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HANDBOOK OF
THE ORIGIN OF PLACE-NAMES
IN WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE The Rev. THOMAS MORGAN, DOWLAIS.
•* Happy is he who knows the origin of things.' 1 MERTHYR TYDFIL: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY H. \V. SOUTH
EY, " EXPRESS " OFFICE. ISS 7 .
KfTT \ /
THB KBW TORE PUBLIC
LIBSA1T 607559B A8T0B, LENOX AND TILDKN FOUNDATIONS B 1951 I
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To The Riwt Honourable WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, IN TOKEN OF PROFOUND RESPECT FOR HIM AS
The Most Honourable and Distinguished Resident in the Principality of Wales, ZbiQ tPolume id H>e6icate& 1^ BY
C *" THE AUTHOR.
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CONTENTS. Introduction Prefixes and Suffixes Wales and Counties— Anglesey ... Brecon
Cardigan ... Carmarthen Carnarvon ... Denbigh
Flint Glamorgan Merioneth ... Monmouth ... Montgomery
Pembroke ... Radnor List of Subscribers 1-9
9—26 29-41 41-56
56-70 7o- 85 86-101
101 — in in — 121 121-155
156- 164 164-183 183-192
192—208 209—215 216—221
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PREFACE. fHE Author's
chief reason for publishing this work may be stated very briefly. <^ Aboct
two years' ago the proprietor of the Merthyr Express newspaper announced in
his valuable paper the following competition: — " For the best Essay in
English on the origin of the Names of Places in Wales, giving their English
equivalents 1st Prize, £5 5s.; 2nd Prize, £2 2s." Only two essays were
received, one from '* Llywarch ab Llewellyn " and the other from
"Taliesin." The adjudicators decided that 44 Taliesin has brought
to bear in the treatment of the subject incomparably greater literary
resources than his competitor, and has made a praiseworthy attempt to supply
the topographical and historical information, tradition, and folk-lore
associated with places which assist in elucidating the origin of names, even
when they do not effectively clear up their etymology. On the whole, the
adjudicators have derived much pleasure from the perusal of this Essay, and
think it exhibits an amount of research which entitles it to the first
prize." The Essay was subsequently printed in several chapters in the
Merthyr Express , with the following appellatory note as a standing heading
for each chapter: " The Author of this Essay, assuming that his attempts
at deriving the origin of many place-names are imperfect, and some,
perchance, incorrect, invites criticism thereon, either private or public
Since many of the villages in the rural districts have been omitted owing to
the Author's imperfect topographical knowledge of the sequestered nooks, any
information relating to the same would be gladly received. • In the multitude
of counsellors there is safety.'" It is to be regretted that very few
criticisms were received. The full meaning of Byron's words, " Critics
all are ready-made," was not
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VI. "To-morrow the
critics will commence." In writing upon a subject, so full of
intricacies and difficulties, the Author is far from being satisfied with his
etymological attempts in many instances Far be it from him to say "lam
Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark." His experience
ofttimes, when exploring the different fields of research, is aptly described
in Milton's words: "The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs
thro' the arched roof in words deceiving." The most difficult names have
been left almost unnoticed by our tourists and topographers, and in our
endeavour to throw light upon these obscure names it is probable that we have
not altogether avoided errors. In numerous instances we were deeply sensible
of our failure to realise the import of the proverb, " Happy is he who
knows the origin of things." In anticipation of the discovery of many
errors by Welsh philologists and antiquarians, the Author humbly claims their
sympathetic consideration, and invokes their valuable assistance to rectify
the same when the opportunity is afforded them. » During the issue of the
Essay a large number of friends, both in England and Wales, expressed a
strong desire to see it re-published in book form. Mr. Henry Richard, MP.,
wrote, ** I really think you ought to put your Essay into a more permanent
form." Mr. Southey, the prize donor, not only consented, but urgently
requested the Author to accede to their desire Steps were accordingly taken
to test the extent of this feeling, with the result that a sufficient number
of copies was subscribed for to indemnify the Author against loss, and
thereupon it was decided to submit the Essay, with amplifications and
emendations, to the leading public. The Author begs to state that he has
succeeded in gaining access to some of the most reliable sources of
information, and has consulted not a few of the best authorities in different
localities, for which assistance he desires to express his gratitude and
obligations. He also acknowledges his indebtedness to the following works:
"Cymru/'by Rev. Owen Jones; " Parthsyllydd," by Dr. Emlyn
Jones; " Geiriadur Bywgraphyddol," by Rev. J. T. Jones; Myv. Arch;
Iolo MSS.; Iago Emlyn's Prize Essay on "The Philosophical Construction
of Celtic Nomenclature, &c.;"' Professor Rhys's " Lectures on
Welsh Philology;" Rev. I. Taylor's "Words and Places;" Jones s
"History of Breconshire," &c.
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Vll. He has had to
consider some ingenious conjectures, far-fetched derivations, and wild
etymological dreams with great patience and caution before arriving at his
own conclusions. In a large number of examples he had no option but to
endeavour to ascertain their origin by conjecture. It was once intended to
supplement a chapter on Welsh place- names in England, but what with the
amplifications and appendices of the Essay, together with the addition of the
place-names of Monmouthshire, the dimensions assigned to the book have been
altogether occupied. Should the contents of this little volume be the means
of throwing any light on this interesting branch of Welsh literature, and
thereby enhance the vitality of the dear old language in the estimation of
the reader, the Author will be m.-.re than amply compensated. Dowlais,
January, 1887. THOMAS MORGAN.
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THE ORIGIN OF
PLACE-NAMES IN WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE. INTRODUCTION. Jf T is surprising that
a subject so deeply interesting, [ and so full of historical value, should
not have ^ induced some competent Welsh scholar to explore every possible
field of research, and give the results of his etymological investigations to
the public in a permanent form. Welsh nomenclature has not had the attention
it deserves. This interesting field has been sadly neglected. Very few have
made it the ambition of their life to enter therein, and glean every possible
information necessary to throw light upon our Welsh place-names. The renowned
Lewis Morris was deeply engrossed in this branch of literature, and the
publication of his Celtic Remains would, assuredly, be an invaluable boon to
Welsh literati. Iago Emlyn's Essay which gained the prize at Carmarthen
Eisteddfod, September, 1867, is eminently calculated to be an admirable quota
rendered by the Eisteddfod to the elucidation of this sub ect. Most of our
Eisteddfodic productions are locked up in impenetrable secrecy, but this,
fortunately, has seen-the light of day. With the exception of the
above-mentioned essay our national institution has done but very little to
fill this gap in Welsh literature. Worthy attempts have been made by some
Welsh topographists to clear up the etymology of a moiety of our place-names.
Others have
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endeavoured to explain
their origin and meaning, but owing to their imperfect acquaintance with the
vernacular, many of their attempts have been futile and sfactory: as
Caermarthtn, the county of Merlin, Ish enchanter; Denbigh, a dwelling in the
vale; ke, the hill over the brook; Douglas is given to black-water;
Pontypridd, bridge of beauty; Tyr Bishop's tower; Llanfawr, the church of
four &c. &c. We might quote a large number of r misleading
explanations of Welsh words and that are found in English books written
evidently er than Welsh etymologists. The attempts made glishmen and others
ignorant of the language of )ld Cambria to explain Celtic names are often s
and something more. Alt macn, high rock, in ake district has been transformed
into the Old: Coniston; Bryn Huel or Hual, hill of shackles, is >elt Brown
Willy, a Cornish ridge, and Pensant sn designated Penzance. jurists' Guides
to Wales may be quite safe and )rthy in their geographical information, but
the:y of them are woefully misleading in their ogical peregrinations. Some of
their derivations deserve to be remitted to the cabinet of philocuriosities.
Out of many hundred place-names es very few of them are explained
satisfactorily Jtteers, and the most abstruse of them are left is needless to
say that Welsh philologists only can tisfactorily with purely Welsh names,
and even d it no easy task to investigate and ascertain gin of many of them,
especially those that andergone so many processes of corruption itation.
" Many Welsh appellations and local ' writes one eminent Welsh
historian, " have ) long corrupted that it would be affectation to: to
reform them." We may be allowed to give istances of names that have
already been grossly 2d: Llechwedd has been dislocated at Leckwith; Fro Nudd
has been cruelly distorted into ley; Caerau has been pulled down to Carew;
has been almost ruined in Magor; Cnwc-glas n twisted into the form of
Knucklas; Merthyr n brutally martyred at Marthrey; Tafam Yspytty m) has been
long converted into Spite Tavern; tfc
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. - - I Meinciau has
been minced into Minke; Gwentllwg has been changed into Wentlooge; Myddfai
has been muffled in Mothvey; Sarnau has been beaten down into Sarney, &c.
&c. Considering the rapid strides of English education in the
Principality we fear the time is not far distant when a moiety of our
mutilated Welsh place-names will be nothing less than a series of enigmatical
problems even to children of Welsh parentage. Many of them already seem to
them as a meaningless and unpronounceable jumble of letters. This process of
mutilation appears to be getting more prevalent. Our English friends, not
only do not exhibit any sign of bringing forth fruit worthy of repentance,
but they seem to persist in the error of their way in dealing with Welsh
names. Btynmawr, big hill, is pronounced with stentorian voice Brynmdr, which
signifies the hill by the sea. A complete stranger to the place, yet
conversant with the Welsh tongue, on hearing the latter pronunciation of the
name, would naturally expect he was going to inhale the salubrious sea-air;
whereas, after little enquiry, he would find himself in a tantalized mood
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distantly situated from
the sea. A few miles distant, at Nantybwch, the buck's brook, he might be
pardoned if he concluded from the pitiful cries of the railway officials that
there were none-to-book at that station. If he pursued his journey to
Llwydcoed, grey wood, which is pronounced by the railway men Lycod, he would
naturally conclude that the place must have been sometime noted for rats,
because Llygod is the Welsh for rats. In going through Loughor, provided his
geographical knowledge were deficient, he would imagine himself to have
reached Llotgr, which is the Welsh name for England. And a few miles lower
down he would find himself at Llanel/y, which is pronounced by certain
parties Lan-hcalthy r , where he would be induced to call his inhaling powers
into full play, positively thinking he was landed in a place famous for its
salubriousness. In North Wales he would discover the same aptitude in the art
of mispronunciation. Amid the din of the " fiery horse " he might
hear a name pronounced Aber-jeel, the suffix of which would remind him at
once of the Hindostanee for a morass, or a shallow lake; but a few minutes
talk with a villager would soon relieve him from the nightmare of this
confusion of tongues by furnishing him with the right pronunciation,
Aber-gele, an out-and-out Welsh name. At Dolgellau, which is pronounced
Dol-jelly, he might almost imagine the name to imply a doll made of jelly;
and at Llangollen, pronounced Lan-jolen, he would, both from a geographical
and etymological point of view, indulge himself in little self-congratulation
on being conveyed to a jolly place. Now he has travelled far enough to be thoroughly
convinced of the necessity of making an effort to save our local names from
the relentless hands of the foreigner before they become so distorted as to
be difficult of recognition even by Welsh etymologists. Pure Welsh names
should be left fntact — those that have undergone any changes should, if
possible, be restored to their primitive form, and English equivalents or
names should be given to each and every one of them. An attempt is being made
in this book to assign English names to all the places that bear Welsh or
quasi- Welsh appellations. This was by no means an
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easy task. Fear and
trembling haunted us all along the line, lest we should fail to give
intelligible, short, and easily- pronounced names in English garb. Perhaps we
have sacrificed too much upon the altar of conciseness. A full, literal
translation of many of our place-names, designed for English Appellations,
would be none less than an etymological onus to others than Welshmen, so we
were naturally led to the other extreme. In order to avoid a repetition of a
literary ordeal to our dim-Cymraeg friends, we felt " 'tis better to be
brief than tedious." The enticing name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlltysiliogogcgogoch
has been reduced to Whitwood. It is said that a Welsh celebrity at a certain
railway station asked for a ticket to the last-named place, and the retort
given, ex cathedra, was that such a place was not in existence; whereas, if
he had only asked for a ticket to Llanfair P.G., the clipped form of the
name, he would have been supplied with it instantaneously.
Llanfair-mathafam-eit*iaf has been abbreviated to Meadton, &c. &c.
These longitudinal designations should be preserved intact, and transmitted
to the Welsh cabinet of curiosities in nomenclature, and brief English names,
such as Whitwood, Meadton, &c, should be adopted for the common purposes
of everyday life. In pursuing the study of Welsh place-names we were forcibly
reminded of Home Tooke's observation, as to " letters, like soldiers,
being very apt to desert and drop off in a long march." Contraction
increases our difficulties in endeavouring to get at the full and correct
import of words. If the American tendency— to pronounce words exactly as they
are spelt and written— were a universal principle, the burdens of
philologists would be considerably lessened. Such is not the case in Welsh
nomenclature. Although every Welsh letter is supposed to have its own distinct
sound, wherever placed, many of them have dropped off in long marches, and
some indeed in exceedingly short marches, and it is with great difficulty we
have induced some of them to return to their proper places in the
etymological army — some, probably, never to return; hence the
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primary form of many a
name cannot be obtained nor the true meaning ascertained. Latinized and
Anglicized forms of Welsh names considerably enhance our difficulties. M on
was transmuted to Mona, Aberconwy to Aberconovium, Abergafeni to
Abergavenniutn, Aberogwr to Ogtnore, Nedd to Ntdium, Coed-dy to Coyty,
Talyfan to Talavan, Sili to Sully, Llys-y-Fro-Nudd to Lisworney, Llanyffydd
to Lamphey y Llandeg to Lanteague, Gwynfa to Wenvoe, &c. Our names, like
our fathers, were mercilessly treated by our foreign invaders. Hybridism is
another element that renders Welsh nomenclature exceedingly difficult and
perplexing. Different nations visited our shores, and played sad havoc with
our local names, especially those having gutterals in them. " We have
names of such barbarous origin," writes one, " compounded one-half
of one language and the other of another, that it is impossible to fix a
criterion how they ought to be spelt." The Flemish colony in
Pembrokeshire, in the reign of Henry L f and the Norman settlement in the
south of Glamorgan, in the nth century, are chiefly responsible for this
etymological jumble. The Norman Conquest affected the English language more
than anything that happened either before or after it, but very little of its
effect is found in the Welsh, except in place-names. These hybrid names,
albeit, are full of historical value, because they give us geographical clues
to the inroads and settlements of these foreign invaders. Alluding to the
desirability of getting a correct definition of an effete nomenclature, one
writer remarks, " It must be borne in mind that the nomenclature of our
country greatly explains the early history of Britain from the time of the
first colonists, the settlement of the Druids, and their subsequent power
both in civil
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and religious matters,
and its continuance down to the age of Suetonius, and later still, as the old
superstition was not quite eradicated for many ages afterwards. Their
mythology has left its marks on numerous places, even where their lithonic
structures have been demolished." After all it is, as Defoe ironically
remarks in his " True-born Englishmen," With easy pains you may
distinguish Your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman-English. Personal names enter very
largely into Welsh names of places. The first place-name we have on record
was formed after this fashion, " And he (Cain) builded a city, and
called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch." Gen. iv.,
17. These personal names are invariably in the vernacular affixed to words,
more or less, of a descriptive character, as T r dales; tre y the descriptive
first, then comes the personal, Laics; Porthmadog, porth, the descriptive,
then follows the name Madog. The majority of names beginning with Llan belong
to this section. In Saxon and Norse names the reverse of this is the general
rule. The descriptive part of the name comes last, preceded by a personal or
common name, such as Tenby; Ten, a mutation of Dane, and by y the Norse for a
dwelling, hence the dwelling-place of the Danes. Walton, Walter's town;
Williamston, William's town; Gomfreston, Gomfre's town; &c. It was
customary in olden times in Wales for men to take their names from the places
where they were born or resided, as Pennant, Mostyn, &c, and oftentimes
the case was reversed. Brecon was called after Brychan; Cardigan after
Ceredig; Merioneth after Meirion; Eaeyrnion after Edeytn; Dogfeilit after Dog
fad; Merfhyr Tydfil a'ter Tydfil, Brychan's daughter, &c. The names of
popular Welsh saints have been bestowed so liberally on the Llanau as to
occasion no little confusion. A similar practise prevails in the United State
from respect to their popular Presidents. The Rev. Isaac Taylor tells us that
no less than 169 places bear the name of Washington, 86 that of Jefferson,
132 that of Jackson, 71 that of Munroe, and 62 that of Harrison. Hagiology
has left a deep and wide impress upon our nomenclature. St. Mary's name has
been bestowed upon upwards of 150 churches and chapels in the Welsh sees,
that of St. Michael's upon about 100, and that of St. David's upon 60 or 70.
