Llangwyryfon - Extract from 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' by Samuel Lewis 1833

"LLANGWYRYVON, or LLANGRWYDDON, (LLAN Y GWYRYDDON), a parish in the lower division of the hundred of ILAR, county of CARDIGAN, SOUTH WALES,  8 miles (S. by E.) from Aberystwith, containing 533 inhabitants. The name of this place signifies " the church of the Virgins," and is derived from the dedication of its church to St.Ursula, and the eleven thousand virgins. The parish is situated on the southern bank of the Wyrai river, and comprises a considerable tract of enclosed and well-cultivated land, with a large portion of open and elevated common. The soil is generally fertile, and in some places argillaceous: turbaries are found in various places. Some of the higher grounds are abundantly productive of corn and hay. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and diocese of St.David's, endowed with £ 800 royal bounty, and £ 1200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Chichester family, as impropriators of the tithes. The church, situated on an eminence, is a small ancient edifice, consisting only of a nave and chancel, formerly divided by a curiously carved screen. In the churchyard is an ancient monumental stone, highly ornamented, and having the figure of a cross sculptured upon it, but without any inscription ; it is now used as a gate-post. Owing to the elevated situation of the church, the cemetery commands a fine view of the river and the surrounding country. There are places of worship for Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A Sunday school, for the gratuitous instruction of poor children, is superintended by a few of the parishioners ; and a school-house, in which the children are to be educated on the National system, is about to be erected by subscription among the landed proprietors of the parish. Within the limits of the parish are the remains of an ancient intrenchment, of a curvilinear form; but nothing is known either of its origin or history. The average annual expenditure for a the support of the poor amounts to £ 88.13."

[Gareth Hicks: 9 December 1999]