Place:Caron uwch Clawdd, Cardiganshire, Wales

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

Caron uwch Clawdd is a mountainous community (or civil parish) now in the county of Ceredigion, Wales, but before 1974 in the historic county of Cardiganshire. Like Caron is Clawdd to the south, it has always been very thinly populated. However, two of its settlements have taken their place in history. Despite the quotation from Wilson's Gazetteer, A Vision of Britain through Time classifies Caron uwch Clawdd as an ancient and civil parish.

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

"CARON-UWCH-CLAWDD, or Strata-florida, a township-chapelry in Caron-ys-Clawdd parish, Cardigan[shire]; on the Sarn Helen way and the river Teifi, 4 miles NNE of Tregaron [railway] station, and 22½ N by W of Llandovery. It includes the village of Rhydfendigaed; and its post town is Tregaron, under Carmarthen. Rated property: £368. Population: 868. Houses: 181. The property is divided among a few. The surface consists of mountains, intersected by narrow vales. A Cistertian Abbey, often called Ystrad-Flwr Abbey, was founded here, in 1164, by Rhys-ap-Gryfydd, prince of South Wales; burnt down in the wars of Edward I.; restored afterwards to more than its original splendour; and given, at the dissolution, to the Stedmans. It was the repository of the national records from 1156 till 1270, and the scene of a grand assembly of lords and barons in 1238; and was the burialplace of many of the Cambrian princes. It stood on the Teifi, overshadowed by mountains; and was alike secluded and magnificent; but almost the only part of it now remaining is a very beautiful Norman arch, which formed the west entrance to its church. An older but small monastic house stood two miles to the south, at a spot still showing ancient foundations, and called LlanMonachlog, "the old monastery." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St. Davids. Value: £80. Patron: W. E. Powell, Esq. The church is a small mean structure within the precincts of the Abbey. There is a Calvinistic Methodist chapel."

Strata Florida Abbey

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

Strata Florida Abbey (Welsh: Abaty Ystrad Fflur or Mynachlogfawr) is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron in the county of Ceredigion, Wales (formerly Cardiganshire). The abbey was founded in 1164. "Strata Florida" is a Latinisation of the Welsh Ystrad Fflur; "Valley of Flowers". The Welsh word ystrad is synonymous with "strath" and "dale", while fflur ("flower") is also the name of the nearby river. After the region around St. David's was firmly occupied by the Norman Marcher lordship of Pembroke by the early 12th century, and with St. David's firmly under Norman influence thereafter, the princely Dinefwr family of Deheubarth transferred their patronage to Strata Florida, and interred many of their family members there.

Pontrhydfendigaid

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

Pontrhydfendigaid is a village in Ceredigion, Wales, but before 1974 in the historic county of Cardiganshire. It lies on the western flank of the Cambrian Mountains, and is located between Devil's Bridge and Tregaron. The village lies on the River Teifi, the source of which is just 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to east at Llyn Teifi.

It is known for the ruins of the Cistercian Strata Florida Abbey, founded 1164, where Dafydd ap Gwilym is said to be buried and Llywelyn the Great held a council.

The railway station at Strata Florida was positioned to serve the village.

Hafod Uchtryd

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

Hafod Uchtryd (English: summer mansion of Uchtryd) is a wooded and landscaped estate, located in Ceredigion, Wales, in the Ystwyth valley. It is near Devil's Bridge, Cwmystwyth and Pont-rhyd-y-groes off the B4574 road - which is described by the Automobile Association as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world. It was anciently the location of a dwelling on the side of the hill above the river Ystwyth, looking to the east. First used as a hunting lodge for Welsh Chieftains, it became home to landed gentry and nobility, and in the late eighteenth century became a celebrated landscape, under the ownership of Thomas Johnes.

The lands of the Hafod Uchtryd were within the boundaries of the Cistercian Abbey Strata Florida (see above).

Research Tips

• A 1900 Ordnance Survey map of the historic county of Cardiganshire 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.
• GENUKI online parish map from the CD of Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata [computer file]. (Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R.). (Extracted by Gareth Hicks). This is a much clearer map that the one referenced above.
• Ceredigion Archives has a website with a list of their holdings, as well as historical notes on places in Cardiganshire.
• 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.