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Cellan - Extract from 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' by Samuel Lewis 1833

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"CELLAN, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of MOYTHEN, county of CARDIGAN, SOUTH WALES 3 miles (E. N. E.) from Lampeter, containing 465 inhabitants. This parish is situated in a mountainous district, on the banks of the river Teivy. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and diocese of St. David's, rated in the king's books at £5.7.8 1/2 endowed with £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of St.David's. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient edifice, consisting of a nave and chancel : it contains two piscinae ,and the font is supported on a square pillar, on which is carved the face of a male saint. There are places of worship for Independents and Presbyterians. This parish is remarkable for the number of intrenchments, kistvaens, carneddau and monumental stones comprised within its limits. The Roman road leading from Loventium now Llanio, to the station at Llanvair ar y bryn in Carmarthenshire, has been traced through it, from the banks of the Teivy to the mountains which form the line of boundary between that county and Cardiganshire. On a circular tumulus, surrounded by a moat, there is a stone, thirty-three feet in diameter, called Llêch Cynon, the burial place of a person of that name, from whom a stream in the vicinity was called Frwd Cynon. On the mountain to the north of this river are two kistvaens, called Beddau, signifying graves and two others on the mountain to the south, one of which is called Bedd y Vorwyn, or the "Virgin's Grave :" they are all oblong, and consist each of four stones, placed in the centre of a small barrow, or sepulchre of earth and stones. Of the carneddau the most conspicious are two very large ones on a lofty mountain near the road leading from Llanvair to Llanycrwys: there is also another, called Tair Carnau, all of them consisting of heaps of large stones, and supposed to be the graves of warriors. On the confines of the parish there is another stone, called Carreg tair croes, not sepulchral, but a boundary mark. There are also two very large stones on the mountain to the south of the river Frwd, which are supposed to have been placed there in commemoration of some great victory: one, called Byrvaen, fifteen feet in length, and four in width and thickness, now lies prostrate on the ground : but the other, called Hîr vaen Gwyddog, sixteen feet in height, is still standing. On another tumulus, surrounded by a moat, lies a very large stone, sixteen feet in length, called Maen y Prenvol, or Maen Prenvol Gwallt Gwyn and near it, on the same tumulus, stands another, about eight feet high. There are also three intrenchments in this parish ; one on the top of a hill, beneath which flows the river Frwd, called Gaer Morrice; another on the farm called Glanfrwd, which is exactly oval; and the third, which is circular and of a large size, between that farm and the parish of Pencarreg. The Rev. Moses Williams, F.R.S., who distinguished himself, as a Welsh scholar and antiquary, by the share which he took in the publication of Dr. Wotton's edition of the laws of Hywel Dda, was a native of this place : he also compiled a catalogue of books in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and wrote his own biography, which is now deposited in manuscript in that library, and at his death bequeathed his books and manuscripts, which were of considerable value, to the Earl of Macclesfield. The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor amounts to £124.19." [From Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1833]

Gareth Hicks 4 December 1999