In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Llangadog like this:
LLANGADOCK, a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Llandovery district, Carmarthen. The town stands between the rivers Sefni and Sawdde, tributaries of the Towy, near the Via Julia Montana, and near the Llanelly and Vale of Towy railway, under offshoots of the Black mountains, 5½ miles SW of Llandovery; is an ancient but decayed place; had a castle, which was taken in 1204 by Rhys ap Gruffydd; had also a college founded in 1283 by Bishop Bec; is governed by a portreeve and 8 burgesses; and has a post office† under Carmarthen, a railway station with telegraph, a church, three dissenting chapels, and a British school. ...
The church stands on a rising ground; was plundered, and converted into a stable, by the English soldiers in the time of Edward I.; and was reported in 1859 as then needing repair. A weekly maket is held on Thursday; and fairs are held on 16 Jan., 12 March, the last Thursday of May, 9 July, 1 Oct., and 11 Dec.—The parish comprises the hanithe Thursday after 11 Sept., the second Thursday after lets of Above-Sawthe, Dyffrun-Cidrich, and GwynfeQuarter-Bach. Acres, 15,642. Real property, £10,302. Pop., 2,789. Houses, 590. The property is much subdivided. Glasnevin and Tanyrallt are chief residences. Coal and limestone are worked; and traces of iron and lead ores are observed. A Roman camp, in regular parallelogramic form and of remarkable character, is on the summit of a detached hill, called Carn-Goch, near the precipitous ridge of Trichrug, about 3 miles SW of the town. ''One of the largest faces is a natural wall of quartz rock, the beds of which dipping to the NW, present a bold precipitous face to the vale of the Towy; and the other walls, which in places are still from 20 to 30 feet high, have been formed by piling large and shattered blocks, which, from their angularity, give a cyclopean character to these desolate and venerable ruins." The living is a vicarage, united wlth the vicarage of Llanthoysaint, in the diocese of St. David's. Value, £267.* Patron, the Bishop of St. David's. The p. curacy of Gwynfe or Crinamnian is a separate benefice. -The subdistrict is conterminate with the parish.
Llangadog through time
Llangadog is now part of Carmarthenshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how Carmarthenshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Llangadog itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Llangadog in Carmarthenshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6247
Date accessed: 07th November 2024
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