Gazetteers - BODEDERN

 A Topographical Dictionary of Wales
Samuel Lewis, 1833

BODEDERN (BOD-EDEYRN), a parish in the hundred of LLYVON, county of ANGLESEY, NORTH WALES, 8 miles (E. by S.) from Holyhead, containing 1085 inhabitants. This parish derived its name from having been the residence of Edeyrn, a bard, who flourished about the middle of the seventh century, and who, having embraced a religious life, presided over the church at this place. The village, which is one of the most extensive in the county, is pleasantly situated on the old Holyhead road : the surrounding scenery is pleasingly diversified.

The principal seats within the parish are, Presaddved, a fine ancient family mansion, of which the estate was held in fee by the service of attending at the coronation of the Princes of Wales, and supporting the right side of the canopy during that solemnity ; and Tre' Iorwerth, the property and residence of the Rev. H. Wynne Jones, a good family mansion, beautifully situated in the midst of luxuriant and extensive plantations. Near the latter seat is Llyn Llwennyn, a fine lake, from which issues a small rivulet, on the banks of which, within the parish, are the scattered ruins of two cromlechs.

The spinning of woollen yarn is carried on in the village, for which purpose there are two mills, set in motion by water, attached to which are dye-houses and a fulling-mill. There is a branch establishment under the post-office at Bangor ; and fairs, principally for cattle, are held on March 13th, April 16th, May 5th, June 9th, Whit-Tuesday (for hiring -servants), August 16th, September 14th, and December 1st and 22nd. The petty sessions for the hundred are held here once a month, and district meetings take place quarterly at the village.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Anglesey, and diocese of Bangor, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and £ 600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Principal and Fellows of Jesus' College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Edeyrn, is a small ancient structure, displaying some good architectural details, and containing some fine monuments to the memory of deceased members of the Presaddved and Tre' Iorwerth families. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school was erected in 1822, by the voluntary contributions of the gentry in the neighbourhood, and is supported by subscription : about seventy children of the parish receive gratuitous instruction in it. Dr. Gwynn gave a portion of tithes, producing £2. 10. per annum, Mr. Edmund Griffith and Mrs. Jane Wynne gave certain portions of land; and Mrs. Roberts assigned the moiety of the interest of £ 100, to the poor of this parish; the produce of which benefactions, together with that of some other charitable donations and bequests, is annually distributed, according to the directions of the several benefactors. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £309. 12.

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