England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Machynlleth St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Machynlleth lies in the extreme west of Montgomeryshire  forming part of the county's borders with both Merioneth and with Cardiganshire at a 3-counties meet. Machynlleth is located roughly 17 miles north east of the Cardiganshire university town of Aberystwyth and stands on the A487 road which connects it with that town. Machynlleth is a crossroads settlement forming a T-junction of the A187 with the A489 which arrives from Newtown in combination with the A470. Most properties line either of these two main roads with that of the A489 forming the main street. Machynlleth owes its development to its position guarding the major crossing of Afon Dyfi it is reputed to have been the site of a Roman military position but its immediate success owes to its designation as a planned settlement and market following the granting of a market charter in 1291, this transformed a small settlement into the primary market town for the area. Machynlleth sits within an area dominated by the uplands, early gazetteers estinated that almost 50% of the parish acreage was "waste", we know that today as  rough upland grazing, the haunt of hardy sheep. Machynlleth came to prominence in 1404 when Owain Glyndwr made it his capital and convened the first Welsh Parliament here. Following the 1530s Acts of Union the unrest which had characterised the area diminished and prompted the growth of Machynlleth as a market, its livestock market was one of the largest in the land taking animals from 5 Welsh counties and buyers from England, it lead to the town being a primary hun for the many drover's roads snaking across the land and eastwards to the markets of England . Industry in the town was confined to the traditional trade of rural towns, weaving, with Machynlleth a centre for the manufacture of flannels, the town at one time holding 40 carding engines and 7 fulling mills. Within the wider parish lead ores were found and sporadically exploited as was the local slate. Trade in the town was aided by the small port of Derwenlas 2 miles west to which the Dyfi was navigable this enabled the export of agricultural produce, lead, slate and timber, the area being a source of fine timber for ship building, as well as the importation of coal and luxury goods such as wine.  Modern developments arrived in the town with the arrival of the railway line from Shrewsbury & Birmingham headed ultimately to Aberystwyth & Pwllheli, a lifeline for the area, and granting a station to Machynlleth. Today Machynlleth remains the principal market for its largely upland hinterland and has become a centre for regional tourism visiting for the splendid local landscape, for the fishing on the Afon Dyfi and for hiking, the regional trail of Glyndwr's Way passing through the town and producing a few overnight stays. Machynlleth is drained westwards by the Afon Dyfi which soon reaches Carmarthen Bay  and the Irish Sea. Machynlleth parish covers a wide range of altitudes, the town sits between 10 and 30 metres above the sea but the mountainous terrain around it includes summits such as Pen Carreg Gopa at 447 metres, Mynydd Pant Goch at 303 metres and Mynydd Rhyd Galed at 460 metres. Machynlleth parish was typical of upland Wales in covering an extensive area of almost 9,900 acres which would have supported a population of close to 2,500 parishioners. Like most of Wales Machynlleth is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Peter's church sits just west of the A187 as it heads northwards from the main junction towards the station and the Dyfi bridge, the road curving around the northeastern edge of the churchyard. Sadly St Peter is largely a modern church with the oldest fabric being the western tower dating from 1745. The rest of the church, subject to even more recent work, is from the rebuild of 1827 which replaced the former 13th century cruciform layout with the more common straight layout from western tower to eastern chancel. Pevsner views the use of large blocks of the local stone as rather "austere". The chancel was heavily modified in 1866 which removed the galleries and gave a new east window whilst further work of 1894 replace much of the window tracery. Machynlleth's main car park sits to the south of the junction but only a short walk from the church which is approached by a dead-end lane finishing at the churchyard. For the photographer a single sturdy tree sitting to the southeast is the only obstacle otherwise all angles are readily available,