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Maentwrog

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"MAENTWROG, a parish in the hundred of Ardudwy, county Merioneth, 8 miles N.E. of Harlech, and 15 N.W. of Dolgelly. Tan-y-Bwlch is its post town. It is situated on the Roman road Sarn Helen, at the foot of Moelwyn, and is watered by the river Dwyryd. Here are slate quarries, and some of the people are employed at stocking knitting. The living is a curacy annexed to the rectory* of Festiniog, in the diocese of Bangor. The church is dedicated to St. Twrog. It contains a monument to Archdeacon Prys, who once held this living, and translated the Psalter into the Welsh tongue. The charities amount to about £3 per annum. Coins and other Roman remains have been found." [From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]

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Bibliography

Ambrose, W. Cofiant y Parch. Samuel Jones, Maentwrog : yn nghydag amrywiol o'i bregethau. Dolgellau : Argraffwyd gan Evan Jones, 1845. 96p

Brown, Roger L. The parish of Ffestiniog with Maentwrog : the tribulations of three nineteenth century incumbents. Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Record Society 10 (1987/88), p. 241-8

Ellis, Jane C. O felin Maentwrog i'r 'Castle Bakery'. Fferm a Thyddyn 14 (1994), p. 25-6

Hughes, Gwyndaf. House on a hill : a history of Plas Tan y Bwlch and the Maentwrog Valley. Maentwrog : Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, 1989. 48p

Register of persons entitled to vote as parochial electors for the parish of Maentwrog (No. 49) in the County of Merioneth, between the 31st day of December, 1906, and the 1st day of January, 1908. Aberystwyth : J. J. Gibson Cambrian News Office, [1908?]  p208-213

Williams, Gareth H. Lord Newborough and Mr Madocks' 'very fortunate circumstance' : a chapter in the development of slate transport in the vale of Maentwrog. Industrial Gwynedd 2 (1997), p. 26-33.

Williams, Griffith. Yr hynod William Ellis, Maentwrog, sir Feirionydd. Hughes and Son, 1875.

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Business & Commerce Records

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

  • Oakeley Arms Hotel, Tan-y-bwlch, [Maentwrog] Visitors' Books 1842 - 1931    "........ it is known that it existed in 1763 when quarter sessions records note that William Rowland of Tan-y-bwlch lived there........."
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Church History

Church and chapel data from The Religious census of 1851 : A Calendar of the returns relating to Wales, Vol 11, North Wales. Ed. by Ieuan Gwynedd Jones, UWP,   1981. The names given towards the end of each entry are those of the informants.

Parish statistics; Area 5465 acres; Population 433 males, 461 females, total 894

  • The returns for this parish are missing

Places of worship for Independents and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists     (Lewis 1849)

See Welsh Chapels and Churches for a photograph of

  • St Twrog's Church
  • Utica Welsh Ind chapel, Trawsfynydd ( in Maentwrog parish)

Rees, Thomas & John Thomas Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru (History of the Welsh Independent Churches), 4 volumes (published 1871+). The Maentwrog  section (in Welsh) has been extracted with translation by Eleri Rowlands (3/2021).  Also that for Utica chapel which appears to be in this parish - with translation by Maureen Saycell (April 2011)

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Church Records

Joyce Hinde has supplied a list of Parish Registers held at Merioneth Record Office.

BTs for 1742-1851 (with gaps) & 1893  Contributed by Alwyn Humphreys

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

  • Eglwys Maentwrog Isaf [CM], cofysgrifau (records) 1872-1976      " Yn 1872 cafwyd tir ym Maentwrog gan Mr Oakley, Tanybwlch, ac fe adeiladwyd capel arno a fedrai ddal cant ac wythdeg o bobl. Codwyd y capel ar godiad tir ar y ffordd o bentref Maentwrog i gyfeiriad Ffestiniog........"
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Description & Travel

People's Collection Wales - aerial photograph of Maentwrog Hydro Electric Power Station 1996

Maentwrog - on Wikipedia

Various landscapes  - on the People's Collection Wales  site

You can see pictures of Maentwrog which are provided by:

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Gazetteers

MAENTWROG (MAEN-TWROG), a parish in the hundred of ARDUDWY, county of MERIONETH, NORTH WALES, 18 miles (N. N. W.) from Dolgelley, containing 745 inhabitants. This parish derives its name from a large upright stone still remaining at one angle of the church, which is called "Maen Twrog," and was erected to the memory of Twrog, an eminent British saint, who flourished at the close of the fifth and beginning of the sixth centuries, and to whom the church is dedicated. The village is situated in the north-western part of the county, and in the most romantic portion of the fertile and highly picturesque vale of Festiniog, on the southern bank of the river Dwyryd, which falls into Traeth Bach in the bay of Cardigan, and on the turnpike road leading from Dolgelley to Carnarvon. The surrounding scenery is richly diversified with verdant meadows and luxuriant groves, beautifully contrasting with the barren and precipitous mountains by which this portion of the vale is enclosed. About a mile from the village are two fine waterfalls, one called Rhaiadr Du, or " the black fall," and the other Llyn y Gwynryn, both formed by the small river Velen Rhydr. The latter, which consists of six different falls, each about thirty feet in extent, is beautifully picturesque, and, as seen from the base of the rocks over which the river descends, has a sublime and romantic grandeur of effect. The manufacture of flannel and the knitting of stockings are carried on here to a moderate extent, affording employment to a portion of the inhabitants. The river Dwyryd is navigable to the village, in which it is in contemplation to establish two fairs, one to be held annually on the 13th of April, and the other in May on a day not yet fixed.
The living is a discharged rectory, consolidated with the rectory of Festiniog, in the archdeaconry of Merioneth, and diocese of Bangor. The church, rebuilt in 1814, on the site of the ancient structure, is a neat stone edifice with a square embattled tower. There are places of worship for Independents and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A National school for children of both sexes was established at Festiniog, in 1830, in which children of both parishes receive gratuitous instruction. There are Sunday schools in connexion with the established church and the several dissenting congregations. Mrs. Jones, in 1742, bequeathed £30 ; and Evan Lloyd, in 1691, bequeathed £20 and a rent-charge of £ 1, the interest of which sums, and the rent-charge, are annually distributed among the poor. The Roman road leading from Uriconium to Segontium; another from Tommen y Mar, in this parish, where the Kings of England employed in the conquest of Wales frequently encamped, to Caer Gai; and another to Sarn Helen, passed through this place. Several Roman antiquities have been found in the parish, consisting of coins, urns, and inscribed stones, of which last some are in the possession of W. Grufydd Oakley, Esq., of Tan y Bwlch Hall, and of John Lloyd, Esq., of Pen y Glanau, who has also an extensive collection of antiquities found in different parts of the principality. Among the inscriptions in the possession of Mr. Oakley are, a bordered stone, ornamented at the extremities, and divided longitudinally into two compartments, in the upper of which are the characters >AND, and in the lower PXXXIX. ; another stone, fourteen inches in length and nine inches broad, with the inscription >IVLIMANS ; and a third, fifteen inches long and seven inches broad, bearing the inscription IMAV.XXXIX. The Rev. Edmund Prys, Archdeacon of Merioneth, one of the most eminent poets of his time, was rector of this parish for many years. He translated the metrical version of the Psalms of David used in the Welsh churches, one of which he is said to have versified every time he had service in this church, in which the whole were sung previously to their being published; and he also assisted Bishop Morgan in his translation of the Welsh Bible. He was born at Gerdi Bluog, in the parish of Llandecwyn, in 1544, and was interred under the communion table of this church. The poor are supported by an average annual expenditure amounting to £ 203.  ( A Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel Lewis, 1833)

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Genealogy

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

  • Evans, Pierce O., Maentwrog, papurau (papers) 1803-1919       "Pierce O. Evans, of Felenrhyd Fawr, Maentwrog, Merionethshire, accumulated documents relating to the parishes of Maentwrog and Llandecwyn, Merionethshire...."
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History

Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station, 1965  - on the People's Collection Wales  site
"Landscape view of Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station with cows in foreground taken in 1965. Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station was constructed between 1959 and 1963 to architectural specifications by Sir Basil Spence. It started service in 1965 and its twin Magnox reactors generated electricity for 26 years before it reached the end of its service life in 1991. The first inland civil nuclear power station in the UK, it used fresh water for cooling drawn from Trawsfynydd lake, originally created in the 1920s as part of a hydro-electric project at Maentwrog..........."

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Land & Property

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

  • The Tanybwlch Documents 1350-1937   "The Evans family of Tanybwlch, [Maentwrog] Merionethshire, ended with the children of Evan Evans (d. 1680)....."
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Maps

Gwynedd Family History Society  have a diagram of the ecclesiastical parishes of Merionethshire (under Parishes)  - with some links to photographs of parish churches

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SH713389 (Lat/Lon: 52.932025, -3.916755), Maentwrog which are provided by:

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Occupations

 William Edwards, the fuller, and machinery at Gwylan Fulling Mill, Maentwrog  - on the People's Collection Wales  site