A great number of our place-names describe graphically the physical features
of the country. Mountains, hills, and mounds, rocks and cliffs, glens and
combes, moors and woods, rivers and brooks, all contribute their quota to the
treasury of our nomenclature. Many of them are traced to local traditions
which rarely command more than a local circulation. In making enquiries at
different localities we were more than amused to observe the prevalent
tendency of the inhabitants to trace the origin of their local names to
traditionary sources. The philologist is often superseded by the
traditionist. Graphic and descriptive names are frequently explained from a
traditional stand-point. Machynllaith—di name descriptive of the geographical
position of the place — was very dogmatically referred by one to an ancient
legend concerning some " mochyn-yn-y-llaeth" the pig in the milk.
Trotdrhiwfuwch, explained another, means Troed-rhyw-fuwch, the foot of some
cow, in allusion to a local tradition about a cow that had gone astray.
Manorbier, the third
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8 opines, has reference
to a severe conflict between a man and a bear in times gone by. Wrexham, says
the fourth, is obviously a corruption of Gwraig Sam, Sam's wife. Crymmych,
the fifth avers, is *i transposition of " Ychyn crymu," the ox
stooping, &c, &c. The reader may take these fanciful and untenable
derivations for their worth as evidences of the tenacity with which some
people hold to their folk-lore. The majority of our place-names, as might
have been expected, have been derived from pure Celtic sources. Bishop Percy
says that " in England, although the names of the towns and villages are
almost universally of Anglo-Saxon derivation, yet hills, forests, rivers,
&c, have generally preserved their old Celtic names." In
illustrating the prevalence of Celtic names in Britain, the Rev. Isaac Taylor
writes: " Throughout the whole island almost every river-name is Celtic,
most of the shire-names contain Celtic roots, and a fair sprinkling of names
of hills, valleys, and fortresses, bear witness that the Celt was the
aboriginal possessor of the soil; while in the border counties of Salop,
Hereford, Gloucester, Dorset, Somerset, and Devon, and in the mountain fastnesses
of Derbyshire and Cumberland, not only are the names of the great natural
features of the country derived from the Celtic speech, but we find
occasional village-names, with the prefixes Ian and tre, interspersed among
the Saxon patronymics." What is true of England is pre-eminently true of
Wales, where the great bulk of place-names are distinctly Cymric, everywhere
thrusting themselves upon our notice as standing proofs of the vitality of
the language of our progenitors. Many are the false prophets that have
sarcastically declared, from time to time, that the days of the Welsh
language have been numbered. We might observe, en passant, that it contains
more vitality than the Gaelic. The latter is only talked in some parts of
Scotland, but the Cymric is the domestic language of the vast majority of the
Welsh people, wheresoever situated. It is calculated that more than a million
of the inhabitants of Wales and Monmouthshire use the vernacular in domestic
conversation, in literary and newspaper reading, and in religious exercises.
What with the continuation of the Cymric in the curriculum of our
Universities and Theological Colleges, its introduction as a specific subject
into our public elementary schools, the ardency and faithfulness with which
it is taught in our Sunday schools from Caergybi to Caerdydd, the
ever-increasing attention paid and the new life infused into it by various
institutions, as the Eisteddfod, the Honourable Society of Cymrodorion, the
Society for Utilising the Welsh language, and the proverbial clannishness of
the Kymry; looking retrospectively and prospectively our conviction is that
the dear old language contains germs of a long and healthy life, and when it
shall cease to be a vernacular much of its intrinsic value and glory will be
preserved in its local names.
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PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES.
We shall now deal briefly with the chief prefixes and suffixes that occur so
frequently as components in names of places in Wales, in order to avoid
entering largely into details in tracing their origin in the subsequent
pages. Many of them contain the geographical and historical clues to a large
number of names, and since they enter so extensively into Welsh nomenclature,
we think it essential to offer a few explanatory notes thereon. Aber means
the mouth of a river, a particular point at which the lesser water discharges
itself into the greater. In the old Welsh it is spelt apcr, and Professor
Rhys, Oxford, derives it from the root ber, the Celtic equivalent of fer, in
Lat. fer-o t Greek phero % English bear. It originally meant a volume of
water which a river bears or brings into the sea, or into another river; but
it is now generally used to denote an estuary, the mouth of a river. Some
think it is cognate with the Irish inver: Inverary, mouth of the Airy; and
that inver and aber are suitable test-words in discriminating between the two
chief branches of the Celts. Mr.
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IO Taylor says that "if we
draw a line across the map from a point a little south of Inverary to one a
little north of Aberdeen we shall find (with very few exceptions) the invers
lie to the north-west of the line, and the abers to the south-east of
it." The Welsh form occurs repeatedly in Brittany: Abe*vrack, Avranches.
The Norman French haver is identified with the Welsh abet. In the lowlands of
Scotland we find it in Aberdeen, Abernethy, Abercorn, Abertay, &c, and in
England we find it in Aberford, Berwick, &c. Wherever found in Welsh
place-names it is almost invariably followed by a proper or common name,
indicating a brook or river flowing into another river, or the sea. Ach is a
Celtic derivative particle denoting water. Agh in Ireland means a ford, och
signifies the same in Scotland, and the Latin aqua has the same meaning. The
Sanscrit ux, uks, means to water. We find many brooks and rivers called Clydach,
sheltering water; Achddu means black water, amdgwyach is a general term for
several species of water-fowl. Afon, a river, comes probably from the Celtic
awon, the moving water. In the Manx language it is written Aon, in the Gaelic
abhainn (pronounced avain), and in the Itinerary of Antonius it is Abona. It
is found in English in the form of Avon, which, in the opinion of Professor
Rhys, appears to have been entitled to a v as early as the time of Tacitus.
This form occasions redundancy in the English language. To say " Bristol
is on the river Avon " is tantamount to saying " Bristol is on the
river river." Afon, a common name, has become a proper name in England,
but in Wales it is the generic term for a river. Ar signifies " ploughed
land." Arddu, to plough. The Greek word for a plough is arotron, the
Latin is ardtrum, the Norse is ardr, the Irish is arathar, and the Welsh is
aradr. The English " harrow " was originally a rude instrument
drawn over ploughed land to level it and break the clods, and to cover seed
when sown. Ploughing and reaping are called " earing and harvest."
Compare Gen. xlv., 6.; Ex. xxxiv.,-21.
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II When at is used as a
suffix it generally has an agricultural signification, but when used as a
prefix it is a preposition, meaning on, upon: Ardwr, on the water; Argoed, on
or above a wood. Bettws forms a part of a large number of our local names.
Some think it is a Welshified form of the Latin beatus, blessed, and that it
refers to the religious institutions of St. Beuno. Others derive it from
abbatis, an appendage to a monastery or an abbey, taking it as one of the few
Latin words which found a permanent place in the Welsh language. It is
derived by some from bod-cwys, a place of shelter, but the most prevalent
opinion is that the word is a Welshified form of bead-house, an
ecclesiastical term signifying a hospital or alms-house, where the poor
prayed for their founders and benefactors. " Beads are used by Roman
Catholics to keep them right as to the number of their prayers, one bead of
their rosary being dropped every time a prayer is said; - hence the
transference of the name from that which is counted (the prayers) to that which
is used to count them. The old phrase to ' bid one's beads' means to say
one's prayers (Imp. Diet)." In a recent communication to us, Professor
Rhys says " Bettws would be phonologically accounted for exactly by
supposing it to be the English bed-Ms or house of prayer, but if that origin
be the correct one to assume there is the historical difficulty: where is
there any account of this institution bearing an English name? " There
is the rub. We cannot find a single instance of the name being perpetuated in
England. The Rev. J. Davies, F.S.A., Pandy, is of opinion that "Bettws
was never an institution properly* speaking, and it never existed as a
distinct religious house, but undoubtedly it did exist in some instances as a
cell in connection with large Abbeys. Soon after the principal Abbeys had
been founded in this country, and their fame as seats of piety and learning
had spread far and wide, pilgrims began to flock to them, many of whom had
long distances to travel, on account of which houses of prayer, called
Bead-houses, were erected at long intervals along their
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12 course into which the
' wearied pilgrims ' entered to offer prayers on their way to and from the
Abbey. I believe we never have a Bead-house (Bettws) but on the way to an
Abbey. When the Abbeys were suppressed, most of these Bead-houses fell into
ruin, as a matter of course, while a few of them may have developed into
parish Churches and Chapels of Ease, after the Reformation. I do not think it
has a Welsh origin, for the reason that the thing itself was imported from
Normandy, and I am of opinion that Bettws as a place- name was not in
existence prior to the Norman Survey." Blaen means extremity, the top of
anything. It is frequently used as a prefix in the names of places that are
situated at the extreme end of a valley or near the sources of brooks and
rivers. Blaenau afonydd, the sources of rivers. Dwfry blaenau, water or
stream from the height. Bod originally meant a lord's residence. Having fixed
upon a certain spot of land, he would build a dwelling-house thereon, which
was called bod, and the name of the builder or owner was added to distinguish
it from other dwelling-houses, hence we have Bodowain, Bodedeyrn, &c. He
had two residences— _yr Hafod, the summer residence, and Gauafod, the winter
residence. But in course of time bod was used to designate any house or
dwelling-place. Compare the English " abode." Bron means a round
protuberance, and is equivalent to the English breast. In place-names it signifies
the breast of a hill. Ar frest y mynydd, is a very common expression, meaning
on the breast of the mountain. Bryn seems to be a compound of bre, a
mountain, and the diminutive yn; hence breyn, afterwards contracted into
bryn, a small mountain, a hill. It enters largely into Welsh place-names, and
we find it also Anglicized in Breandown, a high ridge near Weston-
super-Mare; Brendon, a part of the great ridge of Exmoor; Brinsop, Hereford,
&c. Bwlch signifies a break or breach. It is generally found in names of
places where there is a narrow pass in the mountains.
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13 Caer is one of our
enchorial names for a wall or mound for defence, the wall of a city or
castle, a fortress. Perhaps the root is cau, to shut up, to fence, to enclose
with a hedge. Cae means a field enclosed with hedges. Caerau were the most
ancient military earthworks in the Principality, and when the Britons began
to build cities they surrounded them by a fortified wall called caer. The
city of Chester is still popularly called Caer, from the ancient wall that
has encircled it for ages. Chester — a Saxonized form of the Latin castrum, a
fort, and one of the six words recognised as directly inherited from the
Roman invaders — is a common prefix and suffix in English place-names; as
Colchester, Manchester, Chesterford, Chesterton. In the Anglian and Danish
districts we find " Chester " is replaced by "caster"; as
Doncaster, Lancaster, &c, but both forms are allied to castrum, which is
a Latinization of the Celtic caer. As the Latin castrum will always be an
etymological souvenir to future generations of the Roman incursions, and the
havoc they committed here ere " Britannia ruled the waves," even so
the Celtic word caer, which is found in so many Welsh and a few English
place-names, will ever be an historical finger- post, pointing to the
necessity which was laid upon our forefathers to defend themselves against
foreign bands of invaders. The word is also a standing proof in England that
the dominion of the ancient Kymry was sometimes considerably more extensive
than that of little Wales. If the reader will be so fortunate as to find a
map of England which was published in the time of Ella, the first Bretwalda
of the Saxon race, the recurrent caer would make him almost imagine he was
perusing the map of Wales. There he would find Caer-legion, Chester, which is
still called Caerlleon; Caer-Badon, Bath; Caer-Glou, Gloucester; Caer-Ebrawe,
Eboracum of the Romans, and the Saxon York; and Caer-Lundcne, London, &c.
In course of time the vowel e was elided, hence we have such examples as
Carmarthen, Cardiff, Carlisle, Carsey, Carsop, Pencarow (Pen caerau), Carew,
&c. Carn, Carnedd, or Cairn, means a heap of stones. These cairns or
tumuli are found in large numbers in
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Wales. They were,
according to some, either family cemeteries or monuments raised to
commemorate the relics of a number of heroes who fell in defence of their
country. But others are inclined to think they were thrown, as tokens of
disgrace, over executed malefactors. Dr. Owen Pugh says — " The
carneddau and the tumuli of earth were the common monuments that the ancient
Britons erected in honour of their great men. Which of the two kinds was
probably determined by the circumstance of the country being stony or
otherwise. These modes of interment continued in use many years after the
introduction of Christianity; but when the custom of burying in churches
became general, the former ways were not only disused, but condemned as fit
only for the great criminals. When the carncdd was considered as the
honourable tomb of a warrior, every passenger threw his additional stone out
of reverence to his memory. When this heap came to be disgraced by being the
mark where the guilty was liid, the custom for everyone that passed to fling
his stone still continued, but nowise a token of detestation. "
Professor Rhys, in his " Celtic Britain," gives a graphic description
of the removal of one of these cairns in the vicinity of Mold, in 1832.
