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Manafon

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"MANAVON, a parish in the lower division of the hundred of NEWTOWN, county of MONTGOMERY, NORTH WALES, 8 1/2 miles (W. S. W.) from Welshpool, containing 775 inhabitants. This parish is situated in a mountainous district nearly in the centre of the county, and is intersected by the river Rhiw, and also by the road leading from Llanvair to Newtown and Montgomery :  ... The church, dedicated to St. Michael,  ... There is a place of worship for Welsh Calvinistic Methodists." [A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis, 1833]

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Bibliography

R S Thomas - on Wikipedia     "From 1942 to 1954 Thomas was rector of St Michael's Church, Manafon, near Welshpool in rural Montgomeryshire. It was during his time in Manafon that he first began to study Welsh and that he published his first three volumes of poetry, The Stones of the Field (1946), An Acre of Land (1952) and The Minister (1953).............."

Brown, Roger L. Sad, mad or bad : the case of Evan Jenkins, Rector of Manafon. Montgomeryshire Collections 83 (1995), p. 177-88 Parish of Manafon, Parish Church of St Michael and Beulah Presbyterian Chapel : memorial inscriptons. [S.l.] : Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society, 1996. 49p.  And 1998, 54p

Pritchard, T W. Manafon Church. Much Wenlock : R.J.L. Smith, c1998. 20p

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Census

Victorian Powys for schools site - Census figures for Manafon 1841-1901

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Church History

Church and chapel data from The Religious census of 1851 : A Calendar of the returns relating to Wales, Vol 11, North Wales. Ed. by Ieuan Gwynedd Jones, UWP,   1981. The names given towards the end of each entry are those of the informants.

Parish statistics; Area 6635 acres; Population 390 males, 376 females, total 766

  • Manafon Parish Church - no return
  • Beulah Chapel, New Mills, Calvinistic Methodist             Erected 1822/3     Day school                 Attendance - morning 23 + 52 scholars, afternoon 80 scholars, evening 27 + 71 scholars   John Parry, Leader, Birch House, Tregynon
  • Sion, Wesleyan Methodist              Erected 1842      Attendance - morning 29, afternoon 44, evening 50                David Edwards, Deacon, Penybryn, Manafon

    Church of St Michael, Manafon on the Montgomeryshire Churches Survey site

    Interior/Exterior Church, Manafon - on the People's Collection Wales site

    Rees, Thomas & John Thomas Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru   (History of the Welsh Independent Churches), 4 volumes (published 1871+). The Manafon section, Byrwydd chapel (in Brynhwdog) (in Welsh) has been extracted - with translation by Maureen Saycell (Aug 2009)

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    Church Records

    Detailed information on deposited registers and transcripts for this parish is given on the Powys Archives page Montgomeryshire parish registers

    As a guide only, the principal extant parochial church records for this parish span the dates shown below (as detailed in Parish Registers of Wales, NLW 2000) but exact current holdings should be confirmed with the individual Archives;

    • Baptisms 1596-1665, 1678-1891; Marriages 1654, 1678-1971; Burials 1596-1667, 1678-1930; Banns 1812-1838
      Parish Registers, or copies, for all or part of these dates are held at the NLW, and/or Powys Archives.
      Bishops Transcripts for various periods are held at the NLW, Denbighshire Archives and/or Flintshire Archives

    St Asaph Notitiae; Deanery of Cedewain, parish of Manafon 1681? - on the NLW site

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    Description & Travel

    You can see pictures of Manafon which are provided by:

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    Gazetteers

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    History

    RS Thomas and the problem of Welsh Identity ( (site disappeared June 2012)   by Jeffery A Triggs. "......... In the early 1940's, Thomas took over the parish of Manafon, a town near the English border where 'most people spoke with a Shropshire accent using a strange admixture of Welsh idioms' ............''

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    Land & Property

    Cut away drawing of Pen-y-Bont, Manafon - on the People's Collection Wales site

    Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;  

    • William Edwards of Ludlow: property in Montgomeryshire     "Deeds and other documents, 1809-1839, relating to property in Llanfair Caereinion and Manafon, Montgomeryshire"
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    Maps

    Map of Montgomeryshire parishes on Montgomeryshire Genealogical Society's site - shows dioceses

    Victorian Powys for schools site - Manafon in 1836, and 1902

    You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SJ069014 (Lat/Lon: 52.602617, -3.375764), Manafon which are provided by:

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    Schools

    Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

    • Manafon school records  1832-1983