England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llanfair Nant Gwyn St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Llanfair Nant Gwyn lies in northeastern Pembrokeshire not too far from its border with neighbouring Cardiganshire. Llanfair Nant Gwyn is located about 7 miles south of the port of Cardigan and sits on the B4332 road which connects Eglwyswrw with the Carmarthenshire village of Cenarth. There is very little to Llanfair Nant Gwyn, no village as such just a crossroads grouping of properties with farms and cottages scattered across the wider parish. Llanfair Nant Gwyn has always been a farming community and a mixed regime of both pastoral and arable farming would have dominated the economy. Llanfair Nant Gwyn is drained westwards by a small tributary of the of the Afon Myfer which reaches the Irish Sea through the port of Newport. Llanfair Nant Gwyn is sited at around 140 metres above the sea, the landscape around being sweeping with local heights rising over 100 metres higher on nearby Mynydd Crogwy. Llanfair Nant Gwyn parish was small for a Pembrokeshire parish, covering around 1,400 acres it would have supported a population of around 250 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llanfair Nant Gwyn is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Mary's church sits a couple of hundred metres south of the B4332 tucked away down a side branching lane and sitting at the point where that lane declines to a mere bridleway. The church is a Victorian replacement for a earlier building and was erected in the 1850s. A simple structure of combined nave and chancel, the one distinguishing feature is the bell turret topped by its slender slated spire. Other than this feature the church was obviously of little architectural interest as Pevsner's account is short and limited to a few descriptive lines. The church has adequate parking at its eastern end and sits in a small churchyard, nowadays given over to wildlife and left un-mown for the summer months, there are a few trees which restrict somewhat the angles for photography.