" It was believed," he writes, " in the country around to be
haunted by a spectre in gold armour, and when more than 300 loads of stones
had been carted away the workmen came to the skeleton of a tall and powerful
man placed at full length. He had been laid there clad in a finely- wrought
corslet of gold, with a lining of bronze: the former was found to be a thin
plate of the precious metal, measuring three feet seven inches long by eight
inches wide. Near at hand were discovered 300 amber beads and traces of
something made of iron, together with an urn full of ashes, and standing
about three yards from the skeleton. The work on the corslet is believed to
have been foreign, and is termed Etruscan by Prof. Boyd Dawkins. The burial
belongs to an age when cremation was not entirely obsolete in this country,
and we should probably not be wrong in attributing it to the time of the
Roman occupation. On the whole, the duty of commemorating the dead
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15 among the Celts may
be supposed to have devolved on the bards, to whom we are probably indebted
for the seventy or more triplets devoted to this object and preservei in a
Welsh manuscript of the twelfth century. The last of them, which, remarkably
enough, has to do with a grave in this same district of Mold, runs as
follows, when freely rendered into English: — Whose is the grave in the great
glade? Proud was his hand on his blade — There Beli the giant is laid."
Castell, frequently contracted into cas, is the Welsh for a castle, a
fortified residence. It is difficult to ascertain the exact time when castles
were first introduced into Wales. The Romans probably began to erect
fortresses in the territories conquered by them, and the Saxons followed
their example; but strong castles of defence were comparatively few here ere
the commencement of the Norman Conquest. Feudalism gave rise to castles in
the sense of fortified residences, and it is from the advent of the Normans
to our land we must date the castle as an institution. A large number was
also erected during the reign of Edward III. and his immediate successors.
" That old fortress," said Mr. Gladstone, pointing with his stick
to the remains of Hawarden Castle, " is one of the emblems of the
difficulty the English had in governing the Welsh in former times. They had
to plant their strongholds all along the Welsh border." Cefn, in names
of places, means a high ridge. It is but natural that this prefix should be
applied to so many places in mountainous Wales. The Chevin Hills in
Yorkshire, and Cevennes in France, derive their names from the same root. Cil
implies a sequestered place, a place of retreat. Cil haul means the shade or
where the sun does not shine. Cil y llygad, the corner of the eye. In Ireland
it is spelt kil (the c being changed to k) signifying a •church, and is found
in no less than 1,400 names, and in \ many in Scotland. Kilkenny, church of
Kenny; Xilpatrick, church of Patrick; Kilmore (Cilmaivr), the
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(delwedd 8242) (tudalen 016)
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i6 great church. Gilmor
is still a surname in the Scottish lowlands, and we find G'lmorton in
Leicester. We find the root in cilio, to retreat, to go away. Cilfach, a
place to retreat to, a creak, a nook. Some Welsh historians think that cil is
a local memorial of those Irish missionaries, who, about the 5th century,
visited the shores of Wales for evangelistic purposes, and founded churches
in the most quiet and sequestered spots they could find. Clyd means
sheltering, warm, comfortable. Lie clyd y a warm, comfortable place. We have
it in different forms in Clydach, Clydlyn, Clyder, Clyde, Strathclud,
Clodock. Clyn signifies a place covered with brakes, Clyn o eithin, a furze
brake. Cnwc literally means a bump, a swelling: Cnwc y gwegil, the back part
of the skull; but its geographical signification is a knoll or mound. We find
it corrupted in a few Welsh names, Knucklas (Cnwc-glas), &c, and in Irish
names, Knockglass (Cnwc-glas), Knockmoy (Cnwc-tnai), Knockaderry
(Cnwc-y-deri), &c , and in England we have Nocton, Nacton, Knockin,
Knook,&c. Coed is the Welsh for wood, trees. In remote times the summits
of Cambria's hills were covered with wood, which accounts for the word coed
being still applied to barren and hilly districts. Craig, a high rock or
crag, and sometimes it is applied to a steep, woody eminence. It takes the
form of carraig or carrick in Ireland; Carrigafoyle (Craigyfoel), the barren
rock; Carrickfergus, the rock where Fergus was drowned; and in England we
find it in Crick, Cricklade, &c. Croes means a cross. Croes-ffordd, a
crossway. The word evidently points to the Roman epoch, and also to the
ancient Welsh custom of burying malefactors near the cross roads.
Croes-feini, stone-crosses, in the time of Howell the Good, were used
principally to mark land property, and sometimes, when placed in hedges, to
caution travellers not to cross the fields. Some of them, with the names of
the primitive British
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17 saints inscribed upon
them, were placed by the roadside in commemoration of the blessed fact that
the Gospel had been preached there. Crug means a heap, a mound. Crug o
gerryg, a heap of stones. It appears that the Britons held their bardic and
judicial gorseddau or assemblies on these mounds, and hence " crug"
and " gorsedd," according to Dr. Owen Pughe, are sometimes used as
synonymous terms. " Crug " is a frequent component in Welsh names,
and we find it Anglicized in Crich
(derby), Creach (Somerset), &c. Cwm denotes a low place enclosed with
hills. It has a large place in Welsh nomenclature, and it often occurs in
English local names, especially in the western counties. In Devonshire the
Saxonized form comb or combe meet us frequently: Wide-comb, W r el-comb,
Ilfra-combe, Babba-comb, Burles-comb, Challa-comb, Hac-comb, Para-comb,
Yarns-comb, &c. In Somerset it is more plentiful than in any other
English county: we have Nettle-comb, Od-comb, Timber-comb, Charls-comb,
Wid-comb, Moncton-comb, Comb-hay, Cros-comb, Wins-combe, &c. We find
King-combe, Rat-combe, Bos-comb, &c, in Dorset. Cumberland, a Celtic
county, is derived by some from the combes with which it abounds. So writes
Anderson, a Cumberland poet, of his native county: — There's Cumwhitton,
Cumwhinton, Cumranton, Cumrangan, Cumrew, and Cumcatch, And many mair Cums i'
the county, But cone with Cumdivock can match. Cymmer means a junction or
confluence, and is frequently applied to places situated near the junction of
two or more rivers. The root is related to aber (vide abet). Din is an
ancient Welsh word for a fortified hill, a camp, from which we have our
dinas, a fortified town or city, and probably the English denizen. Our cities
were once surrounded by fortified walls, like Chester, on account of which
every one of them was denominated dinas. Proffessor Rhys groups the Welsh din
with the Irish dun, the Anglo-Saxon tun, and the English town.
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(delwedd 8244) (tudalen 018)
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i8 The dunum, dinum, and
dinium of the Romans are probably allied with it. The English suffix bury is
closely related to it in meaning. Very few Welsh place-names have the
termination burgh, bury, or borough. The root is almost an English monopoly.
Home Took says that 44 a burgh or borough formerly meant a fortified town."
In the •' Encyclopaedia Britannica" we find the following exposition of
the word: — •• Bourgignons or Burgundians, one of the nations who over-ran
the Roman Empire, and settled in Gaul. They were of great stature and very
warlike, for which reason the Emperor Valentinian the Great engaged them
against the Germans. They lived in tents, which were close to each other,
that they might the more readily unite in arms on any unforeseen attack.
These conjunctions of tents they called burghs, and they were to them what
towns are to us." It is supposed that the Burgundians introduced the
word to the Germans, and they, again, left it in England as a trace of their
settlement here. Dol signifies a meadow. Dol-dir, meadow-land. We find it in
many of our place-names, and also in various forms in Arundel, Kendal (Pen
-ddol), Annandale, Dalkeith, Dalrymple, Dovedale, &c. The word is found
in names of places situate in valleys all over Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.
Dwfr is the modern Welsh for water. It is frequently spelt dwr: Cwmdwr, the
watervale. In English it has suffered much from phonetic decay: Derwent,
Dover, Appledore, Durham, Dore, Thur, Durra, &c. It is also found in
European names: Dordogne, Adour, Durbian, Durbach, Douron, Dwerna, Oder,
&c. (" Words and Places/' p. 200). It may be compared with the
Cornish dour, the Gaelic and Irish dur % and dobhar, pronounced doar, and the
Greek udor, all derived probably from the Celtic dubr. Dyffryn is popularly
derived from dwfr, water, and hynt, a way, a course; literally a
water-course, or a vale through which a river takes its course. In the
ancient Welsh laws the word dyffrynt is used to denote a river. 44 Ynysoedd
yn nyffrynt," islands in a river. It may be
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(delwedd 8245) (tudalen 019)
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19 a compound of
dwfr-bryn, signifying a hilly place through which water flows. Gallt means an
ascent, a slope. Gallt o goed, a woody slope or eminence. In North Wales it
signifies "a steep hill," and in South Wales "a coppice of
wood." Garth originally meant a buttress, an inclosure. The Norse garth,
the Persian gird, and the Anglo-Saxon yard, denote a place girded round, or
guarded. Garden is a place fenced round for special cultivation. Buarth, from
bu, kine, and garth, a small inclosure, was situated on a hill in perilous
times. Lluarth from llu, a legion, and ga>th, inclosure, means an
entrenchment on a hill. In course of time the word became to signify a ridge,
a hill, a rising eminence, a promontory. Gelli-CcM means a wood, a copse. The
simpler form cell meant a grove, and the Irish coill bears an identical
meaning. Cell ysgaw, an elder grove. The aborigines of Scotland were called
Cceoilldaoin, which meant " the people of the wood," which name was
changed by the Romans to Caledonia. A great number of places have received
their names from species of trees, as Clynog, Pantycelyn, Clyn eiddw, &c.
Glan means brink, side, shore. Glan yr afon, the river side, or the bank of
the river. Glan y tnor, the sea shore. The word is generally prefixed to
river-names, as Glan-Conwy, Glan Taf, &c. Glas is used to denote blue,
azure, green. When applied to water it signifies blue — Dulas, black-blue;
but when applied to land it means green; Caeglas, green field. The word is
supposed by some Cymric scholars to be allied to the Greek glaukos, both
expressing the same colours — those of the sea. Glaucus was a seadeity. Glyn
implies a vale narrower but deeper than a dyffryn, through which a river
flows. It generally precedes the name of a river that flows through a vale,
as Glyn Ceiriog, Glyn Dyfrdwy, &c. From the same root we have the Gaelic
" gleann " and the Anglo-Saxon "glen," both expressing a
small valley.
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(delwedd 8246) (tudalen 020)
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20 Gwydd signifies wood,
from which we have gwyddel, which means a brake or bush. Tir gwyddtlawg, land
overrun with brambles. Gwyddel is also the Welsh for Irishman, and some view
the few place-names that contain the word only as ethnological evidences of
the temporary sojourn of the Gaels in Wales. Some, evidently, have the latter
signification, but the majority of them have no reference to Irishmen, as
Gwyddelwern, &c. Hafod is a compound of haf and bod, signifying a summer
house. The ancient farmers had their summer dairy-houses, and in that season
they resorted thither, as the farmers in the Swiss Alps do to their Sennes.
The hafod consisted of a long, low room, with a hole at one end to emit the
smoke from the fire which was made beneath. Its stools were stones, and beds
were made of hay ranged along the sides. Llan is identified with nearly all
the names of parish churches in Wales, from which an exceedingly large number
of places take their names. It has been said that " England is
pre-eminently the land of hedges and inclosures." The terminations, ton,
ham, worth, stoke, fold, garth, park, burgh, bury, brough, burrow, almost
invariably convey the notion of inclosure and protection. The Welsh prefix
Llan, which signifies a sacred inclosure, probably suggested the idea to the
Saxon colonists. We find the word in perllan, orchard; gwinllan, vineyard;
corlan, sheep-yard, in Welsh place- names it generally means a church,
probably including the church-yard. Mynedfrllan means'* going to
church." The British saints, having been deprived of their possessions
by the powerful and ever-increasing foreigners and invaders, retired to the
most solitary places in the country to live a wholly religious life, and
founded churches which will bear their names as long as hagiology will remain
a part of Welsh history. Judging from the number of churches dedicated to the
saints, it appears that the most popular among them were St. Mary, St.
Michael, and St. David, the patron saint of Wales. It is needless to say that
the first two never founded churches, although we find that
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21 26 churches in the
see of Bangor; 27 in the see of St. Asaph; 59 in the see of St. David's; and
a few in the see of Llandaff; in all about 150 churches and chapels have been
dedicated to St. Mary, and to St. Michael: 48 in the see of St. David's; 8 in
the see of St. Asaph; 16 in the see of Bangor; 20 in the see of Llandaff; and
a few in the see of Hereford, making a total of nearly 100. Next comes St.
David. We find that 42 sacred edifices bear his name in the see of St.
David's; 8 in the see of Llandaff; and a few in the see of Hereford. Many
churches were also named from their contiguity to water, as well as to -other
objects: Llanwrtyd (Llan- wrth-y-rhyd), the church by the ford; Llanddf % the
church on the Taff, &c. The llan, a public house, and a few cottages,
formed the nucleus of the majority of our rural villages and parishes, and
when the village or parish became worthy of an appellation, the name of the
llan was almost invariably applied to them. The word sant, saint, never
became a popular term in Wales. We have simply the llan and the unadorned
name of the saint to whom it was dedicated, not Llansantddewi, St. David's
church, but Llanddcwi, David's church. When several churches are dedicated to
the same saint some differential words are added, and so we have those long
names which arouse the curiosity of our English friends, and often supply a
healthy exercise to their risible faculties, such as Llanfair-Mathafarn-
eithafy &c. For the sake of euphony and brevity we have, in many of our
English equivalents, omitted the word llan % and have given the names of the
saints only, except when they are translatable. When differential words are
added to the hagiological names, as Penybryn, Helygen, &c, we have
thought it advisable to omit the ecclesiastical term, and give the mundane
portion of the name only as an English quasi-equivalent. For instance,
Llandewi-Aberarth, omitting St. David's, and render Aberarth into an intelligible
English name. We find the word llan in many place-names in England, in the
Cymric part of Scotland, as Lanark, Lanrick, &c, and in Brittany, as
Langeac, Lannion, Lanoe, &c. It is
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(delwedd 8248) (tudalen 022)
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22 now superseded by the
word egluys, church, in most parts of the Principality. Llech, a flat stone,
a flag, refers probably to the Druidical circle stones. Notice should be made
of the difference between Cromlech and Cistfaen. The former was a sepulchral
monument and always above ground, and the latter was the coffin, concealed
either by a tumulus of earth or stones. The cromlech generally had a cistfaen
under it. The English league is probably derived from this word, a
"league*' was a measure of distance marked by a stone standing on end.
Llwch is the ancient Welsh for an inlet of water, a lake. It corresponds to
the Scotch lock, the Irish lough, and the English lake. Loch Leven — smooth
lake. Llwyn in its primary' sense means a bush, but it is frequently used to
denote a grove. Llys originally meant a royal court, a palace. Llysdin, a
city where a prince's court was kept, but it is now the common appellation
for a court. Maenor originally meant a division of land marked by stones,
from maen, a stone; hence it became to signify a district, a manor. The
macn-hir, long-stone monument, is considered by Professor Rhys to be as old
as the cromlech, but not so imposing and costly. Crots-faen. (See Crccs).
