Place:Llanrhian, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Watchers
NameLlanrhian
Alt namesLlanriansource: Family History Library Catalog
Croesgochsource: settlement in parish
Portheiddysource: settlement in parish
Porthgainsource: village in parish
Trefinsource: settlement in parish
Ynys Barrisource: settlement in parish
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates51.938°N 5.173°W
Located inPembrokeshire, Wales     ( - 1974)
Also located inDyfed, Wales     (1974 - 1996)
Pembrokeshire (principal area), Wales     (1996 - )
See alsoHaverfordwest Rural, Pembrokeshire, Walesrural district 1894-1974
Preseli District, Dyfed, Walesdistrict municipality 1974-1996
source: Family History Library Catalog
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Llanrhian is a community , small village and parish in Pembrokeshire in west Wales, near the Irish Sea coast. Porthgain village, within the parish, is even closer to the sea. The community of Llanrhian also includes the former civil parish of Llanhowell (Welsh: Llanhywel) and the settlements of Croesgoch, Portheiddy and Trefin. According to the 2011 census the village had a population of 892.

Llanrhian's church is dedicated to St. Rhian and is a grade II* listed building.

History

Originally part of the Cantref of Pebediog (later Dewisland Hundred) granted in perpetuity to the Bishops of St Davids in 1082, the manors of Llanrhian, Castle Morris and Priskilly were, prior to 1175, granted to Maurice Fitzgerald by his brother, David Fitzgerald, second Norman approved Bishop of St Davids.

The manors remained with Fitzgerald's descendants, by then settled in Ireland, until 1302 when Sir John Wogan, Chancellor of St Davids and Lord Justiciar of Ireland bought out the remaining Fitzgerald interests in all three manors.

Castle Morris and Priskilly were returned to the bishopric but Llanrhian appears to have remained in the Wogan family until the 17th century when it passed by marriage into the Le Hunte family of Artramont. The Le Hunte's then in turn retained Llanrhian manor until the 1880s when it was sold to Henry Prosser, ancestor of the present owner.

A farm named Barry Island farm and the hamlet of Ynys Barri lies just to the northwest of the village Llanrhian. The farm should not be confused with Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Research Tips

  • A 1900 Ordnance Survey map of the historic county of Pembrokeshire is available on the A Vision of Britain through Time website. This shows all the old parishes within their urban and rural districts. Large farms and estates are also marked. On the Haverfordwest Rural District page there is a sketchmap indicating the civil parishes of Haverfordwest Rural District as of 1935.
  • Pembrokeshire Archives has a website with a list of their holdings, as well as historical notes on places in Pembrokeshire. Its address is Prendergast, Haverfordwest, SA61 2PE; Tel No: 01437 775456 or (+44)1437 775456 (out of UK), E-mail: record.office@pembrokeshire.gov.uk
  • GENUKI has a page on each of the old counties of Wales and, under these counties, pages for each of the ecclesiastical parishes within the county. Information is gathered under a number of headings and the amount of information varies from parish to parish. Parish descriptions are based on a gazetteer dated 1835 and thus the emphasis is on ecclesiastical parishes. (Civil parishes were not yet established.) The submitter is very firm about his copyright. This should not stop anyone from reading the material.
  • The GENUKI Pembrokeshire pages include, under Description and Travel close to the bottom of the page, a link "parish map" to a map website showing boundaries and settlements before 1850. On the linked page will be maps of several parishes located close to each other.
  • GENUKI also provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area, but there is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date for every county.
  • FreeBMD provides a link to a list of the civil registration districts for each Welsh county from 1837 to 1996. Civil registration districts changed with varying densities of population and improvements in communication. Most counties and unitary authorities now have only one district. The list helps with providing names for the registration districts listed in the FreeBMD index and also as a guide for where to look for census entries.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI and these have been prepared at a later date. The Wiki may look like Wikipedia but the information has been provided for family historians. There are tables of links between the parishes in the historic counties of Wales and their post-1996 counterparts. This is the only genealogical website found that provides this information universally; others are not as thorough.
  • Some words in Welsh come up time and time again and you may want to know what they mean or how to pronounce them. For example,
    "Eglwys" is a church and the prefix "Llan" is a parish.
    "w" and "y" are used as vowels in Welsh.
    "Ll" is pronounced either "cl" or "hl" or somewhere in between. "dd" sounds like "th".
    The single letter "Y" is "the" and "Yn" means "in".
    "uwch" means "above"; "isod" is "below" or "under";
    "gwch" is "great", "ychydig" is "little";
    "cwm" is a "valley".
In both Welsh and English all these words are commonly used in place names in the UK. Place names are often hyphenated, or two words are combined into one. Entering your problem phrase into Google Search, including the term "meaning in Welsh", will lead you to Google's quick translation guide. I'm no authority; these are just things I have picked up while building up this gazetteer for WeRelate.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Llanrhian. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.