Denbighshire

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Llangollen

"A market town and parish, in the Union of Corwen, in the Nant Heudwy division of the hundred of Chirk, county of Denbigh, 21½ miles (SE by S) from Denbigh, 13½ (SE by S) from Ruthin, and 183 (NW) from London; comprising the two principal divisions of Glyn Traian and Llangollen Traian with Trevor Traian, each supporting its own poor by a separate assessment, and containing 4498 inhabitants. ..... The parish is very extensive, and the Vale of Llangollen is deservedly celebrated as containing, in proportion to its extent, a greater variety of interesting objects, and a more beautiful and striking combination of the milder and nobler features of pleasing and majestic scenery, than probably any other in the Principality."
[ A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The ancient parish of Llangollen was divided into three parts : Llangollen Traean, Trefor Traean, and Glyn Traean.
Llangollen Traean contained the townships of Bachau, Cysylltau, Llangollen Abad, Llangollen Fawr, Llangollen Fechan, Feifod, Pengwern and Rhisgog.
Trefor Traean contained the townships of Cilmediw, Dinbren, Eglwysegl, Trefor Isaf and Trefor Uchaf.
Glyn Traean contained the townships of Cilcochwyn, Crogeniddon, Crogenwladus, Erwallo, Hafodgynfor, Nantygwryd, Pennant and Talygarth.
On 15 April 1848, the whole of Glyn Traean, together with the township of Cysylltau from Llangollen Traean, went to form the new parish of Pontfadog.
Cysylltau returned to Llangollen in 1870.

Bibliography

• Bodlander, Adrian  and Dave Southern.     Llangollen railway revival .       [Wallasey] : Llangollen Railway Society, 1988.
• Boswell, William A.    Llangollen town trail     Rev ed.      [Hawarden] : [Clwyd County Council], 1985
• Emery, Gordon     Llangollen - the high path to Froncysyllte     Chester : Gordon Emery, 1989.  + various other titles inc.  Llangollen - Horseshoe Falls & Valle Crucis  &    Llangollen - Llandyn Hall & Castell Dinas Bran     &      Llangollen- Llangollen canal & Trevor mills   &           Llangollen - Pen-y-coed & Pengwern Vale
• Grenter,  Stephen  and André Berry.     Castell Dinas Brân, Llangollen   Mold : Clwyd Archaeology Service,, 1991.        
• Hayes, Cliff and Sylvia.     Looking back at...Llangollen : a pictorial history of the area.         Llangollen : Books, [1994]         
• Hayes, Cliff.    Old Llangollen and the river Dee     Llangollen : Books, 1994.
• Jones, C. Delyth R.  (edited by Neil Thomson.)     Llangollen-Chirk canal      [Clwyd] : Clwyd County Council, 1980.
• Jones, T B. Aberavon (Bleddyn Morganwg).      The Maid of Llangollen     Aberavon: Printed by David Davis, High Street. [18--]         
• Lovely Llangollen         Cheltenham : Ed. J. Burrow & Co., [1921?]
• Mavor, Elizabeth.      The ladies of Llangollen      London : Joseph, 1971.    
• Official Llangollen town guide.    Llanymynech : Fairbrook Publications, [1994?]       
• Palmer, Verna.     Llangollen and district       Loggerheads : S. B. Publications, 1990.
• Pearson, Michael and Jackie.      Llangollen and Shropshire Union     2nd ed.   Burton-on-Trent : J.M. Pearson & Son, 1986,1987(printing)
• Pellow, Thomas  and Paul Bowen.        Canal to Llangollen      Crewe : Landscape Press, [1988]    
• Sherratt, Gordon.   A hurried history of Llangollen           Capel Garmon : Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1990.
• Simpson, W T.      Some account of Llangollen and its vicinity :  facsim ed.     Mold : Clwyd Library and Museum Service, 1989.           
• Simpson, William Tomisman.    Llangollen and its vicinity   [1827?]      
• Southern, Dave  and Mark Hambly.(edited by Adrian Bodlander)     Llangollen Railway stock book       2nd ed.         Llangollen : Llangollen Railway Society, 1990.
• The beautiful Vale of Llangollen official guide.    Llangollen : Llangollen Publicity Association, [1984?]     
• The Parish Church, Llangollen :   Llangollen : Saint Collen's Parish Church, [198-?]
• The Spirit of Llangollen & Llantysilio : Llangollen Museum = Naws Llangollen & Llantysilio : y ganrif a hanner ddiwethaf mewn llun / Amgueddfa Llangollen.   Asbourne : Landmark, 2003 -  and part 2 in 2006
• Veysey, A. Geoffrey [additions by David Freeman].       Plas Newydd and the Ladies of Llangollen      Ruthin : Glyndwr District Council, 1988.
• Williams,  H. Cernyw : Corwen.           Cofiant y Parch. Hugh Jones, D.D., Llangollen yn nghyda rhai o'i bregethau    Llangollen : W. Williams, 1884.
• Wilson, E A.     The Ellesmere and Llangollen canal       London ; Chichester : Phillimore, 1975.

Church History

See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph of ;

• Llangollen St Collen Church
• Llangollen, Valle Crucis Abbey
• Baptist Chapel, Llangollen

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 217419.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Collen, probably dates from the sixth or seventh centuries. A new building was erected in the thirteenth century; and again, probably in the early sixteenth century, following a fire. The tower was built circa 1750. The church was restored and extended between 1876 and 1883.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

There are two district churches - at Froncysyllte and Trevor.

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 "Llangollen Urban" :

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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 and Flintshire Record Offices, at the A.N. Palmer Library, Wrexham, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
  These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

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

Bishop's Transcripts

• Bishop's Transcripts for the years 1662 to 1835 have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; and those for the years 1836 to 1846 have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office.
  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.

I.G.I.

• The following have been incorporated into the I.G.I., as part of an "official extraction" programme.
  They were extracted from the Bishop's Transcripts, not from the Parish Registers.

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Civil Registration

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Llangollen are in the format :

• Years 1837 - 1851: Corwen XXVII. nnn
• Years 1851 - 1930: Corwen 11b. nnn

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

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Description and Travel

Llangollen - tourist site

Llangollen - tourist site

Llangollen - on wikipedia

Llangollen Museum

Llangollen photographs - on geograph.org.uk

Maps

On Clwyd FHS's site there is a diagram showing parish names/positions with links to pages for the parish church

Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R., Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: History Data Service, UK Data Archive [distributor], 17 May 2001. SN: 4348.   Here is a gazetteer/finding aid plus a set of overview maps to accurately identify the position of parishes within the county

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Population

• In 1831- the population was 4498.
• In 1901- the population was 5704.
  [ Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

• Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 13,076 acres titheable, and the same again non-titheable.
  [ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 2 Oct 2012 - Gareth Hicks