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

"LLANVIHANGEL-LLEDROD (LLAN-VIHANGEL LLETHRY TROED), a parish in the Upper division of the hundred of ILAR, county of CARDIGAN, SOUTH WALES, 9 miles (S. E.) from Aberystwith, comprising the townships of Lledrod Isâv and Lledrod Uchâv each of which supports its own poor, and containing 1213 inhabitants, of which number, 732 are in a Lledrod Isâv and 481 in Lledrod Uchâv. This parish derives its name from the dedication of its church to St. Michael, and its distinguishing appellation from its situation at the foot of a declivity on which it is built. It extends for nearly seven miles in length, and three miles in breadth, forming a part of the lordship of Mevenydd which belongs to the crown, and contains a large tract of land, of which the greater portion is enclosed and cultivated : a considerable part of the surface is hilly, affording pasturage to sheep on the declivities, and having on the summits numerous carneddau. The surrounding scenery, though in some parts pleasingly varied, is generally bold and striking; and from the higher grounds are some extensive views of the adjacent country : there are a few ornamental residences scattered over the district. The parish constitutes a prebend in the collegiate church of Brecknock, rated in the king's books at £ 6.13.4., and in the patronage of the Bishop of St. David's. An annual fair is held in the village on the 7th of October : the inhabitants of part of the parish receive their letters from the post-office of Lampeter, within the delivery of which it is included, though the church is fifteen miles distant from that place. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Cardigan, and diocese of St. David's, endowed with £10 per annum and £200 private benefaction, £ 600 royal bounty, and £ 900 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Rev. John Phelix, the present incumbent. The church is a small plain building, consisting only of a nave, and has recently received an addition of two hundred and eighty free sittings, towards the erection of which the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels have contributed £150. There is a place of worship for Calvinistic Methodists. The free grammar school, originally founded by the Rev. Thomas Oliver, a native of this parish, and at the time of his decease vicar of Dudley, in the county of Worcester, who endowed it with land now producing £ 120 per annurn, for the gratuitous education of an unlimited number of boys of this parish, is at present united with the school at Ystrad Meiric. The Rev. Evan Evans, an eminent divine, poet, and antiquary, who displayed an early attachment to Welsh poetry and literature, of which he compiled from ancient rnanuscripts nearly a hundred volumes, was interred in the churchyard of this parish, where a small rough unhewn stone denotes his grave: he was born at Cynhawdrêv in this county, in 1730, and, after a long course of professional duty as curate of several parishes, without obtaining any preferment in the church, and an unwearied and unprofitable devotion to the cultivation of literature, died in obscurity at his brother's house, in the fifty -eighth year of his age. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor of the entire parish is £274, of which sum, £156.4. is assessed on Lledrod Uchâv and £ 117.16. on Lledrod Isâv."

[Gareth Hicks: 10 December 1999]