Place:Llanfihangel Llantarnam, Monmouthshire, Wales

source: Family History Library Catalog

Llanfihangel Llantarnam was a parish (both ecclesiastical and civil) which has been commonly known simply as Llantarnum. The formal name is Welsh for "the church of St. Michael in Llantarnam". From 1894 until 1935 it was an urban district. In 1935 Llantarnam Urban District and the adjacent Llanfrechfa Upper Urban District were abolished and replaced by Cwmbran Urban District which went on to become Cwmbran New Town, now in Torfaen (principal area), Wales.

The village of Llantarnam (population 4,125 in 2011) is directly south of the centre of Cwmbran. A Vision of Britain through Time (see quote below) states that the village had an ironworks in 1870. Information on the closure of the ironworks has not been found.

Llantarnam Abbey is a Cistercian abbey founded in 1179 as a daughter house of Strata Florida Abbey in Cardiganshire. The remains of that abbey are incorporated into the present buildings housing the Sisters of Saint Joseph. It also contains St Michael's Church.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Llantarnam Abbey.

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

"LLANVIHANGEL-LLANTARNAM, a parish in Newport [registration] district, Monmouth[shire]; on the river Afon-Llwyd, an affluent of the Usk, adjacent to the Eastern Valleys railway, 3½ miles N of Newport. It has a station, of the name of Llantarnam, on the railway; and its Post town is Caerleon, under Newport, Monmouth[shire]. Acres: 4,092. Real property: £6,100; of which £1,000 are in ironworks, and £13 on the railway. Population in 1851: 1,228; in 1861: 1,301. Houses: 263. The property is much subdivided.

"A Cistertian abbey stood here; and was given, at the dissolution, to the Morgans. Llantarnam House was built from the materials of the abbey; is a Tudor edifice; belonged, for a time, to the Morgans; and is now the seat of E. Blewitt, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Llandaff. Value: £108. Patron: E. Blewitt, Esq. The church is good."

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