Maes, an open field, in contradistinction to cat, an enclosed field. It is
sometimes used as a military term signifying a battle-field. Cad at faes is a
pitched battle, and colli y macs is to lose the battle. In the majority of
names where this component occurs we may fairly infer that a battle has been
fought there. Mai means an open, beautiful plain. It is also the Welsh for
May, the month when nature induces one to go out to the open fields to view
her gems of beauty f Moel when used as a substantive signifies a bald,
conical hill. Dynpenfoel, a bald-headed man. In olden times it was used as a
surname. Hywel Foel, Howell, the bald-headed. It is derived by some from the
Celtic root mull y a bald head. Moylisker (Westmoreland) is a
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(delwedd 8249) (tudalen 023)
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2 3 corrupted form of
Moel-esgair, bare ridge. Malvern is supposed to be a contraction of
Moel-y-fartt, the hill of judgment. In Ireland we find it corrupted to moyle:
Kilmoyle, bald church; Dinmoyle, bald fort. Mynydd is the popular Welsh word
for mountain, from mwn, what rises considerably above the surface of the
surrounding land. Myn'd t fynydd or fyny means going upwards. Nant in its
primary sense signified a ravine, a dingle; but now it is mostly used to
denote a brook, a streamlet. The root enters largely into Welsh nomenclature,
and it is also found in many place-names in the region of the High Alps.
Nannau and Nanney are plural forms of it, omitting t, and adding the plural
termination au. Pant means a low place, a hollow. It is considerably less
than a cwm or dyffryn, combe or valley, being somewhat similar to a glen.
Parc is an inclosure, equivalent to cae, a piece of land enclosed with
hedges. It is used in the latter sense in the south-west counties. Parth
comes from the same root, which means a division of land. Parthau Cytnru, the
divisions of Wales. The English " park " is a derivative, which has
a more extensive meaning. Pen in geographical names means the highest part or
the extreme end, as of a mountain or a field, or a meadow. We find it intact
in names of places in Cornwall, as Penzance (saint's head), Penrhyn
(headland), and in the north of England we have Penrith; but in its native
country the consonant n has been omitted in many instances, and m
substituted, as in Pembroke, Pembrey, &c. Ben, a mountain, enters largely
into the composition of place-names in Scotland, especially in the Highlands,
as Ben-more, (Penmawr), great mountain, &c. Cen or cenn is another Gaelic
form, signifying the same as pen and ben. Cantyre (Pentir), headland; Kenmore
(Penmawr), great mountain; Kinloch (Penllwch), head of the lake. In South
Scotland ben is replaced by pen, the Cymric form, as Pencraig, the top of the
rock; Penpont, the end of the
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(delwedd 8250) (tudalen 024)
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24 bridge, &c. We
find it also in European names pointing out the earlier settlements of the
Celtic race, as Pennine, Apennines, Penne, Penmark, &c. Pont is generally
derived from the Latin pons,pontis f a bridge. The monks were great
bridge-builders, and it is supposed that they introduced the word to us.
Pontage is a duty paid for repairing bridges. The Roman pontiff was so called
because the first bridge over the Tiber was constructed and consecrated by
the high priest. Pontefract is a pure Latin name, from pons, a bridge, and
frangerc, to break, signifying a broken bridge, so called from the bridge
breaking down when William, Archbishop of York, was passing over. Porth is
referred by some to the Latin porta, a passage-way, a gate, an opening. Rhiw
is the Welsh for ascent, acclivity, slope. It has an analogous meaning to
Eppynt, the name of a chain of mountains in Breconshire, probably from eb, an
issuing out, and hynt, a way, a course, signifying a way rising abruptly.
Hyntio means to set off abruptly. Rhos means a moor. Some think the Latin rus
is a cognate word, signifying undrained moorland. The Cymric rhos is
frequently confused with the Gaelic ros, which signifies a promontory. Ross,
the name of a town in Herefordshire, is probably a corruption of the former.
Rhyd in its primary sense means a ford, but its secondary meaning — a stream,
is frequently given to it. Rhyd-erwin means the rough, dangerous ford,
whereas Rhydfclin designates a stream of water that turns a mill. Sakn is the
Welsh for the old Roman paved road, and wherever it occurs one may almost
certainly find traces of a Roman road. Unlike almost every other road the
Roman strata was distinguished for its straightness. It ran from fortress to
fortress, as straight as an arrow course, in order to facilitate communications
between those who were stationed in the chief strategic positions of Britain.
It was generally about 15 feet wide, the sides being fenced by huge stones,
and the middle well paved. Remains of it are
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25 still discernible in
many parts of the Principality, such as the neighbourhood of Caersws,
Montgomery; Gaer, Brecon; Neath, Glamorgan; and many other places. Tal when
applied to places means end, but when applied to persons it denotes front.
Taliesin means radiant front or luminous head, but Talybont signifies the end
of the bridge. From this comes the English tall. Ton originally meant a piece
of unploughed or uncultivated land, perhaps from twn, which implies a piece
of land taken for the purpose of cultivation. It is used in Glamorgan to
denote a green. sward. Tref was the primitive Welsh appellative for a
homestead, a dwelling-house. Myned tua thref going home, is still a common
expression in South Wales. In course of time the term was extended to
indicate a group of homesteads. Having built a house for himself the lord
would proceed to build dwellings for his people and his cattle, and these
formed what was called tref. The word gradually became to be applied to an
aggregate of houses, hence the reason why it is used so frequently in village
as well as in town -names. The root is widely distributed over Britain and
Europe. The Norse by, the Danish thorpe, the German dorf, and the English ham
and ton may be considered as its equivalents. It is spelt treu in Domesday
Book, hence we have Treuddyn for Treddyn. - Hendref forms the names of many
old mansions, and is synonymous with the English Aldham and Oldham. Hydref
(October) was the harvest season — the time to gather the produce of the
fields to the barns, and leave the hafod, summer-house, to spend the winter
months in the hendref, the older establishment. The original meaning of
cantref (canton or hundred) is supposed to have been a hundred homesteads.
Troed is the Welsh for foot, base. The Irish traig signifies the same, both
of which, Professor Rhys thinks, are of the same origin as the Greek trecho,
" I run." The English tread means to set the foot. The word is
frequently applied to places situated at the foot of a moun-
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26 tain. The Welsh
Troedyrhiw and the Italian pie di monte are almost synonymous terms. Ty
generally means a house, a dwelling-place, but in Welsh nomenclature it is
occasionally used to denote a church or place of worship, as. Ty Ddewi, St.
David's. The house of God is considered by many as equivalent to the church
of God. Ty has an inferior meaning to bod; the latter was the residence of a
superior, and the former is of a later date, signifying an ordinary house, a
cottage. W r Y — Gwy is an obsolete Celtic word for water, mostly used as a
suffix in river-names, as Elwy, Tawy; and sometimes "as a prefix, as
gwyach, a waterfowl; gwylan, sea-gull; gwydd, goose. Gwysg is related to it,
which means a tendency to a level, as of a fluid or stream. We find the root
in various forms, as Wysg 9 task, uisge, usk, esh, ex, is-ca, &c. Ynys
anciently signified, a quasi-island in the marshes, answering to inch in Scotland,
Inch Keith; and inis or ennis is Ireland, Ennis Killen, Ennis Corthy,
Inniskea, &c„ The word is applied to some places with no river or water
near them, nor anything suggesting the probability that they had, in remote
times, been islands. Ystrad is a general term for a low or flat valley
through which a river flows. The Latin strata, the Scotch strath, and the
English street are supposed to be of the same origin. The term ystrad was
used sometimes to denote a paved road.
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27 PLACE-NAMES IN WALES.
Wales. — The real and correct name is Cymru, or as the late Mr. T. Stephens
invariably spelt it, Kymru, from cym-bro, the compatriot, the native of the
country, in contradistinction to ail-fro, the foreign invader who came to
dispossess him of his native land. Professor Sylvan Evans derives it from
cyd, the d being changed to m for assimilation with the following b; and bro,
a vale, a country. Some • think it is a compound of cyn, first, prior; and
bru, matrix, hence implying Primitive Mother, an expression signifying that
the aboriginal Brythons, to sustain their inalienable claim to the country,
considered themselves as descended from the direct offspring of their native
soil. According to some the name is synonymous with the Cimmerrii and Gomari.
A few derive the name from Camber, the son of Brutus, whilst others insist
upon a remoter origin, and trace it back to Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet.
In the laws of Hywel Dda the name is spelt Cybru, and in G. ap Arthur's
Chronicle the names Kymry and Kymraec are respectively given to the nation
and the language. Mr. Stephens derives Kymry from Homer's Kim meroi and
Germania's Cimbri. These people gave their name to Cumberland, and
subsequently they settled in their present country, and called themselves
Kymry or Cymry, and the country Cymru, Professor Rhys thinks the ties of
union between the Brythons of Upper Britain proved so strong and close that
the word Kymry, which meant merely fellow-countrymen, acquired the force and
charm of a national name, which it still retains among the natives of the
Principality. It is also popularly called Gwalia, of which Wales is a
Saxonized form. Very many favour the German derivation wal, foreign; wallet,
foreigner. The general name given by the Teutonic races to their neighbours
is Walsch, foreigners
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28 or strangers. "
The word Dutch is an adjective signifying national, and was the name by which
the old Teutons called themselves in contradistinction to other people, whose
language they were unable to understand. They styled themselves the
(intelligible) people, but called others, as the Romans, and the Kelts in
Britain, iValsch and Welsh.** (Morris* Hist. Gram.). Walsch-land is the
German name of Italy, and Weal-land is the name given by the Saxon Chronicle
to Brittany. Cornwales was the original form of Cornwall 9 which signifies
the country inhabited by the Welsh of the Horn. Some derive the name from
Gal, the ancient Gal, whilst others give the preference to gal, an open,
cultivated Country. " Le Prince de Galles " is the name given to
the Prince of Wales in France. The people of Galatia in the time of St. Paul
possessed some characteristic features of the Celtic race. Mr. Jacob Grim
traces the name back to Galli (Gaules, Fr.), which was taken by the Germans
from the neighbouring Gauls. It is generally supposed that when the Saxons
settled among the Britannic Loegrians (the Kymry of England) they called them
VeaUs, Weala, or Weal has, from which the name Wales probably originated.
Cambria. — Some derive it from Camber of fabulous record, but we rather think
it is a distorted Latinized form of Kymry. We shall now proceed to deal with
the names of the ancient territories of Wales, namely, Gwynedd, Powys, Dyfed,
and Gwent. Gwynedd, or Venedocia. — This territory comprised the counties of
Anglesey, Carnarfon, and Denbigh, or Gwynedd is Gonwy, Venedocia below
Conway, and Gwynedd uch Gonwy, Venedocia above Conway. It was sometimes
applied to all North Wales. The root of the word evidently is Celtic, gwy,
water; nedd, a dingle, a resting place, an abode. The Welsh for a dwelling is
an-nedd. Professor Rhys thinks " the word Veneti is most likely of the
same origin as the Anglo-Saxon wine, a friend, and meant allies; the Irish
fine, a tribe or sept, is most likely related, and so may be the Welsh
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2 9 Gwytudd. The Veneti
have left their name to the part of Brittany called by the Bretons Guened,
Vannes, and it is this name probably that laid the foundation for the tales
which trace an army of Kymry from Gwynedd to Guened." (Celtic Britain,
p. 307.) Powys. — This included the counties of Meirioneth, Flint, and
Montgomery. The word, according to Dr. Pughe, means a state of rest. Pwyso
means to lean; gorphwyso, to rest. It is said that Ceridwen placed Gwion, the
son of Gwreang, the herald of Llanfair, the fane of the lady, in Caer
Einiawn, the city of the just in Powys, the land of rest. (Davies' Myth., p.
213.) Dyfed, or Demetia. — This province embraced the counties of Pembroke,
Carmarthen, and Cardigan; the former constituted the principal part, and is
called Dyfed even to-day by the old inhabitants. In the seventh century Dyfed
consisted only of Pembrokeshire. Some derive the name from Dehtubarth, which
is rather far- fetched. Baxter derives it from defaid, sheep, and bases his
belief on the fact that that part of the country in olden times was noted for
its large number of sheep and goats. We are induced to think the root is
dwfn, deep or low, indicating the geographical position of Dyfed, which is
the lowest part of the Principality. Devon is probably of the same origin.
Demetia is Dyfed Latinized. Gwent. — This territory comprised Glamorgan,
Monmouth, Brecon, and Radnor counties. The word denotes an open or fair
region, and was Latinized by the Romans into Venta. Vtnta Silurum is now
Caerwent, in Monmouthshire. ANGLESEY. Anglesey. — The Welsh name is Ynys M6n,
the Isle of Mona. M6n is variously derived. Philotechnus derives it from the
Greek monos, alone, left alone, standing alone, from its being separated by
sea from the counties of North Wales. Dr. Owen Pughe seems to endorse the
above: " Man, what is isolated, an isolated one, or that is
separate." The author of Mona
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30 Antique derives it
from bdn, a stem, a base, a foundation, from its situation at the extreme
point of the Principality, or, perhaps, from its being called " Mdn, mam
Cymru," Mona, the mother of Wales. We are induced to think that the Isle
of Mona and the Isle of Man derive their names from mon, which means what is
isolated, separate. The English name was bestowed upon it after the battle of
Llanvaes, in which Egbert proved himself victor over Merddyn. In 818 or 819
the Saxon king subdued Mona, and called it Anglesey, or the Isle of the
Angles, or English. The terminal syllable, ey, is the Norse for island.
Aberffraw. — This seaport village is situate at the mouth of the river Ffvaw.
Aber, estuary; ffraw means agitation, activity, swiftness. Effraw, awake,
vigilant. The Romans called it Gadavia; gada, to fall or run down; via, way,
signifying the swift or running water. English name — Swiftmouth. Amlwch —
This name has elicited various conjectures. Some think it is a compound of
aml-Uwch, signifying a dusty place. Others derive it thus: am, round, about;
llwch, a lake, an inlet of water, signifying- a circular inlet of water.
