GENUKI : Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant, St. Dogfan

Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant

"A parish in the Union of Llanfyllin, composed of the lower division, in the Cynlleth and Mochnant division of the hundred of Chirk, county of Denbigh; and the upper portion, in the upper division of the hundred of Llanfyllin, county of Montgomery; 12 miles (W by S) from Oswestry, and containing 2344 inhabitants. ..... This parish is intersected by the river Moch, which, at the distance of four miles from the village, forms the much admired waterfall called Pistyll Rhaiadr. ..... The river precipitates itself with great impetuosity down a steep descent of more than 150 feet, and, being interrupted in its fall by a projecting mass of rock, through which it has formed a channel, forms a second fall beneath a lofty arch to the base of the mountain."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

According to Archdeacon Thomas, the parish of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant at one time included the parishes of Llanarmon Mynydd Mawr, Llangadwaladr, Llangedwyn; and part of Llanwddyn (in Montgomeryshire).

The townships of the parish of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant which were in the pre-1974 county of Montgomery were: Abermarchnant, Brithdir, Castellmoch, Cefn Coch, Glanhafon Fach, Glanhafon Fawr and Nantfyllon.
The townships which were in the pre-1974 county of Denbigh were: Banhadla Ucha, Banhadla Isa, Gartheryr, Henfachau, Trebrys Fawr, Trebrys Fach, Trefeiliw, Tre'r-Llan and Tre-Wern.

The parish church was on the Denbighshire side of the border; therefore the parish registers have been deposited in the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.

The village is perhaps best known as the place where William Morgan, who was vicar from 1578 to 1588, completed his translation of the Bible into Welsh.

Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration

Population
Statistics

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 124260.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Dogfan,was mentioned in the Norwich Taxation of 1254. It was restored between 1879 and 1882.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the parish church.

A district church (SJ 136231), dedicated to St. Mary, was built at Rhos-y-Brithdir in 1892 - in the Montgomeryshire section of the parish. Presumably because of this, some family history databases and websites state that there are two parishes named Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant - one in Denbighshire, and one in Montgomeryshire. This is completely incorrect.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of St. Mary's church.

Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civil parish of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Salem	Baptists	128
Soar, Gefailrhyd	Baptists	20
Bethel, Maengwynedd	Calvinistic Methodists	49
Bethesda	Calvinistic Methodists	175
Salem, Pentrefelin	Calvinistic Methodists	107
Tabor, Maengwynedd	Congregationalists	66
Bwlchyddar	Wesleyans	190

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Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.
They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire, Flintshire and Powys Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1678 - 1847	1682 - 1919	1678 - 1930

Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1678 - 1812	1678 - 1812	1678 - 1812

Bishop's Transcripts

Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.
In general, the Bishop's Transcripts are less complete than the parish registers.

Deposited at the National Library of Wales	Microfilmed copies
1662 - 1844	1662 - 1844

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. Dogfan's, Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant.

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Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant was assigned to the No. 3 ("Llanrhaeadr") sub-district of the Llanfyllin Registration District; which was co-extensive with the Llanfyllin poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Llanrhaeadr ym Mochnant are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Llanfyllin XXVII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Llanfyllin 11b.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- the population was 2344.
In 1901- the population was 1738.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 21,442 acres.
[ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 23 Nov 2009 - Gareth Hicks