Place:Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire, Wales

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

In the 21st century Cwmyoy is an extensive rural parish in Monmouthshire, Wales. The standard Welsh name is Cwm Iau or Cwm-iau. The name of the valley probably originates from the Welsh word 'iau' meaning "yoke", in reference to the shape of the hill surrounding it.

The village of Cwmyoy is located 7 miles north of Abergavenny and 4 miles south of Llanthony in the Vale of Ewyas in the Black Mountains.

Until 1866 the parish of Cwmyoy was located in Herefordshire, England as is shown by the following quotation:

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Cwmyoy from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"CWMYOY, a parish in the [registration] district of Abergavenny, and counties of Monmouth[shire] and Hereford[shire]; on the river Honddu, under the Black mountains, 2¾ miles NW of Llanfihangel [Crucorney] [railway] station, and 6½ N of Abergavenny. It contains the hamlets of Fwthog and Bwlch-Trewyn, and the abbey of Llanthony; and its post town is Llanfihangel-Crucorney, under Abergavenny. Acres: 10,366. Real property: £3,303. Population: 649. Houses: 143. The property is divided among a few. The surface includes grand mountain and glen scenery. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Llandaff. Value: £68. Patron: John Morgan, Esq. The church is good."

On being transferred to Monmouthshire, Cwmyoy was divided into two parochial areas of Lower Cwmyoy and Upper Cwmyoy which both became civil parishes within Abergavenny Rural District in 1894. The village of Cwmyoy was in Lower Cwmyoy and Llanthony was in Upper Cwmyoy to the north. Fwthog, to the west, and Bwlch Trewyn, to the east, also became separate civil parishes in 1894.

It would appear that with the formation of Gwent in 1974 the four civil parishes were rejoined as a community, a form of local administration which replaced the parish.

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