Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LAMPETER

LAMPETER, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in Cardiganshire. The town stands on the river Teifi, and on the Manchester and Milford railway, at the boundary with Carmarthenshire, in a beautiful valley, engirt by wooded hills, 26 miles E by N of Cardigan. It dates from remote times; shows evidence of having formerly been a larger and more important place than now; and had anciently a castle, which has disappeared. The Sarn Helen way ran adjacent; a Roman camp was on that way near Olwen; another Roman camp was at Alltgoch; and remains of a Druidical circle are near. Archbishop Baldwin, accompanied by the historian Giraldus, preached the crusade here in 1188; leaden coffins have been exhumed on a spot which is supposed to have been the cemetery of an ancient and quite extinct church; an ancient priory also is conjectured to have stood here; a bridge across the Teifi, about ½ a mile to the S, is said to have been originally erected by King Stephen; and the town itself is properly called Llanbedr, and took that name from the dedication of its church to St. Peter. The men of Lampeter, or Gwyr Llanbedr, are occasionally mentioned, with epithets of distinction, in the Welsh chronicles. The town consists chiefly of one long street; has, of late years, been greatly improved; and presents a clean and pleasant appearance. It has a post-office‡ under Carmarthen, a railway station, a good inn, a town-hall, a drinking-fountain, a clerical college, a church, three dissenting chapels, and a public school; is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; unites with Cardigan, Adpar, and Aberystwith in sending a member to parliament; and is nominally governed, under charter, by a portreeve and other officers. The drinking fountain was erected in 1862, by gift of J. S. Harford, Esq.; has a height of about 25 feet; and is built of Forest of Dean stone. The clerical college was built in 1822-7, after designs by Cockerell, at a cost of £30,000; occupies the site of the ancient castle; is a handsome quadrangular edifice; affords training to 70 students, chiefly for Welsh benefices; was incorporated by a charter of George IV.; acquired other charters in 1852 and 1865, for conferring degrees of B.D. and B.A.; had originally an income of £900, of which £400 was a Treasury grant; and got an additional endowment of £1,500 a-year by an order in council in 1863. The church is a modern structure, on an eminence; superseded an ancient one; and contains monuments of the Lloyds of Millfield and an old font. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs are held on 11 January, Whit - Wednesday, 10 July, 27 August, 26 September, and 13 October. Pop. of the borough, in 1851,907; in 1861,989. Houses, 233. –The parish contains also the hamlet of Tref-y-coed, and bears the name of Lampeter-Pont-Stephen. Acres, 6,204. Real property, £4,149. Pop., 1,542. Houses, 339. The manor belongs to J. S. Harford, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Davids. Value, £240. Patron, the Bishop of St. Davids.

The sub-district contains also the parishes of Bettws-Bleddrws, Llangyby, Trefilan, and Silian. Acres, 14,612. Pop., 2,710. Houses, 575.–The district comprehends also the sub - district of Llanwenog, containing the parishes of Llanwenog and Llanwnen; the sub-district of Pencarreg, containing the parishes of Cellan, Llanfair-Clydogau, Pencarreg, and Llanycrwys,–the two last in Carmarthenshire; and the sub-district of Llanybyther, containing the parishes of Llanybyther, Llanllwny, and Llanfihangel- Rhosycorn,–all in Carmarthenshire. Acres, 75,710. Poor - rates in 1863, £5,074. Pop. in 1851,9,874; in 1861,9,994. Houses, 2,196. Marriages in 1863,56; births, 269,–of which 41 were illegitimate; deaths, 166,–of which 38 were at ages under 5 years, and 15 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,652; births, 2,615; deaths, 1,776. The places of worship, in 1851, were 15 of the Church of England, with 1,992 sittings; 13 of lndependents, with 3,697 s.; 5 of Baptists, with 1,010 s.; 3 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 730 s.; 2 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 270 s.; 5 of Unitarians, with 1,175 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 30 attendants. The schools were 7 public day schools, with 358 scholars; 10 private day schools, with 355 s.: and 29 Sunday schools, with 1,798 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Lampeter AP/CP       Lampeter SubD       Lampeter RegD/PLU       Cardiganshire AncC
Place: Lampeter

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