Llwch is cognate with the Scotch loch. Many places in Wales take their names
from this word, as Penllwch, Talyllychau, Llanlhvch, and, perhaps, Amlwch. In
an ancient book, " The Record of Carnarvon," supposed to be written
about 1 451, the name is spelt Amlogh, which induces us to think the right
wording is Aml-och, signifying a place of many groans. Several names in the
district point to the probability that bloody battles were waged here in
ancient times, such as Cadfa, battleplace; Cerryg-y-llefau, stones of
weeping; R.iyd y Galanastra, the ford of massacre; and here Aml-och, 2l place
of many groans. Groaning and weeping are universally the concomitants of
bloodshed and war. English name- Groanston. Beaumaris, — Various names are
given to this town — Bumaris, Bimaris, Beumarish, Bello-Mariseum, and
Beaumaris. In the Myvyrian list of the parishes of Wales it is spelt
Bywmares. Edmunds derives it from buw, a cow; mor, the sea; and is, low;
signifying the
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3* low place of cows by
the sea. Some think the name is a compounded form of bis, twice; and maris,
the sea, founding their reason upon the position of the town as lying between
two seas, the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel. Others think the radices
are beau, beautiful, fine, and marie, sea; signifying a place near the
beautiful sea. Many will have the suffix to be marish, marsh, a tract of low
land occasionally covered with water, hence the name signifies the beautiful
marsh. The town was anciently called Forth Wygyr; porth, port; wygyr, perhaps
a contraction of Gwaed-gwyr, men's blood; or it may be a corruption of
Wig-ir; wig — gwig, an opening in the wood, a wood; ir, fresh, florid. Pren
ir, a green tree. The new name, Beaumaris, it is said, was given to the town
by Edward I. He built the castle about the year 1285, and changed the name of
the place to Beaumaris, descriptive of its pleasant situation in low ground.
Belan. — An abbreviation of Llanbeulan, the church dedicated to Beulan, son
of Paulinus. English name — Beulan. Bethel. — So called after a Nonconformist
chapel in the village. The sacred edifices of the Established Church are
generally dedicated to eminent Welsh saints; but the Nonconformist
sanctuaries are generally denominated after Scriptural place-names. Bodedern.
— Bod, a dwelling-place, an abode; Edern, or Edeyrn, the son of Nudd, the son
of Belt, He was a warrior and a poet, and before the end of his earthly career
he became very devoted to religion, and built a church in this place, which
was dedicated to him, hence the name. English name — Kingham. Bodewryd. —
This place is situated about four miles west of Amlwch. Bod, a dwelling;
ewryd, a contraction, perhaps, of ewiar, smooth, clear, and rhyd, a ford; the
name, therefore, signifies a mansion at the clear ford. English name —
Clearford. Bodffordd. — Bod, a dwelling; ffordd, a way, a road; the name,
therefore, signifies a residence by the way or road. English name — Wayham.
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(delwedd 8258) (tudalen 032)
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32 Bodwrog. — Bod, a
dwelling; Twrog, supposed to be the son of Ithcl Wael, of Brittany, to whom
the church is dedicated. The name signifies a fortified dwelling. English
name — Towerham. Brynsiencyn. — Bryn, a hill; Siencyn, a Welshified form of
Jenkin, which means little and pretty John. English name — Jenkin 's Hill.
Capel Gwyn. — Capel, chapel; Gwyn, a contracted form, probably, of Gwyngenau,
the son of Pawl, the elder; or, perhaps, gwyn here has an ecclesiastical
meaning, signifying blessed. " Gwyn ei fyd y gwr," blessed is the
man. English name— Blisschapel. Capel Meugan. — Capel, chapel; Meugan, son of
Gwyndaf Hen, the son of Emyr Llydaw. Meugan means «* my song." English
name — Praise-chapel. Ceirchiog. — This name means "abounding with oats.
,, The soil of the district is remarkable for yielding large crops of oats.
English name — Oatham. Cemaes. — This name is very common in Wales. It is a
compound word, made up of cefn, back, ridge; and mats, a field, signifying a
high field. Some think the name denotes ridged or arable land, from the
fertility of the soil in the district. Others think it is a compounded form
of camp, a feat, a game; and maes, a field. The Welsh had 24 games, or
qualifications, that may be called their course of education. We rather think
the word must be understood here in a martial sense, signifying a field on a
high place, forming a vantage-ground for military operations. The name
indicates signs of the defensive conflict of the Kymry from the time of
Cadwaladr down to the fall of Llewellyn, with whom the independence of
Cambria terminated. English name — Highfield. Cerryg Cbinwen. — Cerryg,
stones; Ceinwen, the daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog, to whom the church is
dedicated. English name — Fairstone. Cerryg y Gwyddyl. — Cerryg, stones;
Gwyddyl, Irishmen. Caswallon Law-Hir (Long Hand), about the year 500, fought
valiantly against the Irish invaders in North Wales. Having achieved such a
*ndGfc Gwis DY.. L^U SB" -
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33
noble victory at a
certain place in Mona, he built a church thereon, and called it Llany
Gwyddyl, but now it is known by the name of Cerrygy GwyddyL English name —
Woodstone. Clegyrog. — The root, probably, is clegr, which means a rock, a
cliff.
Clegyrog, rocky, rugged;
the name is quite descriptive of this craggy district. English name —
Kockton.
Coedana. — Coed, wood;
Ana- Anne, supposed to be a Welsh lady to whom the parish church is
dedicated. Anne or Ann is a contraction of Hannah, which means she who is
gracious, merciful, good-natured. English name — Gracewood.
Gaerwen. — A compound of
caer, a fortified wall, a fortress; and wen, the feminine form of gwyn,
white, fair, blessed, what is desirable or affords happiness. A fortified
wall was certainly a desideratum when our forefathers were, ever and anon,
the objects of foreign onslaughts. English name — Whitfort.
Gwredog. — The root may
be gwar (gwareddawg), tame, mild, gentle; or, perhaps, it is derived from
gwaered, a declivity. We adopt the latter. The right wording, therefore, is
Gwaeredog, a flat or bottom at the foot of high ground. It is the name of
several farms in Anglesey; as Gwaeredog, Amlwch, and Gwaeredog Uchaf, and
Gwaeredog Isaf, near Llanerchymedd. English name — Flat ham.
Gwyndy. — Gwyn, white,
blessed; dy-ty, house; the name signifies a blessed house. The name was once
used to denote an episcopal residence. In the time of St. Germanus, gwyndai —
episcopal residences or houses — were first allotted to the bishops. It was
supposed that a cloister was once in the place where a large number of
virgins devoted themselves entirely to holy service. English name — Blissham.
Holyhead. — The Welsh
name is Caergybi or according to some, C&r Cybi. Cybi, the son of the
King of Cornwall, flourished about the latter half of the fourth century.
Having spent some time with Bishop Hilary, in Gaul, he returned and took up
his abode here. It is
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34 said that the Prince
of Mona took compassion upon him in his great poverty, and presented him with
a castle in the place, wherein he established a small monastery, from which
circumstance the castle was called Cdr Cybi — Cybi's Choir. Pennant thinks
the right wording is Caergybi, from the afore-mentioned castle, ruins of
which are discernible now. The saint also is memorable for his connection
with the Roman pharos or lighthouse on a hill adjacent to the town. At the
north end of the parish church the following inscription may be seen: —
Sanctc Kybi, ora pro nobis, i.e., " Oh ! Saint Cybi, pray for me."
Opinions differ as to the origin of Holyhead. Some think it was so named from
the large number of sacred edifices in the place. Others think the English
gave the appellation u Holyhead " to the place on account of the holy
and sanctified life of the ever memorable Saint Kybi. Others maintain that
the right wording is Hollyhead — a translation of Ptncelyn, or more
correctly, Pen Cyhelyn, Cyhelyn's Head. Pen means head; and Cyhelyn was
reduced to Celyn, which signifies holly-wood, hence Hollyhead, and then
Holyhead. Llanbabo. — Llan in Welsh place-names generally means a church,
probably including the churchyard. Pabo Post Prydain was an eminent warrior,
and ere the close of his life he devoted himself unreservedly to religious
matters. He founded the church of Llanbabo, where still remains a stone on
which his image and the following inscription may be seen: — " Hie jacet
Pabo Post Prud Corpors-te-Prima." English name — Pabo. Llanbadrig. —
Iolo's MSS. inform us that Badrig was a saint of the seventh century, a
contemporary of Elford, and a fellow of Kybi's seminary. He built the above
church, which still bears his name. This is St. Patrick, the great apostle of
Ireland. The name Patrick means a senator, a nobleman. English name —
Nobleton. Llandegfan. — Some think the church was built by Tydecha and his
sister Tegfedd, and that it was dedicated to the latter in the sixth century;
but we rather think that Tegfan, uncle of Elian, and a saint
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(delwedd 8261) (tudalen 035)
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35 and confessor in
Kybi's seminary* gave his name to it. (Williams' " Eminent
Welshmen.") Teg fan means a fair spot, or a fine place. English name —
Fairton. Llandyssilio. — The church is dedicated to Tyssilio, a celebrated
saint of the sixth century. English name— Tysulton. Llan Ddaniel Fab. — Mr.
Rowlands writes: — 14 Daniel, who had a church near that of Llan Aiden, was
son of Daniel, first Bishop of Bangor; and, therefore, the church is commonly
called Llan Ddaniel Fab. 91 The name signifies " The Church of God, the
judge." English name — Danielston or Dansonton. Llanddeusant. — The
church is dedicated to dau sant, two saints — Marcellus and Marcellinus.
English name — Saintham. Llanddyfnan. — The church was dedicated to Dyfnan,
son of Brychan, in the fifth century. He is recorded to have come here from
Rome in 1 80 to convert the Britons to the Christian faith. Dyfnan signifies
a deep brook. English name— Deepbrook. Llanddyfrydog. — Tyfrydog, the son of
Arwystl Gloff, was a member of Enlli seminary, and the founder of this
church, which was dedicated to him in the sixth century. Dyfrydog means full
of thought, musing, pensive. Englisn name — Museton. Llanedwen. — The church
is supposed to have been built by Edwen, niece or daughter of King Edwin, and
a Saxon saintess of the sixth or seventh century. Edwen is probably a
feminine formof Edwin, which means a happy conqueror; or he who attains
felicity. English name— Victorton. Llaneilian. — Eilian Geimiad, the pilgrim
son of Gellan Ruddawg, was a saint of a very early date. Some think he was a
contemporary of St. Kybi. A few churches in Wales bear his name. English name
— Pilgrimton. Llanerchymedd. — This town was anciently called Chchran, clock,
bell; tan, part, portion. It is supposed that the steeple of the church stood
on portions of three, if not four parishes, hence the name. Various
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(delwedd 8262) (tudalen 036)
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3 6 ^ctures are
propounded on the origin of the present 3. An old tradition says that a man
named Tegerin preparing a family grave on the spot where the old ch stands,
and, when he was building the vault,;one asked him — " What do you raise
on this?" His rejoinder was, " Llanerch fy medd" the 2 of my
sepulchre. Some derive the name from vn y medd, a mead tavern. Medd, mead, a
drink 5 of honey and water; that ancient beverage was ably prepared and
consumed at the above tavern,:e the name. English name — Meadham. Llaneugrad.
— The church was dedicated to p ad, son of Caw Cawlwyd, a fellow of Illtyd's
nary, and a saint of the sixth century. English e — Eugrad. Llanfachreth. — A
local tradition has it that a once found its way to the place from Holyhead,
eone asked, i* bleyr aeth? Where did it go? The /er was, I Ian fach yr aeth,
to Lanfach it went; hence lame. We rather think the church was dedicated t.
Machraith, who flourished in the seventh century, founded churches in
Merioneth and Anglesey; hraith signifies the law* of suretyship. English e —
Bailton. Llanfaelog. — The church was dedicated about eventh century to
Maelog, son of Caw Cawlwyd. Hard there is a little pool called " Llyn
Maelog," log's pool. Maelog is a derivative of maelio, to get intage. to
gain, to profit. English name— Martham. Llanfaes. — Maes, a field. The name
denotes a ch built on the spot where a memorable battle fought in the year
819 between Egbert and the sh. English name — Churchfield. Llanfaethlu. — The
church was dedicated to \hlu, son of Caradog Freichfras, in the sixth
century. thiu or Maethle means a nursing place. English e — Fosterton.
Llanfair-Mathafarn-Eithaf.— The names of this the adjoining parish must be
compared here in r that they may throw light en each other. w*rt
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MIS I dm next. tavern;
tied oilier, -. or Llanbtt -parish iscalh:*•*«*; If «rt ^1 the name c L H«r,
St. Mai \ E H extreme, to c 4c latter taN ki ^ English,?"*'' W, pSl
Heated* 37 Llanbedr-goch, or Llanbedr-Mathafarn-Gwion-Goch, the contiguous
parish is called Llanbedr, the church dedicated to St. Peter; Mathafarn, a
mead tavern or inn; Gwion Goch, the name of the owner. Now take the next.
Llanfair, St. Mary's Church; Mathafarn, mead tavern; Eithaf, extreme,
furthest; the suffix eithaf was added to the latter tavern to distinguish it
from the other. Some are of opinion that Mathafarn means a plain of weeping
or grief. If so, the adjective eitkaf extreme, was added to denote its
intensity. We adopt the former. English name — Meadton.
Llanfair-pwll-gwyxgyll. — Llanfair, St. Mary's Church; pwll, pool; gwyn,
white; cyll, hazel wood. Ceris Pool, Menai Straits, is contiguous to this
place, and the banks of the straits were sometime covered with white hazel
wood. The name in full is supposed to be Llanfaii^wUgwyngyUgogeiychwyrndrobwlltysiliogogogogoch
— a rather pretty and inviting word to a Saxon tourist. The railway station
is called Llanfair P.G., obviously for the sake of those who cannot master
the Welsh consonants. English name — Whitwood. Llanfechell. — Mechell or Mechyll,
the son of Eckwydd, was a Welsh bishop, and the church was dedicated to him
in the seventh century. He was buried in Penrhos Llugwy, and Mr. Rowlands
(Mona Antiqua) says that an old stone was found there in the eighteenth
century bearing his name. English name — Macatus. Llanfihangel Din Sylwy. —
Llanfihangel, St. Michael's Church. Din Sylwy, according to some, is a
contraction of Dittos Sylwi, the gazing city; others trace it to Din Sol, the
city of the sun. It is generally believed that an old British stronghold
stood here, and was taken by the Romans during the subjugation of Mona. We
offer the following derivation: Din, a hill; syl-syUu, to gaze; wy-gwy,
water; the name, therefore, signifies a church on a hill which commands a
view of the river or water. English name — Waterview. Llanfihangel Tre'r
Beirdd. — Llanfihangel, St. Michael's Church. Tver Beirdd, the bards'
dwelling-
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(delwedd 8264) (tudalen 038)
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38
place. It is supposed
that a Druidic station and a bard's seminary existed here in remote times,
from which circumstance the village and parish derive the name. English name
— Bardston.
Llangefni. — The name
signifies a church on the river Cefni, which runs through the place. Cefni is
probably a contraction of Cefn-llif—z. great or high flood. English name —
Floodnam.
Llangoed. — The name
signifies a church in the wood, so called from the woody nature of the
neighbourhood. The church was dedicated to Cawrdaf in the sixth century, and
the parish is sometimes called Llangawrdaf. English name — Churchwood.
Llangristiolus. — Cristiolus, a descendant of Emyr Llydaw, flourished
in the seventh century, and built the church which commemorated his name.
Cristiolus signifies "the anointed." English name — Christchurch.
