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Hirwaun in the Parishes of Aberdare and Penderyn (Breconshire)

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"HIRWAIN, a village and a chapelry in Aberdare parish, Glamorgan. The village stands near the boundary with Brecon and the watershed of the Cynon, on the Vale of Neath railway at its junction with the Taff Valley railway and with the branch to Merthyr-Tydvi1, 4 miles NW of Aberdare; ... " [From John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) on A Vision of Britain through Time.]

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Archives & Libraries

Hirwaun Library
High Street
Hirwaun
CF44 9SW

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Bibliography

References to the town of Hirwaun at

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Church Records

For full and up-to-date details of their holdings see the sites of Glamorgan Record Office and/or West Glamorgan Archives

See Bap/Mar/Bur data on FreeReg

Parish formed in 1886 from Aberdare and Penderyn (Breconshire)

Hirwaun, Penderyn Church - See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph

The church is dedicated to St. Lleurwg, is in the Benefice of Hirwaun, and Diocese of Llandaff. Details of the present incumbent of this benefice can be found at the Church in Wales website. The church can be found at grid reference SN958056.

Anglican Parish Registers Held at the Glamorgan Record Office, Cardiff
BaptismsMarriagesBurialsBannsBishops Transcripts
1858-19441884-1941---

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

  • Hirwaun Ecclesiastical Parish records "Hirwaun is a modern parish within the rural deanery of Aberdare in the diocese of Llandaff. St. Lleurwg's church, Hirwaun, was first erected in 1858 as a chapel of ease to Aberdare and was restored in 1884. The ecclesiastical parish of Hirwaun was created in 1886 from the civil parishes of Aberdare in Glamorgan and Penderyn in the county of Brecon"
    "Hirwaun Ecclesiastical Parish records including registers of baptisms, 1858-1944; marriages, 1884-1941; banns, 1899-1960; services, 1877-1919; marriages licences, 1919-1957; certificates, 1940-1957; terriers, 1910-1919; churchwardens accounts, 1897-1911; miscellaneous, 1858-1921; church affairs, 1886-1942; church organisations, c1905-1930"

 

Non Conformist Registers Deposited
ChapelBaptismsMarriagesBurialsOS Map RefDeposited/
Copies
Nebo, Congregational--1824-1835SN 95890551PRO
Blaen-gwawr, Soar, Wesleyan1857-1933--SN 95800567NLW
Blaen-gwawr, Soar, Wesleyan*
*not on WGAS online list
1966-1968--SN 95800567WGAS
Blaen-gwawr, Soar, Wesleyan-1971-1984-SN 95800567GRO

GRO - Glamorgan Record Office, Cardiff
NLW - National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
WGAS - West Glamorgan Archive Service
PRO - Public Record Office, London

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Description & Travel

Photographs of Hirwaun - on Aberdare online

Hirwaun - on the Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries Heritage Trail site

Hirwaun - on Wikipedia

Various items - on the People's Collection Wales site

  • Aerial photograph of Bryn Du Gas Works, Hirwaun, 1992
  • Various landscapes
You can see pictures of Hirwaun in the Parishes of Aberdare and Penderyn (Breconshire) which are provided by:

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Gazetteers

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Maps

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SN955056 (Lat/Lon: 51.73933, -3.514825), Hirwaun in the Parishes of Aberdare and Penderyn (Breconshire) which are provided by:

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Occupations

Tower Colliery, Hirwaun on the Welsh Coal Mines site

Francis Crawshay's Workers - The sixteen men in these little portraits all worked for Francis Crawshay (1811-1878), a reluctant industrialist, who maintained unusually close personal relationships with his employees.
In the mid-1830s, Francis was in charge of the Hirwaun Ironworks, acquired by his father, the great ironmaster William Crawshay II, in 1819, and of the family’s recently enlarged tinplate works at Treforest, near Pontypridd.- on People's Collection Wales

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Social Life & Customs

Details of extant records on Archives Network Wales for the following;

  • Bodwigiad Club Records (Cambrian Lodge of the Old Unity of Oddfellows, Hirwaun) 1875-1973 "The Bodwigiad Club (or Bod Club for short) was a name used for the Cambrian Lodge of the Old Unity of Oddfellows whose meetings were originally held at the Bodwigiad Arms, Hirwaun. The Lodge was founded in 1828..................... The objectives of the society as stated in the Rules of 1937 were to raise funds through a variety of means in order to secure money to pay funeral expenses of deceased members and their wives and also to give assistance to sick members unable to work"