Aber-Nant

Some church and chapel data from The Religious census of 1851 : A Calendar of the returns relating to Wales, Vol 1, South Wales. Ed. by   I.G   Jones, & D. Williams. UWP,   Cardiff, 1976. The names are those of the informants

• Abernant Parish Church          "On account of some peculiar local circumstances the attendance on the 30th March was unusually small"               Henry Jones Davis, Curate
• Bethania  Baptist               Erected in 1839           Thomas Thomas, Secretary, Talog, Nr Carmarthen
• Aber   Ind           Erected in 1839        Thomas Jones, Superintendent of Sunday school, Pantyhendyisaf, Abernant
• Bwlchnewydd  Ind       Erected 1746, re-built 1808, enlarged 1832          " As is the case frequently in Wales, the chapel is so crammed occasionally, that many more attend than are able to find room to sit and are consequently forced to stand"             *Michael D Jones, Minister

Parish entry for Abernant with Conwil Elvet from The Welsh Church Year Book, 1929 (Cd by (Archive CD Books).

• St Lucia & St Cynwyl (Conwil Elvet) & Cwmduad St Alban
• Incumbent and Curates; D Evans (P Jones)
• Rural Deanery of  Carmarthen
• Acreage 6,458 & 13,100 ; Population 1,772

• Bethania (Baptist, c1835) - records with those of Tabernacle Chapel, Carmarthen      In Talog  SN32642517     Cause established ca. 1835 and chapel built 1839. Rebuilt/modified 1895
  Status (1998): in chapel use    Coflein

• Capel Cendy (Independent, 1833) - records with those of Bwlchnewydd Chapel, Newchurch    SN34272269     Cause established in 1833, schoolroom built 1838 & chapel in 1839; rebuilt in 1866. Status (1998): in chapel use   Coflein                   Shown as still open on the Union of Welsh Independents site (Dec 2006)
• Bwlchnewydd (Independent, bef 1715): baptisms (1805-41) PRO RG4/4123; burials (1855-57) PRO RG4/3816 LDS 828109 IGI; baptisms (1841-50) with Bwlchnewydd secretary      SN36862491    Chapel built in 1746, rebuilt 1808; enlarged 1832/3 & rebuilt/modified 1859. Status (1998): in chapel use.  Coflein                Photograph etc on Dyfed FHS       Ind chapel, Bwlchnewydd (no parish) - Shown as still open on the Union of Welsh Independents site (Dec 2006)
  Rees, Thomas & John Thomas. Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru (History of the Welsh Independent Churches), 4 volumes (published 1871+). Here is the entry from this book for this chapel (in Welsh ) - with translation by Gareth Hicks (Jan 2009)
• Bethel Ind Sunday School, Abernant (near Talog)           SN32452528               Chapel built 1896-7   Coflein

MacDonald, R W. The Parish Registers of Wales, National Library of Wales journal. 1976, Winter. Volume XIX/4. Here is an extract relating to this parish;
"There was a fine of £5 for not complying with the Act by burying the corpse in linen or material other than wool. One half of the fine went to the poor of the parish and the other half to the person who provided the information relating to the non-compliance with the law. The Act was not repealed until 1814 but it appears to have been generally disregarded long before then. In the register of Abernant, co. Carmarthen, however, the following memorandum was written in August 1800:
- 'An Oath was made before me that the two last were buried in Flannel according to an Act of 30 C 2 Ch 3. But notwithstanding the party belonging to the Burial of Jane W. of Joel David of Pantyllyn have been frequently admonished by me, they totally disregarded my admonition & neglected to comply with the above mentioned Act.' "     Dd. Lewis Vr. of Abernant.

The Religious census of 1851 : A Calendar of the returns relating to Wales, Vol 1, South Wales., byJones, I.G. & Williams, D. UWP, Cardiff, 1976. These statistics for this parish are extracted from this book which in turn got them from the 1851 census itself;

• Area 6321 acres; Population 416 males, 453 females, total 869

Places, villages, farms etc within Aber-Nant as shown on the 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 Merv Thomas)

• Abernant [42]; Abernant, Blaen-afon, Blaen-dyfod, Blaen-y-bryn, Blaen-y-waun, Bryn-meini, Cil-crug, Cilwen, Clyn-pur-faith, Crynfryn, Cwm-cest, Esgeirfa, Glasfryn, Lan, Maen-Ieuan, Melin Newydd, Nant-glas, Pant-y-cendy, Pant-y-llyn, Pen-allt-fangor, Penrhiw-las, Pen-y-coed, Pen-yr-allt-trawscoed, Post-du-isaf, Post-du-uchaf, Pwll-dyfarch, Rhyd-y-gareg-ddu, Sychpant, Talog, Tal-y-fan-isaf, Tal-y-fan-uchaf, Troed-y-rhiw-march, Ty-rhas, Waun-gochan