Llanrhyddlad. — Rkuddlad, a daughter of the King of Leinster,
Ireland, was a saintess of the seventh century, and the supposed founder of the
above church. One author thinks the right wording is Rhyddlad; rhydd, at
liberty, free; lad-gwlad, country. Perhaps the prefix is rhudd, red; the
name, therefore, means red soil or country. English name — Redham.
Llantrisant. — The
church is dedicated to tri sant, three saints: Afren, Ieuan, and Savan, who,
it is supposed, founded it in the year 570. English name- Triton.
Llechylched. — Some
think the church is dedicated to Ilched or Ylched. The name is, probably, a
compound of Uech, a flat stone; and cylched, a circumference, what goes about
or encloses. Cylchedu, to encircle, to include in a circle. Perhaps the name
has reference to the Druidical circle stones. English name — Circumstone.
Menai Bridge. — The
Welsh name is Porthaethwy* which is variously derived. The late Rev. P. B«
Williams writes: — " This ferry, probably, took its name from the
hundred or division in which it is situated — Tindaethwy. Porth, port, a
ferrying place;
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39 aetkwy, according to
some, is a contraction of aeth or aethant y went; and hwy 9 they, signifying
the ferry over which they — the first settlers of Mona — crossed to the other
side. Iago Emlyn derives aethwy thus: Aeth, terrible; wy-gwy, water; founding
his reason on the perilousness of the passage across the straits. Another
writer thinks it is Porth-y-caeth-wy, the port of the narrow water. The place
has been popularly called Menai Bridge ever since the construction of the
world- renowned bridge that spans the straits. Menai comes from Main -aw,
which signifies the narrow water; or it might be main-wy, which means the
same. Moelfre. — A very common place-name in Wales. It is a compound of Motl
% bare, bald; and bre, a hill, a mountain. The name is generally applied to a
treeless hill, but covered with short, smooth grass, sometimes interspersed
with heath. English name — Baldhill. Nebo. — This village takes its name from
a Nonconformist chapel in the place. Niwbwrch, or Newborough. — Its ancient
name, according to some, was Rhosfair, from a small church dedicated to St.
Mary. Mr. Rowlands thinks the name was Rhos Hit, long meadow, from its
situation in an extensive marshy plain on the eastern side. The place was
once the capital of Mona, and the residence of the princes of North Wales.
Edward I. made it a free corporation, from which circumstance originated the
present name of Newborough. Niwbwrch is probably a corruption of Newborough.
Pencarneddi. — Pen, head, top, end; Carntddi, a plural form of Carnedd, which
denotes a sepulchral heap of stones. Carneddau were the common monuments
erected by the ancient Britons in honour of their great men. English name —
Cairnham. Penmynydd. — The name signifies mountain top, and was given to the
village from respect to the mansion of the same name, which is famous for
being the place where Owain Tudor was born in 1384. English name — Montham.
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40 Pensarn. — Pen, head,
end; Sam, Roman paved road, a causeway. A name of frequent occurrence in
Welsh topography. English name— Roadsend. Pentraeth. — The parish is also
called Llanfair- Bettws-Geraint. The church was dedicated to St. Mary about
the sixth century, and supposed to have been built by Ccraint or Gerimius,
grandson of Constantine. The village is called Pentraeth, from its being
situated at the head or upper end of the sandy beach, or bay, which is called
Traethcoch or Red Wharf Bay. English name — Beachend. Pontripont — A
corruption, probably, of Pontrhyd- y-bont. The ancient name was Rhydpont, or
Rhyd-y-bont, the fori of the bridge. The prefix pont was probably added when
another bridge was built across Rhydybont. English name — Bridgeford.
Rhosbeirio. — Rhos, a moor, a dry meadow; Peirio, the name of the son of Caw
of Twrcelyn, to whom the church is dedicated. Peirio implies what causes or effects.
" Abwy a bait wybod lie bo v — carrion will cause it to be known where
it is English name — Causemoor. Rhosneigr. — Rhos, a moor; neigr is generally
supposed to be a corruption of niger, in allusion to the black hue and peaty
nature of the soil. English name — Blackmoor. Rhosybol.- -Bol is an
etymological puzzle. It looks like a contraction of Paul-Paulinas. Edward
Llwyd refers to a place called Pant-y -Potion, near which he found an
inscription of the name Paulinus. Some think that Suetonius Paulinus once
took up his abode in Talybolion. We are inclined to think bol is a corruption
of moel, a coped hill. Moel Don is now commonly called Bol y Don. Talybclion
was, probably, some time called Talymoelion. The name, therefore, denotes a
moor near a coped hill. English name — Moorhill. Tre-Gwalchmai. — Tre, a
dwelling-place; Gwalch- mat, the son of Meilir. The name was bestowed upon
the place about the twelfth century. Gwalchmai implies a hero in war. English
name — Heroton.
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4i Valley. — A gross
mutilation of the Welsh Mael-dy, a house of trade or traffic. Tacitus informs
us that an extensive trade was carried on between this district and Ireland
in the time of Julius Agricola. There is a homestead not far from the place
called " Ty Milo," which, evidently, is a corruption of " Ty
Maelu," a house of trade. English name — Barterham. Ynys Bronwen. — It
is recorded in the " Mabinogion '* that Bronwen, the daughter of Llyr,
was buried here. " Bedd petryal a wnaed i Vronwen, verch Llyr, ar Ian
afon Alaw " — i.e., " A square grave was made for Bronwen, the
daughter of Llyr, on the banks of the river Alaw (Cambro-Briton, vol ii., p.
71.) Ynys means an island. Ynys Seiriol. — Seiriol had a residence here in
the sixth century, hence the name. It is also called Puffin Island.
BRECONSHIRE. The name of this county is spelt Brecon and Brecknock, which are
corruptions of the Welsh Brychan and Bryckeiniog. The county was anciently
called Garth Madryn; garth, that part of a mountain that terminates in a
point, a promontory, a ridge; madryn, an old Welsh word for fox. It appears
that madryn 1 s offspring, wolves, wild cats, and beavers abounded in that
part of the Principality in olden times. Brychan gave the county its present
name when he came from Ireland, and settled here as king, some say in the
fifth, others say in the sixth century. The king's name is derived from
Brych, which signifies brindled, or spotted. Dyn brych, a freckled man. Y
frech wen, the small pox. Aberbaidon. — This place is situated at the
confluence of the rivers Baidon and Usk. The radix is Baid, briskness,
liveliness. English name — Briskmouth. Abercrave. — The old Welsh name was
Abercrdf, from its situation at the confluence of the brook Craf or Crai,
with the river Tawy. Cra-af, the issuing forth, the channel torn by the
impulsive force of the stream, as well as the act of tearing or breaking up
any substance*. Crafu means to scratch; crafangu, to claw, to gripe. English
name — Tearmouth. Abergwesyn. — The place is situated at the confluence of
the rivers Gwesyn and Irvon. According to the Welsh Triads, Gwesyn is an old
Welsh word for a shepherd, and he was so called after Gwesyn, the shepherd of
Goronwy ab Ednyfain. The district is noted for rearing sheep, and some think
that the name Gwesyn was given to the stream that runs through the place in
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honour of some popular
shepherd. We are inclined to- think that gwesyn is a diminutive of gwes, what
moves on or goes; therefore meaning the little moving stream.. English name —
Stream-mouth. Aberhonddu. — Honddu, the name of the river that, on
approaching the town, flows quietly into and joins the Usk to run to its
destination. Hon seems like sl contraction of hoen, complexion, hue; and ddu,
black, seems to indicate the respective hue of the water. Many Welsh streams
and lakes received their names from the peculiar hue of their respective
waters, such, as Dulas, black-blue; Gwenffrwd, white stream; Pwllglas, blue
pool. Llewellyn uses the word hoen in that sense:. " Hoen blodau
haf," the colour of the summer flowers* Hoen also implies liveliness,
gladness. Perhaps hoen was used to denote the lively nature of the river, and
ddu, black, to indicate the hue of its waters. Others seem to think that the
name is a compound of hawn-heini, swift, wild, hasty; and dwy, which means
original cause. Dwyf, which signifies 1 am, the self-existent, was frequently
applied by the Druids to rivers, such as Dyfrdwy, &c. We rather think the
correct wording is Hawn-ddu, the rapid black stream, which is a true
description of its course from its rise on the Eppynt mountain to its
junction with the Usk. Aberllyfni. — Llyfni is a compound of llyfn,. smooth;
and wy, water. The place is delightfully situated at the junction of the Llyfni
and Wye Rivers* English name — Sleekmouth.
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43 Aberyscir. — A
corruption of Aberesgair, from its situation on the river Esgair, which
discharges itself here into the river Usk. Esgair here implies a branch, or
tributary. English name — Branchton. Battle. — This small parish, according
to tradition, received its name from a battle that was fought here, in which
Bleddyn ab Maenyrch, the last of the Brychan princes was killed by Bernard de
Newmarch. We, find several names in the vicinity which favour the above
derivation, such as Heol y Cymry,the Welshmen's road; Cwm Gwyry Gad, the vale
of the battle men. Beaufort. — The popular Welsh name of this place is Cendl.
from Kendall, the name of the proprietor of the Ironworks that was once the
mainstay of the place. The present name was given in honour of the Duke of
Beaufort. Beulah. — This village takes its name from a chapel of that name
which belongs to the Congregational body. Bronllys. — Some spell it Brynllys,
and others Brwynllys, but the former is the correct wording. A farmhouse in
the parish is called Bryn y Grots, the hill of the cross. History points to
the probability that wars were engaged here, from which we may infer that a
llys, a court, was held on a certain hill in the vicinity. The old castle is
still called Bronllys. English name — Courthill. Brynmawr. — It was anciently
called Waun Helygen, willow-tree common, from a meadow in the place which
abounded with willow-trees, but when it became an important seat of the iron
and coal trades, the old name was changed for the new and more dignified one
of Brynmawr, the big hill. English name — Big-hill, or Hillton. Builth. —
This name is a mutation of Buallt. Some are of opinion that Buallt is the Balceum
Silurum of the Romans, but others are induced to think the name is a
derivative of Bual, the wild ox or buffalo. Llanfair-pi- Muallt, St. Mary's
Church in the wood of the wild ox. Historians believe that the wild ox ranged
unmolested
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(delwedd 8270) (tudalen 044)
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44 in the forests of
this district. We offer the following derivation: Bu>, an ox; allt, gallt,
a wooded eminence. English name — Oxhill. Capel Isaf. — Isaf, lower, is a
differentia added to distinguish it from Capel Uchaf. English name —
Lowchapel. Capel Uchaf. — The name means the higher chapel, and it was so
called from the chapel of ease that was built in the place. English name —
Highchapel. Capelyffin. — The name signifies boundary chapel, and is derived
by Mr. Jones (History of Brecknock) thus: " In 1708 there was a long
dispute in the ecclesiastical court about this chapel (chapel of the
boundary); Lewis Thomas, clerk, vicar of Llanigon, refused to do duty here as
there was no salary annexed to the cure, whereupon he was cited to the
bishop's court at the promotion of some of the parishioners, and in the
articles filed against him it is stated that sometimes a corpse remained
uninterred a whole night, and children died without being baptized in
consequence of the vicar's neglect, though he had theretofore regularly
officiated there by himself or curate for ten or twelve years. In this cause
many old witnesses were examined, two or three of them say the chapel is in
the hamlet of Blaenbwch, in the parish of Glasbury, others that it is in
Llanigon, but all agree that it is a chapel of ease to the latter."
English name — Boundary Chapel. Cathedin. — A corruption of Caethadyn, which
implies an incarcerated vagabond. Mr. Jones, in his " History of
Brecknock," states that this vicinity was given by Bernard de Newmarch
towards the support of Gwrgan, who was to be kept confined in Brecon Castle.
English name — Slaveton. Cefn-Coed-y-Cymmer. — Cefh, back, ridge; • coed, wood;
y y the; cymmer, confluence of waters. The village is situated on a rising,
and (one time) very woody eminence, below which the Taj Fawr and Taj Fechan
embrace each other. English name — Woodridge. Cenol. — Catwl, middle, is the
right wording. This picturesque neighbourhood forms the middle of Llanfi-
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(delwedd 8271) (tudalen 045)
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45 hangel-Cwmdu; hence
the name. English name — Midham. Cil-le. — This name signifies a sequestered
place. English name — Nookham. Coelbren.— A corruption, probably, of
cil-y-bryn, church on the hill, or the hill of the sanctuary. Cilybebyll, the
church of the tents, is in the neighbourhood. English name — Churchhill.
Crickadarn. — Some are of opinion that Crug-cadam is the true orthography.
Crug, heap or bank; cadarn, strong. The church was built upon the top of a
craggy hillock. We rather think it is a contraction of Cerrygcadarn, from the
rocks and stones which appear frequently on the surface in different parts of
the parish. The river Clettwr rushes over rocks and through craggy places
until it falls into the Wye at Erwood. Clettwr is a contraction of
caled-ddwr, hard water, or it might be Clyd-ddwr, sheltered water. English
name — Cragton. Crickhowel. — A mutation of Crug Hywel, or Cerrig Hywel.
Crug, a heap; hywel, conspicuous. Cerrig, stones; Howel, proper name.
Historians differ as to the application of the word Hywel. Some apply it to
the place from the conspicuity of the hill; others apply it to Howel, the
prince of Glamorgan. The latter theory is supported by the fact that in this
vicinity the territorial boundaries of Howel and the Lords of Brecknock were
determined. After the battle Howel raised a huge heap of stones to define the
boundary henceforth; hence the name Crug Hywel, Howel's heap. Cerrig Hywel
allude to the same circumstance. Some derive the name from Crug Hywel, an
ancient British fortress, surrounded by large heaps of stones, situated about
two miles north-north-east of the town, the remains of which are still
visible. English name — Howelstone. Cwmioy. — A corruption of Cwm Iau, the
vale of yoke, so called, probably, from the resemblance of the vale to oxen's
yoke. •• Cymerwch fy iau arnoch," — take my yoke upon you. English name —
Yokecomb. Defynog. — Some derive this name from dyfnog, which signifies a
place abounding with glens. Dyfn,
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(delwedd 8272) (tudalen 046)
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46 deep. Devon comes
from the same root. Others think the patron saint is Dyfnog, the son of
Medrod, a grandson of Cradoc Fraich-fras, who flourished in the sixth
century. The right wording is Tref Cynog. Saint Cynog, son of Brychan,
flourished in the fifth century, and founded a church here, which is
dedicated to him. His name is preserved also in Merthyr Cynog and Llangynog.
