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

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"YSPYTTY-YSTWITH, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of ILAR, county of CARDIGAN, SOUTH WALES, 13 miles (S. E. by E.) from Aberystwith, containing 472 inhabitants. The name is derived from an ancient hospitium formerly existing here, which is supposed to have belonged to the Knights Hospitallers, and its adjunct from its situation on the banks of the river Ystwith. The parish, which is also bounded on the east by the small rivers Marchnad and Meuric, comprises about four thousand acres, one-half of which is waste land. The surface is hilly, and the soil various : in the lower grounds, which in some parts are subject to partial inundation, it is boggy, and in the higher rocky and barren : there is some good arable and pasture land, which is enclosed and cultivated. Lead-ore is found in the parish, of which some mines have been worked with advantage, and are still carried on. Fairs are held annually at the hamlet of Rhôs in this parish, on the first Thursday after Whit-Sunday, August 5th and 26th, and September 25th. Part of the parish is within the post-office delivery of Lampeter, from which it is sixteen miles and a half distant. The living is a perpetual curacy, with that of Yspytty Ystrad Meuric annexed, in the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and diocese of St. David's, endowed with £ 800 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Earl of Lisburne. The church, dedicated to St.John the Baptist, is a small ancient edifice, consisting only of a nave, divided by a screen to form a chancel: the roof is supported by octagonal pillars, in one of which there is a cavity for the purpose of a font : it is situated on a rock commanding a fine view of Maen Arthur wood. Poor children of this parish have the privilege of gratuitous instruction in the free grammar school at Ystrad Meuric. The average annual expenditure for the relief of the poor is £31.14."

[Gareth Hicks: 17 December 1999]