Llangadwaladr, Denbighshire

For the settlement on Anglesey, see Llangadwaladr.

The remote parish church of Llangadwaladr on the slopes of Gyrn Moelfre

Llangadwaladr is an isolated mountain parish in Denbighshire, some seven miles west of the nearest town, Oswestry, Shropshire. It covers an area of sparsely settled hill-farming country around the valley of the Afon Ysgwennant beneath Gyrn Moelfre.

History

The parish was originally a chapelry of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, but was later formed into a separate parish, consisting of a main body, where the parish church was located, entirely surrounded by Llansilin and the detached township of Tregeiriog (the only village, in the neighbouring valley).

A correspondent in By-gones, relating to Wales and the Border Counties, stated that an elderly local had told him about a form of "mob" or "folk" football formerly played between the parishes of Llangadwaladr and Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, where the opposing teams would "contend from morning even until night, and sometimes [...] fresh help would be fetched up in the evening".

St Cadwaladr's church

The Church in Wales parish church is dedicated to Cadwaladr Fendigaid and was mentioned as "Bettws Kadwaladr" as early as 1291. It is sheltered by yew trees, some of which are over 1,000 years old. Some of its current fabric dates from the 15th century, with major alterations made in 1883 by W. H. Spaull of Oswestry: a re-set mediæval window survives in the vestry.

Lewis noted that St Cadwaladr's church possessed a "very elegant set of communion plate" presented by Sir John Trevor of Brynkinallt.

The Rev. Robert Williams (1810–1881), author of the Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum, the first Cornish-English dictionary, was the perpetual curate of Llangadwaladr and Rhydycroesau from 1837 to 1879. A native of Conwy, where his father was Vicar, he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating MA, and was appointed a Cursal Canon of St Asaph Cathedral in 1872. In 1879 he became Rector of Culmington, near Ludlow, where he died and was buried in the churchyard in 1881.

References

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