English name — Cynogton. Dolgaer. — Dol, meadow; goer — caer, a wall. This
place took its name from a farmhouse of the same name. English name—
Moorhall. Dukestown. — In honour of the Duke of Beaufort. Dyfnant. — A
compound of dyfn, deep, and nant, a brook. English name— Deepbrook. Erwood. —
Some think this is an Anglicized form of the Welsh Erw-yd, which signifies
the land of corn. It is, probably, a corruption of y rhyd, the ford, in
allusion to a certain ford in the river Wye, where cattle were wont to cross
in time of yore. English name — Fordham. Felinfach. — The name means the
little mill, probably derived from an old mill which formed the nucleus of
the village. English name — Little Mill. Garth. — From an old mansion of the
name, whence the celebrated Charles Wesley had his "better half."
Garth has been explained in the introduction. English name — Hillton.
Glasbury. — This name is derived by some from glasy green, verdant, and bury,
borough, probably from the beauty and fertility of the valley. The ancient
name of this place was Y Clds, the green or verdant inclosure. Clasdir means
glebe land. English name — Greenbury. Gwenddwr. — A compound of gwen,
feminine form of gwyn, white, clear, transparent, and dwr, water. English
name— Clearwater. Gwravog. — This name has suffered a little from mutation.
Gwar, a ridge; af from haf, summer; hafog, summer-like. English name —
Sunnyoank.:
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47 Halfway. — This
village derives its name from an inn so called, which is situated halfrway
between Trecastdl and Llandovery. Hay. — The original name was Gelli, which
signifies an enclosed park or forest, containing wood or boscage within a
fence or pale; a grove; and the present name is supposed to have been derived
from the Nc-rmanPrench Haye or Hate, which originally meant the hedge or
ihclosure itself only, but in course of time its meaning was amplified, and
the name was used to denote the wood and ground inclosed. Hater, to inclose.
Here ive perceive the Welsh name supplanted by that of the Norman Castle.
English name — Groveham. Kilmery. — A corruption of Cil-Mary, which signifies
St. Mary's Church. English name— Mary'schurch. Libanus. — This place probably
derives its name from a sacred edifice so called, which belongs to the
Congregational body. Llanafan Fawr. — The church was dedicated to bishop Ieuan
or Ivan, whose name is found in the list of the prelates of St. David's
during the tenth century, and who is supposed to have been murdered by the
Danes in a meadow on the Whefri side, a little below the vicarage house,
where a maen hir was placed, obviously, in memory of the martyred bishop. On
an altar- tomb in the churchyard the following inscription is discernible:
" Hie jacet Sanctus Avanus Episcopus" English name — Evanston.
Llanamlech. — Ami, many; llech-lech, a stone. The church is built upon the strata
of the rock, and the churchyard contains a great number of stones and
fragments of slates. There is a village called Llechfaen in the same parish,
which supports the given derivation. The English equivalent of the former
would be Stonechurch, and the latter Stoneham. Llanbedr Ystradyw. — Llanbedr,
St. Peter's church. Ystradyw, or more correctly Ystrad-wy, the vale of
waters, was added to distinguish the parish from St. Peter's at Painscastle,
Glasbury, &c. English name — Churchvale.
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(delwedd 8274) (tudalen 048)
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4 8 Llandefaelog Fach. —
The old church was dedicated to St. Tyfaelog. It was re-built in 1831. The
village is beautifully situated on the river Honddu. English name—
Tyvaelogton. Llandefalley. — Def alley may be a curruption of Tyvaelog, to
whom ihis church was probably dedicated. English name — Tyvaelog. Llandeilo
Arfan. — The church is dedicated to St Teilo. Arfan is probably a contraction
of At Ma wen. The church is situated near the conflux of three brooks, the
Mawen, the Ethryw, and Cilieni. This derivation is supported by the following
fact: In the register book of Devynock the following may be seen, "
Siwan Morgan de Nant y Sebon in Llandeilo ar Fawen. sepulta est cet. 96,
octris. 1726." Mawen signifies broad water. English name — Broadwater.
Llanddew. — It is sometimes spelt Llanthew. Some think the right wording is
Llandduw, the church of God, or the church of the Holy Trinity. We have no
instance of a church thus dedicated. The name is probably an abbreviation of
Llanddewi, the church of St. David's. It appears that Llanddew has been a
seat and house of the bishop of St. David's. English name - Davidston.
Llanelli.— The church is supposed to have been dedicated to Ellyned or
Eilineth, a daughter of Brychan. Some think it was anciently called
Llanellyned, of which Llanelly is an abbreviation. English name — Eilineth.
Llanfeugan. — Meugan, the son of Gwyndaf Hen, was a saint of the sixth
century, and founded the church which bears his name. English name — Meugan.
Llanfihangel Cwmdu. — Llanfihangel, St. Michael's church. Opinions differ as
to Cwmdu, the black or gloomy vale. The old inhabitants very strongly
objected to the name Cwmdu, as the following couplet shows: — Cam cnwir ef
Cwmdu, Cwm gwyn yw % n cwm ni. It is wrongly called the vale of gloom, Ours
is a fair and bright comb. A glance at this cheerful vale would never suggest
such a gloomy appellation. The ancient name of the parish
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(delwedd 8275) (tudalen 049)
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49 was Llanfihangd tref
Cerriau % or Catrau, from the numerous fortifications there are in it, and
the present name is supposed to have taken its origin from the black
moorstone rock, which is on the brow of an adjacent hill. Some derive it from
Cum Dc, the south vale, from its being situated in the southern part of the
cantrev of Crickhowell. We have instances of du being changed into dc and
dee, such as Tydu-Tydcc, &c, and it might have undergone the same process
here. English name — Blackvale. Llanfihangel NANTBRAN. - The church was
dedicated to St Michael, and is situated on a tributary called Bran. Nant
Bran, Bran brook. English name — Branbrook. Llanfilo. — The church is
dedicated to Milburg, the eldest daughter of Merwald, King of Mercia, and a
saint of the seventh century. Ffynon Villo, a well in the neighbourhood, also
preserves her name. English name — Milburg. Llanfrynach. — Brynach, an abbot
and confessor, married Corth, the daughter of Brychan. The church was
dedicated to him. English name — Waterhill. Llangammarch. — Some think the
name signifies the church upon the river Catntnarck, but the general opinion
is that the church is dedicated to Camtnarch, a grandson of Brychan. The
river-name is very descriptive, cam j winding, and arach, a channel, perhaps
from the Irish ar 9 to guide or conduct; arwain, to lead. Or arach may be a
compound of dr, arable land, and ach, water, hence the name signifies a river
winding its way through arable land. English name — Meanderton.
Llangasty-Talyllyn. — Gastyn was an eminent religious teacher in Brychan's
family, and the above church was dedicated to him. Talyllyn, the end of the
lake, in allusi<>n to the situation of the church. English name —
Lakesend. Llangaten. — The church is dedicated to Cantcn, grandson of
Brychan. English name — Canten. Llangattock. — The church is dedicated to
Cattwg, grandson of Brychan. English name — Cadoxton.
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50
Llangors. — A contraction of Llan-yn-y-gors, the church in the Fen or
Marsh. The soil near the lake is very marshy. The correct name of the lake is
Llynsafeddan, the standing water or lake. An old tradition says that the lake
covers the remains of an ancient and populous city called Loventium. English
name — Marshton.
Llangynidr. — St. Cynidr, grandson of Brychan, founded the churches
at Llangynidr and Aberyscir, which were subsequently dedicated to him and St.
Mary. English name — Cynidr.
Llanigon. — The old church was dedicated either to Eigen, daughter of
Cradoc ab Bran, or to Eigion or Eigron, son of Caw, a saint of the sixth
century. The present church is dedicated to Nicholas. English name —
Nicholaston .
Llanilid. — The church was dedicated to St. Ilid, and is situated on
the banks of the river Crai. English name — Ilid.
Llanlleonfoel. — Lleon might have a reference to Sarn Lleon or Sarn
Helen, Helen's causeway, a branch of which, it is supposed, passed through
the place. The suffix foel signifies a bare tract of land. English name—
Helenton.
Llanspyddyd. — A corruption, according to some, of Llan-osbaidd-ty, a
house of entertainment or refreshment for guests. In ancient times hospitable
mansions were kept by the monks to entertain man and beast free of charge,
and the chief officer therein was called Hosiillarius, whose sole duty was
" To welcome the coming, speed the going guest." It is said that
this hospitium was supported by the priory of
Malvern. English name — Hospeston.
Llanwrtyd. — The church, according to some, is dedicated to St. Wrtyd,
but we cannot find the name in "Bonedd y Saint.” Its proximity to the river Irvon, where, in
times of yore, there was a ford, which is now spanned by a stone bridge,
induces us to think the right wording is Llan-wrth-y-rhyd , the church by the
ford. A place in Herefordshire is called Byford from the situa-
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(delwedd 8277) (tudalen 051)
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51
tion of the church by a
ford. The ancient name of the village was Pontrkydybere, which is a compound
of pont, bridge; rkyd, ford; y, the; fferau, ankles; signifying a bridge
spanning a ford which one could wade without going over his ankles. Irfon, or
Irfawn, signifies the oozings from the turbary, which is very descriptive of
the river. English name — Churchford.
Llanywern. — Gwcrn means a bog or swamp;
gwernen, the alder tree; the alder grows in wet swampy places. The name
signifies the church in the swamp or alderwood. English name — Alderchurch.
Llechfaen. — The ancient
etymology of this name means the " upright or lofty stone." There
was a chapel of ease here sometime to the mother church of Llanatnlcch.
English name — Stoneham.
Llechryd. — From a farm
of the name, but it is now called Rhymney Bridge from the railway station.
For Rhymney, see Monmouthshire.
Llwynegrog. — The right
wording is Llwyn-y-grog, which means the bush of the cross. English name —
Bushcross.
Llyswen. — The name
signifies a white court. A Welsh prince resided in the parish at some period,
and probably held a court here; hence the name. Some think it is Llys Owen,
Owen's court; but who this Owen was we are not informed. English name —
Whitecourt.
Llywel. — Sometimes
spelt Lliwel, which, according to some is a mutation of Llu-lle, the
residence of the army, in allusion to the soldiers of Rhys ab Tewdwr making
this place one of their stations to resist the attacks of the Norman
invaders. It is derived by some from Lie Wyllt y a nephew of Rhys ab Tewdwr.
We offer the following: Lly, what is manifest; wel-gwel, see; signifying a
conspicuous place. Trecastell mountain is 2,596 feet high. English name —
Highton.
Maesygwarthaf. — Maes, a
field; gwarthaf, the upper part, the summit. The village lies in the upper
part of the parish; hence its descriptive name. Some of the inhabitants think
the name is a corruption of Maesygwartheg, cattle field. English name —
Highfield.
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52
Maesymynys. — Ym, yn, in; ynys, island; therefore, it literally means
a field in the island. This derivation is supported by the fact that Llanynys
is the name of the contiguous parish. English name — Plotfieid.
Merthyr Cynog. — Merthyr, martyr; Cynog, the eldest son of Brychan.
He was murdered by the Saxon pagans on a mountain called Y Fan, where a
church was built on his grave in commemoration of his martyrdom, which was
called Merthyr Cynog. English name — Cynogton.
Nantgaen. — A compound
of nant, a brook, and waen, a meadow, a common. English name — Brookmoor.
Nantyffin. — The name
signifies the boundary brook. The bounds of a parish or county are frequently
defined by certain marks or boundaries, such as heaps of stones, dikes,
hedges, ditches, rivers, streams, rivulets, &c. English name — Markbrook.
Nantyrarian. — It signifies
the silver brook. English name — Silverbrook.
Newchurch. — The ancient
name of this church was Llan-ddulas-tir-yr-Abbad. It was presented by Rhys ab
Gruffydd to the monastery of Strata Florida, on account of which it was
called Tir-yr-Abbad, abbot's land. In 1716 a new church was built here; hence
the new name.
Onllwyn. — This appears
like a transposition of Llwyn On, the ash grove. English Name — Ashton.
Pantycelyn. — Pant, a
hollow, a low place; celyn, holly wood. English name — Hollyton.
Patrishow. — The name is
a corruption, either of Parthau yr Ishow, the territory of I show, the patron
saint of the parish, or of Merthyr Ishow. It appears that Bishop Herewald, in
the eleventh century, dedicated the church to Ishow, and named it Merthyr Yssui.
English name — Ishow.
Pencelli. — This is a
compound of pen, head, and celli, grove. English name — Grovetop. •
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53 Penderyn. — A
corruption probably of Penydarcn, which is a very frequent term in South
Wales, signifying a rocky cliff, a rocky tump. The church is situated on the
very summit of a rock. Pcn-mailard is close by, which is a corruption of
Ptn-mocl-arth, the summit of the bare cliff. English name — Cliff by.
Pentrefelin. — Pentre, village; felin, mill. English name — Millham. Pentre
Solers. — From the Solers or de Solariis, Norman conquerors, who settled in
the neighbourhood, and continued to be very wealthy and influential here
until the middle of the seventeenth century. Another branch of the house of
Solers settled at Pauntley and Shipton Solers, in Gloucestershire. English
name— Solerston. Pontbrenllwyd. — Pont, bridge; pren, wood; Uwydy grey,
adorable. In olden times a very ancient oak-tree was thrown across the
rivulet in the place, which was a very good specimen of the unadorned wooden
bridges of our forefathers. In course of time this old much-worn oak became a
kind of a trough, for which it was called Pontbrenllwyd. English name—
Woodbridge. Pontneddfechan. — Nedd fechan, the lesser Neath, is a tributary
emptying itself into the greater Neath river, and spanned by a bridge in the
village, hence the name. English name — Neath Bridge. Pontsarn. — Sam, Roman
paved road. The common opinion is that the Romans constructed a road from
Merthyr Tydfil over the site of the present Cyfarthfa Park to the place now
called Pontsarn. English name — Bridge-road. Pontsenny. — The name signifies
a bridge across the Seuny river. Senny is derived by some from san, a
fishery, nets; and gwy, water; signifying a river abounding in fishes. Mr.
Jones (" History of Brecknock ") derives it from the Celtic
seanaidd, to drop or ooze forth, the name, accordingly, signifying the oozing
or flowing water. It might be a corruption of swn-wy, the noisy water.
English name — Dinwater Bridge.
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54 Pontsticyll. — A
compound of pont, bridge; and ystigl, a stile, from the Anglo-Saxon stigel, a
step. Stigan, to ascend. About the beginning of this century there was an old
bridge, a little below the village, with a stile at each end of it, from
which the place received its name. English name — Bridgestile. Princetown. —
From an old public house in the place called " Prince of Wales."
Pwllgwrach. — Pwll, a pool; gwrach, a hag; literally, the hag's pool. The
village lies in a deep valley at the base of Talgarth Hill. English name —
Hag's Pool. Rhosferrig — Rhos, moor, meadow; Ferrig from Ferreg, an extensive
district situate between the rivers Wye and Severn. The suffix is probably a
corruption of Meurig. English name — Moor ton. Seven Sisters. — Mr. Bevan,
when he opened his colliery in the place, called it Seven Sisters in honour
of his seven daughters. Tafarnau Bach. — The ancient name of this place was
Twyn-aber-dwynant, a hillock where two brooks embrace each other. Some derive
the present name from tafarn a bach, a public house with a hook attached to
the outer wall, whereto the rider, having dismounted his steed, could fasten
it. Others derive it from the great number of small taverns in the place.
