Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ABERGWILLY

ABERGWILLY, a village and a parish in the district and county of Carmarthen. The village stands at the confluence of the Gwilly with the Towy, and on the Llandilo and Carmarthen railway, 1½ mile NE of Carmarthen. It has a station on the railway, and a post office under Carmarthen. Fairs are held on 4 May, 23 June, 2 and 27 Oct. The palace of the Bishop of St. David's, an edifice in the Tudor style, built in 1830, is adjacent. Merlin's hill, an eminence on the side of a dell, nearly 1½ mile above the village, is said to have been the birthplace and the favourite haunt of the sorcerer Merlin; and a rocky cavity near its summit still bears the name of Merlin's Chair. A battle was fought in the neighbourhood, in 1020, between Llewelyn-ab-Sytsylt and the adventurer Run.—The parish contains also the hamlets of Cricklas, Glantawy, Hengil, Veney, and Ystyngwilly. Acres, 10,748. Real property, £9,078. Pop., 2,197. Houses, 451. The property is much subdivided. There are slate quarries. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. David's. Value, £172.*Patron, the Bishop of St. David's. The ancient church was made collegiate in 1287, but was annexed in 1531 to the college at Brecon. The present church is a handsome edifice, in the early English style, with a spire. A sub-parochial church stands at Llanfihangel-Uwchgwilly, and is served by a perpetual curate, on a salary of £75, appointed by the Vicar. There are Independent, Baptist, and Calvinistic-Methodist chapels, and charities £14.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Abergwili AP/CP       Carmarthen RegD/PLU       Carmarthenshire AncC
Place: Abergwili

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