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- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
Llanelly is the name of a parish and coterminous community in the principal area of Monmouthshire, within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, south-east Wales. It roughly covers the area of the Clydach Gorge. The population of the parish and ward at the 2011 census was 3,899.
Llanelly was transferred from Breconshire into the newly formed administrative county of Gwent in 1974 (under the Local Government Act, 1972. In 1996 that part of Gwent became the Monmouthshire (principal area), Wales.
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Llanelly from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- "LLANELLY, a parish and a sub-district in Crickhowell district, Brecon. The parish lies on the rivers Clydach and Usk, on the Brecon and Newport canal, and on the Abergavenny and Merthyr-Tydvil railway, around Clydach r. station, and adjacent to Monmouthshire, 3 miles SSE of Crickhowell; comprises the parcels of Aberbaiden and Maesgwartha; and includes parts of Brynmaur and Clydach,-the latter of which has a postoffice under Abergavenny. Acres, 5,183. Real property, £23,853; of which £237 are in quarries, £55 in mines, £5,023 in iron-works, and £1,399 in the canal. Pop. in 1801,937; in 1831,4,041; in 1851,9,644; in 1861,9,603. Houses, 2,043. The increase of pop., prior to 1851, arose from the flourishing condition of the Clydach iron-works. The surface includes much upland, some good scenery, and two waterfalls. Part of the upland rises so high as 1,200 feet above sea-level; and, though mainly bleak moor and barren morass, and though at the beginning of the present century all a sheep walk, without one human abode, is now occupied by a large population. The valley of the Clydach is partly a gorge; is flanked on both sides, for a considerable distance, by limestone rock about 500 feet thick; exhibits highly picturesque features, ' ' high cliffs springing up from the water's edge, jutting out in bold relief, covered with brushwood, or fringed with delicate ferns; is worked, in the sides, with quarries of limestone, and with mines of iron and coal; and is occupied, at intervals, with ' 'large iron furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills, placed at such a depth below the road, that the traveller looks down upon the blackened roofs, and hears the groaning of engines and beating of hammers, while the steam is seen bursting out in white jets, and the smoke rolling forth in murky clouds." The chief of the two waterfalls is called Pwl-y-cwn, or ' ' the pool of dogs; has worn some remarkable hollows in the rock; and, though not very high, is very picturesque. An aqueduct of the canal crosses the Clydach at a height of 80 feet above the stream. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of St. David's. Value, not reported. * Patron, the Duke of Beaufort. The church is dedicated to St. Ellyw. There are chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists, and charities £30."
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