England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy St Bride

The Parish

The parish of Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy lies in the extreme northeast of Merioneth forming a stretch of the county's border with neighbouring Denbighshire. Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy is located roughly 2 miles east of the small town of Corwen and stands on and mostly north of the A5 road which links Corwen with Llangollen. Two main villages for the settlement, that of Glyndyfrdwy stands on the A5 on the southern banks of the River Dee (Afon Dyfrwdwy in Welsh), a small crossroads hamlet, 2 1/2 miles west sits Carrog, which holds the parish church, on the Dee's northern banks at the junction of the A5 with the B5437 & B5436, Carrog is the larger settlement occupying an out-wash plain where a side-stream joins the Dee. Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy was a tiny parish with the Dee at its heart and little acreage away from it, cattle dominated in the river valley with sheep on higher and rougher ground. Modern developments have come to the parish and stayed in modified form, a branch railway line linking Llangollen with Corwen is nowadays another of the Welsh heritage lines, the Llangollen railway. Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy is drained eastwards by the Dee which passes through Llangollen and out onto the Cheshire plains from where it heads to the city of Chester and thence to the Irish Sea through its estuary. Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy is sited at around 150 metres above the sea at the twin settlements by the river, land rises abruptly northeastwards onto the Llantisilio Mountain reaching 549 metres on Moel Morfydd, to the south hills rise higher still with nearby Moel Fferna topping at 631 metres in mountainous terrain. As already mentioned Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy parish was very small for a Welsh hill parish, covering only 450 acres it would have supported a population of close to 200 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llansantffraid Glyndyfrydwy is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Bride's church (often rendered St FFraid) sits on the B5437 where a hill road arrives from Bryneglwys in Denbighshire, it sits within the western fork of the junction behind rough local stone walls. The construction date for the church is fully documented as the church site was moved to this higher location in 1611 and today's church is the result. Thus all of the basic fabric, often long blocks of the hard local sandstone, dates from the early 17th century. The church retains its original roof covering the 7-bays of shallow arch-braced collar-trusses and southern porch also from the 17th century. Despite the relatively recent date for construction a substantial restoration of 1867 (Pevsner terms it a remodelling) added the chancel including its east window, inserted many other windows and created the present bellcote. Parking is best found away from the junction where the Bryneglwys lane widens appreciably outside the village school. Sadly for the photographer trees crowd the southern aspects leaving only the less favoured ones for the photographer.

None

It should be noted that the parish did not begin their new style registers for some time after Rose's Act