LLANOVER, Monmouthshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)] "LLANOVER, a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Abergavenny, county Monmouth, 4 miles S.E. of Abergavenny, its post town, and 7 from Pontypool. It is situated on the river Usk, near the Brecon canal. The parish includes the township of Blaenavon, where there are iron-works. The village is very considerable. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Llandaff, value £300, in the patronage of the dean and chapter. The church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew.

There is also the district church of Blaenavon, the living of which is a perpetual curacy,* value £114. The charities produce about £2, per annum. The Independents and Calvinistic Methodists have places of worship here. Llanover Court is the seat of Lord Llanover, who takes his title from this place. Lady Llanover supports a free school at her ownexpense; and there is another endowed by the late Mrs. Sarah Hopkins, with the interest of £3,000 government stock."

"BLAEN-AVON, (or Blaen Afon), a chapelry in the parish of Llanover, hundred of Abergavenny, in the county of Monmouth, 5 miles, to the S.W. of Abergavenny. It is situated in a mountain district, near the head (Blaen) of the river Avon-Llwyd, and is the terminus of the Eastern Valley s section of the Monmouthshire railway and canal. Coal and iron are abundant here, and the iron-works are of great extent.

The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the mines, which are worked by means of horizontal shafts, and yield about 400 tons of iron a week. Some of the dwellings are cut in the sides of the rocks. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Llandaff, of the value of £114, in the patronage of T. Hill, Esq. There are two chapels belonging to the Baptists in the village."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

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