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A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis 1833

"LLANGAN (LLAN-GANNA), a parish in the hundred of OGMORE, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, 3 1/2 miles (N. W. by W.) from Cowbridge, containing 261 inhabitants.

It is of small extent, comprising only about eight hundred acres : on the north it is separated by the river Ewenny from the adjacent parish of Coychurch, and on the north-east by a rivulet, called the Canna, from that of St. Mary Hill: at the western end of it is situated the village of Treos. Its surface is rather flat, and its northern boundary is subject to inundation : the soil is fertile, and in some parts argillaceous, and intermingled with fragments of the limestone, which forms the substratum : the entire parish consists of rich arable and pasture land.

The limestone is worked to a considerable extent, as also was formerly the lead-ore found imbedded in it ; but the latter is now neglected. The valuable mine of Tewgoed, now exhausted, was on an east and west vein, called, from the colour of its contents, " the red vein," which was joined obliquely from the north-west by three others, called " blue veins :" at the junction of each of the latter with the former was a body of rich steel-grained ore, but that of the blue veins was galena, or laminar potters' ore.

The court leet of the manor is held by the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl of Dunraven alternately.

The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaf, rated in the king's books at £ 12. 16. 0 1/2., and in the alternate patronage of the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl of Dunraven. The church, a small neat edifice, is dedicated to St. Canna, the mother of St.Crallo : the latter founded Coychurch, and was nephew of St. Illtyd, the founder of Lantwit-Major. In the churchyard is the stone bead of a cross, sculptured, like those at Coychurch and Lantwit, within a circle, and which, although it bears no legible inscription, is considered, from those upon the latter, to have been erected in the fifth century, by Samson, pupil and successor of St. Illtutus in the college of Lantwit, to the honour of his patron and master. In front of the church is a fine cross, in the early style of English architecture, with an elegant shaft rising from a pedestal which is ascended by four steps, and ornamented in the capital with finely sculptured representations of the Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, of our Saviour : this cross escaped the destruction to which, during the usurpation of Cromwell, these relics of the religion of our ancestors were commonly devoted, as monuments of superstition, by the parliamentarian commissioners, both in the principality and in England.

There is a place of worship for Presbyterians.

Mrs. Gwenllian Williams gave £5, Mr. Lewis Thomas £ 10, and Mr. Edward Thomas bequeathed half the annual rent of a house and croft in the parish of St. Mary Hill, now producing £4 per annum, for distribution among the poor of this parish.

The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor is £74. 4."

A Topographical Dictionary of The Dominion of Wales by Nicholas Carlisle, London, 1811.

"LLAN GANNA, in the Cwmwd of Maenor Glynn Ogwr, Cantref of Cron Nedd (now called the Hundred of Ogmore), County of GLAMORGAN, South Wales: a discharged Rectory, valued in the King's Books at £12..16..0 1/2: Patrons, The Earl of Clarendon, and Thomas Wyndham, Esq., M. P., alternately: Church dedicated to St. Canna. The Resident Population of this Parish, in 1801, was 189.

The Money raised by the Parish Rates, in 1803, was £88..14..4 1/2, at 5s. in the pound. It is 3 1/2 m. N. W. from Cowbridge. This Parish contains 860 acres of Land; of which, about one fifth part is in Tillage, chiefly for Wheat, the successive crops being Barley, Oats, Clover, and Turnips: The Soil is good, on a substratum of Limestone: It has been inclosed from a very remote and unknown period, and is so described in Manorial Surveys and Title Deeds, so far back as the end of the Thirteenth Century. At the West end of the Church is a very ancient stone Cross, of rude Sculpture indeed, but in the style and manner of those old Crosses, pretty frequently met with in Wales, that are, from their Inscriptions, known to be of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries; and which are in some parts of the Kingdom called, oddly enough, Catharine Wheel Crosses.

Before the Church stands a fine Cross of Gothic sculpture, of a period much later than the preceding one, seemingly of the Thirteenth, or Fourteenth Century. It is one of the very few Crosses of the kind, that remain undemolished. The Pedestal is ascended on all sides by four steps, whence arises a slender shaft of about seven feet in height; on the top of which are elegantly sculptured the stories of the Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, in fine and durable free-stone. This Cross is not much injured by time or accident, or rather by the fanatical fury of the Cromwelian period; when, as Tradition says, almost all those old Crosses, the fine specimens of ancient taste and art, were demolished in this County from motives of false and outrageous piety. There are Lead Mines worked to considerable advantage in this Parish."

[Last Updated :11 Jan 2005 - Gareth Hicks]