish and enclosed 10,000 acres for agricultural improvement laying out roads and drives to such an extent that Sir Robert Williams Vaughan became known as the "Colossus of Roads", hundred of isolated cottages and barns now litter the parish too as a result of his ambition. Much of the parish is upland grazing, the home of hardy sheep but there is arable in the sheltered lower portions of the parish. The area is rich in copper which was ingenuously recovered by concentrating it by burning the peat within which it was lying, the copper mine at Glasdir also held gold in retrievable quantities which has been worked sporadically. Today much is managed forestry for the nation's timber, the forest of Coed y Brennin also providing a site for rallying, as well as more gentle pursuits. Within the parish lies Moef Offrwm Hill Fort one of the best such defensive forts in its county and dating from the Iron Age.  Most of the parish sits upon a snout of land between the courses of the Afon Eden and AfonWnion which merge to the west of Dolgellau to form the Mawddach estuary and drain the area into the Irish Sea. Llanfachreth village is sited at around 170 metres above the sea but land rises into hills approaching mountains reaching 734 metres on nearby Rhobell Fawr. Like most upland parishes Llanfachreth was extensive with a figure of 10,000 acres widely quoted, that acreage would have supported a population of close to 950 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llanfachreth is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Machreth's church stands a few metres northeast of the main junction of lanes forming the centre of the small village. Whilst the Vaughans made wholesale changes to the parish they also sponsored the reconstruction of the parish church such that there is nothing of the medieval remaining and this is not a church which would be recognisable to the participants in these marriages. The tower and its spire are a little older than the main body of the church having been rebuilt in Georgian times between 1820 & 1822 so would be familiar to the later participants. The main body of the church, the nave, chancel and porch are from the rebuild of 1873 and are constructed in the newly re-fashionable Early English Gothic style. A small signed car park sits about 150 metres northeast of the churchyard allowing a relaxed visit. Getting to the churchyard itself is, however, more strenuous than most requiring a climb of a 14-step flight to reach the stone-built lychgate, the churchyard is totally devoid of obstacles for the photographer albeit a little close to the southern edges for perfect landscape formats from that angle.