Place:St. Donats, Glamorgan, Wales

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

St Donats (Welsh: Sain Dunwyd) is a village and community (or civil parish) in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, located just west of the small town of Llantwit Major. The community includes the hamlets of East Monkton and West Monkton. It is named after the 6th-century saint, Dunwyd, a friend of Saint Cadoc. It had a population of 732 in the UK census of 2011.

St. Donat's church lies in a depression and is unremarkable from the exterior but contains Stradling family monuments in the Stradling chapel. It is a 12th-century Grade I listed building with a Grade I listed medieval cross in the churchyard.

The village is internationally known as the location of the 12th century St. Donat's Castle which is now an international boarding school occupied by Atlantic College, the first of fourteen United World Colleges.

Saint Donat (Sveti Donat, Saint Donatus) (second half of 8th century - Zadar, Croatia first half of 9th century) was Dalmatian bishop and a diplomat of city of Zadar.

St. Donats also includes Marcross and Monknash hamlets. Before 1974 these were both civil parishes, and named Macroes and Yr As Fawr respectively.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Glamorgan Lots of leads to other sources and descriptions of former parishes.
• The FamilySearch Wiki on Glamorgan has recently been updated (early 2016) and looks remarkably like Wikipedia. Their map "Glamorgan Parish Map.jpg" enlarges to show all the original parishes. The sub-section "Parishes of Historic Glamorgan" lists all the parishes of Glamorgan and the newer preserved counties and principal areas in both English and Welsh. (Currently this website is still under construction.)

Maps

The first three maps are provided by A Vision of Britain through Time

• A map of 1832 showing larger towns and some villages (not as good as the England county maps in this series).
• Ordnance Survey map of Glamorgan illustrating the parishes, rural districts, urban districts and boroughs as revised to 1899.
• A 1930s Ordnance Survey map of Glamorgan illustrating the parishes, rural districts, urban districts and boroughs as revised to 1944.

These maps were found on Wikimedia Commons

• Glamorgan Administrative Map 1947 separating the various types of administrations with colour coding. These division were most likely in place until 1974.
• A map of Wales outlining the prinicipal areas of Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan
• A map of Wales outlining the prinicipal areas of West Glamorgan
• A map of the Vale of Glamorgan principal area with the western part of Cardiff included

These maps of Glamorgan post-1974 were found on another site and are very useful for sorting out the up-to-date geography of the area

• A map of West Glamorgan showing the two principal areas and the towns located in them.
• A map of South Glamorgan showing the two principal areas and the towns located in them.
• A map of Bridgend, Merthyr and Rhondda showing the three principal areas and the towns located in them. The description states that this is "formerly part of Mid Glamorgan".
• A map of Caerphilly, Blaenau and Torfean showing the three principal areas and the towns located in them.