England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Llanhowel St Hywel

The Parish

The parish of Llanhowel (sometimes rendered Llanhywel) lies in northwestern Pembrokeshire roughly 4 1/2 miles east of the city of St Davids. Llanhowel sits just under a mile southeast of the A487 road which links St Davids with Fishguard. Llanhowel has no village, the church stands alongside the former vicarage but otherwise only isolated farms and cottages dot the area of the parish. The local economy is underpinned by pastoral farming, this far west and close to the sea makes for difficult arable growing, mainly sheep and cattle in roughly equal proportions. The infant River Solva rises within the parish and takes water the short distance to the Irish Sea arriving at the port of Solva. Llanhowel is sited at around 80 metres above the sea at its church, the parish contains the eminence of Carn Treglemaes at 104 metres whilst a few spots to the north just breach the 120 metre contour in gently undulating terrain. By the stands of Pembrokeshire Llanhowel parish was rather small in extent covering a little over 1,400 acres and supporting close to 150 parishioners. Like most of Wales Llanhowel is not mentioned in Domesday Book which did not cover this area.

The Church

St Hywel's (the dedication refers to a King of Brittany with Arthurian connections according to mythology) church stands amongst fields together with its white-painted former vicarage on an isolated lane midway between Carn Treglemaes and the standing stones of Caerwen. Unlike many churchyards that are early Christian sites and circular it stands in a rectilinear one but still early. Whilst the church was probably built in the 14th century it has been so changed by Victorian restoration as to be effectively undateable. During that extensive phase of work between 1889 & 1895 the entire southern wall was rebuilt, further changes followed in the 20th century when the church was re-roofed in 1909. Even Pevsner struggles to point out medieval features but he does mention the 15th century squint. The church is marked from its lane with a prominent white sign, there's a small triangular area o park outside the gates. Once within the churchyard the only obstacles to avoid is the prominent tree standing alongside the northern wall, the churchyard is compact, however, with limited room to get back from the church.