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Llandeilo, otherwise Llandeilo-Tâl-Y-Bont - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
LLANDEILO, otherwise LLANDEILOTÂL-Y-BONT, a parish, in the union and hundred of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 7 miles (N. W. by N.) from Swansea, on the old road to Carmarthen; containing 1410 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the river Loughor, which divides it from the parishes of Llangennech and Llanedy, and which also here separates the two counties of Glamorgan and Carmarthen. It is bounded on the south-east by the parishes of Loughor and Llangyvelach, on the south-west and west by Llangennech and Llanedy, and on the north-east by Bettws, the three last parishes being in Carmarthenshire: it extends eight miles in length, and between one and two miles in breadth; and comprises by measurement about 6000 acres, of which 1500 are arable, 2500 pasture, and 2000 common and woodland. The soil, though generally poor and barren, is, in particular situations, good and productive; the surface is low and level in some parts, in others elevated, and the scenery presented by this diversity, where it is enriched by the fine plantations of oak and ash, is very beautiful. The agricultural produce consists of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes. Llandeilo is within the extensive coal basin of the county; the south-western extremity to a considerable extent abounds with excellent bituminous coal, and in the north-eastern portion is abundance of a hard coal of inferior kind. The parish contains an extensive colliery towards Loughor, and another in the direction of Llangyvelach. Iron-ore also exists in considerable quantity. The river, which at high tides is navigable to the church, affords a facility for the importation of limestone, which is brought in small craft, and burnt as manure for the supply of the neighbourhood.
The living is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £4. 14. 7.; present net income, £172, including a glebe, valued at £32 per annum; patron, Howel Gwyn, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Teilo, from which circumstance the parish takes its name. It is a spacious but low and dilapidated building, most inconveniently seated upon the verge of the river Loughor, about a mile below the populous village of Pont-ar-Ddulas, and surrounded by wet marshes, which are often in the winter overflowed by high tides, and floods that even cover the footpaths leading to the church. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and Calvinistic Methodists. Handsome and commodious National schools for boys and girls have been recently erected; there is also a British school for both sexes, and three Sunday schools are held, one of them in connexion with the Established Church, and the others belonging respectively to the Calvinistic Methodists and Wesleyans. Two rent-charges for distribution among poor parishioners, one of £2. 10., under a bequest by Mary Price, in 1720, and another of £1 by William Roberts, have been discontinued since 1805, in consequence of the loss of the securities, though paid for eighty years previously.
At the distance of about 200 yards from the Loughor is a tumulus, called by the inhabitants Banc Llwyn-y-Domen, surrounded by a trench, and supposed to have been thrown up for the purpose of defending the passage of the river: opposite to it, in the parish of Llanedy in Carmarthenshire, is a similar one, at about the same distance from the stream. At Court-y-Carw, to which a manor is attached, was a small monastery, dependent on the abbey of Cadoxton near Neath: till within the last century, the site was appropriated as a burial-place for unbaptized infants. According to the late Mr. Edward Williams, the eminent antiquary, of Flemingston near Cowbridge, commonly known as the Bard of Glamorganshire, this was the birthplace of St. Patrick, the apostle and patron saint of Ireland; but from its proximity to Loughor, from which it is distant only a mile and a half, Dr. Owen Pughe and other writers refer his nativity to that borough. At Glynloughor, a hamlet within the parish, was born Ieuan Lawdden, the most celebrated poet of his time, and who was for many years curate of Machynlleth, in the county of Montgomery: towards the close of his life he retired to his native village, where he died and was buried, but no monument has been erected to his memory.
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