English name — Tavernton. Talachddu. — Achddu is the name of a small brook.
Ach, a stem, a pedigree, a river; ddu, inflection of du, black. We find ach
in Clydach, Mawddach, &c. The river Ach has its source in the Black
Mountain; hence it is called Achddu. English - D1 - 1 - — Talgarth. — Garth
mear denotes the end or head of hill. English name — Browh Talybont. — Tal,
when end; but when applied to Taliesin means radiant front c means Bridgend.
Digitiz ed by Google
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55 Talyllyx. — Llyn,
lake. The name signifies the end of a lake. Safaddan Lake is close by.
English name — Lake's End. Three Cocks. — From a public house of the name.
Torpantau. — A compound of tor, a break, a rupture; and pantau, plural of
pant, hollow: a name quite descriptive of this wild spot. A great number of brooks
rush impetuously from the higher grounds, forming excavations in the hills, a
glance at which immediately helps one to catch the meaning of the name.
English name — Breakhill. Trallwng. — Some think the name signifies " a
soft place on the road or elsewhere that travellers may be apt to sink into;
a dirty, boggy place." Edward Llwyd derives it from Traeth-lyn, a
quagmire. The distance of this place from the sea-shore dismisses the
component ttaeth from the name altogether. Mr. Jones (History of Brecknock)
thinks the name is a corruption of Tre'r lleng, oppidum Ugionis, the town of
the legion, founding his reasons upon the supposition that a summer camp of
the second legion of Augustus must have been at Twyn-y-gatr, a hill in the
parish where an artificial mound is still seen. — English name — Legionton.
Trecastell. — Trt, a place; castell, castle. A castle was built here by
Bernard de Newmarch, some ruins of which are to be seen now; hence the name.
English name — Castleton. Trefecca. — The name signifies Rebecca's home, from
an heiress of the name of Rebecca Prosser, who built it in the reign of
Elizabeth. English name — Beccaston. Trefil. — Some think the name is a
mutation of Tir-foel, barren land, which is very descriptive of the place,
but we rather think it is a compound of tre, a place, and mul, an animal, a
beast. Studfarms were very numerous among the ancient Britons, and one might
have been here. English name — Studham. Tre'r Esgob. — The tenants in this
place owe suit and service to the bishop's courts leet and courts
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(delwedd 8282) (tudalen 056)
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56 baron, and pay their
chief rents at Llanddew-i, St. David's. Tre'r Esgob means Bishop's place.
English name — Bishopston. Vaenor. — This is derived by some from Maenawr,
which signifies a district surrounded by a wall, a manor. Others think it is
of the same family as the Latin tnanerc, which implies locality or stability.
According to the laws of Howell the Good, the Maenawv contained 1024 acres.
This one was probably the demesne attached to Morlais castle. In ancient MSS.
the parish is called Y Faenor Wen, signifying Gwen or Gwenffrewi's demesne or
manor. English name — Manor. Velindre. — The right wording is y felin-dre,
the mill of the town, from an old mill, called the lord's mill, that stood
here in ancient times. English name — Mi 11 ton. Ystradfellte. — Ystrad has
already been explained. It means here a flat or low valley formed by the
course of the river M elite . Mellte — mellten, lightning. The river is so
called because it runs very rapidly for some distance on the surface, and
then it is suddenly lost underground. English name — Rapid Vale.
Ystradgynlais. — It is supposed that this Ystrad, vale, was the marriage
portion that Gunleus ap Glewisseg, prince of Gwent, and father of Saint
Cattwg, received with his wife, Gwladys, daughter of Brychan. Others state
that the church is dedicated to St. Mary, and not to St. Gunleus, and that
the proper name of the parish is Ystrad-Gwrlais, or Garwlais, signifying
" the vale of the rough-sounding brook," and is derived from a
stream so called, which forms a boundary between the counties of Brecknock
and Glamorgan. Iago Emlyn derives Cynlais from cyn, primeval; and dais, a
trench through which a stream flows. English name — Brookvale. CARDIGANSHIRE.
Cardigan is a corruption of Ceredigion, the original name, which was so
called after Ceredig, the son of Cunedda Wledig, who became its king about
the end of the fourth century. It is also called Aberteifi, from the
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(delwedd 8283) (tudalen 057)
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57 mAAiW-% St. situation
of its capital at the estuary of the river ' at Lla*** jwijsh 7a/ is the
radix, which means spreading. Taf-g ,p's place. & j e j£ ^e spreading or
extending water. The En;d at the n compound < water. En ted at the n Irtk
is the V ived its nan like charact i a bear; to lame of an » bearish, family
of \i Cerdiu flows landyssul; 1 n opinion i: s so called once adorn iame, is
a cc ther river i i has the HI. boundary, ly describe* t separating —
Markton. >en, transpa the clear t baith, hope. iw of the fi is in the
>our*jfl
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(delwedd 8284) (tudalen 058)
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58 was called Abcr-y-Porth,
the mouth of the harbour. English name — Portsmouth. Aberystwyth. — This
fashionable town and seaport is situated on the conflux of the rivers Ystwyth
and Rhcidiol, the former of which gives the town its name. Its ancient name
was Llanbadarn Gaerog, but it is known by its present name since the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. English name — Supplemouth. Ardudwy. — Ar, upon or above;
tud, soil, land; wy y water; literally, on the land or banks of the Wye.
According to Dr. Pughe, the name means a " maritime region."
English name — Waterbj'. Argoed. — Ar-ard, signifying height; coed, trees.
The name signifies a place sheltered by woods. English name — Highwood.
Atpar. — Probably an Anglicized form of At-bar, which means towards the top
of the hill. The village is also called Trefhedyn, which is probably a
corruption of Tref-y-din> hill-town. English name — Hillham.
Bettws-Bledrws. — Bettws has already been explained. The church is dedicated
to St. Bledrws; hence the name. English name — Bledrws. Bettws I fan. — The
church is dedicated to St. John. I fan or Ieuan is an old Welsh form of loan,
John. English name— John's Church. Blaencaron. — This place is situated near
the source of the river Caron; hence the name. English name — Caronton.
Blaenhownant. — This rivulet is called Hownant, which is a corruption of
hoyw, lively; and nant, brook; and the place was so called from its situation
near the source of the Hownant. English name— Sprightham. Brechfa. — A
compound of breck, brindled, freckled, and man, a place. It is supposed that
Brychan, who came originally from Ireland, and settled in Breconshire in the
sixth century, was so called from his being freckled. English name —
Freckleton or Spotham.
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(delwedd 8285) (tudalen 059)
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59 Brongest. — Bron, a
slope, or side of a hill; literally, breast. Cest, a deep glen between two
mountains. The name is quite descriptive of the situation of the place.
English name — Hillcombe. Brongwyn. — A parish in Cardigan and Pembroke
counties. Some are of opinion that this name is a relic of the Druids, to
whose system belonged Ceryg y Bryn Gwyn, i.e., the stones of the hill of
judicature. If so, the prefix bron here is a corruption of bryn, a hill. English
name — Whitehill. Bwlchcrwys. — Bwlch, a break or breach, a gap, a defile;
crwys, a corrupt form of croes, a cross. The name Bwlck-y-groes is of
frequent occurrence in the Principality. We have many instances of croes
being changed to crwys, Y Crwys, Pantycrwys and Bwlch-y -crwys, &c.
" Dan ei gtwys," under the cross, is a phrase even now frequently
used in Wales in reference to the posture of a dead body before it is put
into the coffin. In Popish times it was customary to put a cross or a
crucifix on a dead body lying in its shroud; but now, although the phrase is
occasionally heard, the usage of this Popish relic has been entirely
abandoned among the Welsh people. Many Welsh places still retain the name,
among which is Bwlchcrwys. It was customary in olden times for pilgrims to
prostrate themselves at certain passes to invoke the blessings of the Cross
before going through; hence the name Bwlchcrwys or Bwlchygroes. English name
— Passcross. Capel Gwndwn. — Capel, chapel; Gwndwn, is a compound of cwn, a
head, top, summit; and twyn, a hillock. The name signifies a chapel built on
an eminence. — English name— Highchapel. Capel y Drindod. — This village
probably derives its name from a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel of the
name. English name— Trinity Chapel. Ceinewydd. — A hybrid name made up of
quay, from French quai, a mole or bank formed toward the sea or on the side
of a river for the purpose of loading and unloading vessels; and newydd, new.
Or perhaps
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6o the prefix comes from
cae, an inclosure. English name — New Quay. Cellan. — The name of this parish
is a compound of cell, a sheltering place, a grove; and llan, a church,
signifying a church in a grove. English name — Grovechurch. Cenarth. — Some
maintain that the right wording is Genarth, the bear's jaw. Tradition has it
that the jaw-bone of a bear was found in the place, and its head in Penarth.
Penarth, as we show elsewhere, is Peny garth, and we are inclined to think
Cenarth is a compound of cefn, ridge, back; and garth, a fort, a hill, a
cape. The name is a graphic description of the place, being perched on a high
ridge, ever watching the graceful movements of the Teivi. English name —
Ridgeham. Ceulan. — This place derives its name from the river Ceulan that
flows through it. Tradition points to this place as Taliesin's place of
sepulture. English name — Bankham. Cilcenin. — Cil, a place of retreat;
Cennin, a corrupted form of St. Cannen, to whose memory the parish church is
dedicated. English name — Cannenchurch. Clarach. — This place takes its name
from the river Clarach, near which it is situated. Clar-clatr, clear; ach,
river. English name — Clearwater. Croes. — This place takes its name from the
river Croes, which signifies cross. English name — Crossby. Cwm Barre. — A
valley through which the river Barre flows. Bar, a limit; re, a corruption of
rau, pluralising bar. The river is the boundary between some parts of the
parishes of Troedyraur and Penbryn. Barry is supposed to have come from the
same root. English name — Limit Vale. Cwm Rheidiol. — Cwm, a low place
surrounded by hills; Rheidiol, the name of the river that flows through it,
which is a contraction of rhyd-y-ddol, the stream of the meadow. English name
— Moorcombe.
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6i Dihewyd. — A mutation
of Dehau-wydd. Dehau, south; gwydd, the state of being in view. Gwyddfod
means presence. There is a hill called Moel Dihewyd in the parish, so called
from its southern aspect. English name — Southview. Dothi-Camddwr. — Dothi, a
corrupted form of iowyddu, which implies swelling; Camddwr, the crooked
water, the name of the river that flows through the place, so called from its
meandering course. English name — Crookby. Ferwig. — Berw, a boiling, an
ebullition; wig, inflection of gwig, a grove, a nook. The right orthography
is Bet wig, which, according to some, is cognate with Berwick and other
places in England. From its contiguity to the sea, its English name would be
Grovesea, Gartheli. — A corrupted form of Gwrtheli, the name of the saint who
founded a chapel in the place. English name — Gwrtheli. Hawen. — The village
takes its name from the river Hawen. Hawen is a compound of aw, a moving
agent, water, and an or ain, brook, signifying the running stream. English
name — Brookham. Henbelin. — A corrupted form probably of Henfelin, old mill.
English name — Oldmill. Henfynyw. — The name signifies " Old
Menevia." Tradition has it that the cathedral of St. David's was
originally designed to have been erected here. This parish is famous for
being the place where the patron saint of Wales spent his earlier days. A
spring that is near the church is still called Ffynon Ddewi, St. David's
Well. Henllan. — The name signifies old church, and it points out the great
antiquity of the original edifice of this parish. English name- -Oldchurch.
Henllys. — Hen, old; llys, court, hall, or seat, signifying the ancient hall.
Henllys and Gadlys are found to be very numerous in Wales, as traces of the
battles fought by the Welsh princes. English name — Oldhall.
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62 Llananerch. — A
compound of Llan and llanerch, an enclosure, and sometimes the latter
signifies a rising eminence. English name — Churchill. Llanarth. — Arth here
means a bear, according to some. The general opinion of the inhabitants is
that bears existed here at some remote period. It is hardly credible that the
saintly Cymry would do the bear such an honour as to couple his name with the
sacred edifice. We derive the name from Llan, church; and garth, a hill, and
sometimes enclosure. English name — Risechurch. Llanbadarn. — The church is
dedicated to Padarn, who, according to Usher, was an Armorican bishop, and
came to Wales with his cousin Cadven in 516. He left Illtyd's seminary for
Ceredigion, and gathered a congregation of 120 members at a place called
afterwards Llanbadarn Fawr. The differentia fawr was added to mark its pre-eminence
over the other parishes of the same name, and to distinguish it from the
adjacent town of Aberystwyth, which was anciently called Llanbadarn Gaerog.
English name — Bishop Padarn. Llanbedr-pont-Stephan. — The popular English
name is Lampeter, which is an Anglicized form of Llanbedr. We find many
churches in Wales bearing the name Pedr, Peter, but who this Peter was is a
matter of conjecture. Most writers point to Peter the Apostle. From a certain
document the pont, bridge, appears to have been erected early in the
fifteenth century. " Rhys, the son of David ap Rhys, of Pencarreg,
married Lleuan, daughter of Ieuan David Llwyd ap David Ddu ap David Decka ap
Steven, the man who erected Lampeter bridge at his own expense" English
name — Peterschurch. Llandain Fach. — Dain means beautiful, fine; fach,
little. The name signifies the beautiful little church. English name — Little
Church, or Beauchurch. Llandegwy. — Tegwy was a saint of the sixth century,
and a descendant of Nudd HaeL The above church was dedicated to him. English
name — Fairchurch.
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63 Llandysiliogogo. —
St. Tysilio, a bishop and an eminent author, who flourished about the middle
of the seventh century. Brut Tysilio, a copy of which is in the Myv. Arch. 9
is attributed to him. He was the patron saint of many churches in Wales. The
differentia gogo is a mutation of gogofau, caves, which are very numerous in
the parish. English name — Caveham. Llandysul. — Tysul, a descendant of
Cunedda Wledig, and a saint of the sixth century, to whom the above church
was dedicated. English name — Tysul. Llanddeiniol. — Deiniol Wyn, or Daniel,
assisted his father, Dunawd Fur, in founding the celebrated monastery at
Bangor Iscoed, and he founded several churches, of which Llanddeiniol is
reckoned to be one; hence the name. English name — St. Daniel.
Llanddewi-Aberarth. — The church was dedicated to Dewi, the patron saint of
Wales. Aber, estuary; Arth, the name of the river, near the mouth of which
the village is situated. Arth signifies rough, harsh. English name —
Roughton. Llanddewi-Brefi. — Brefi means bellowing. The traditional ox
overstrained himself in endeavouring to draw the avanc (beaver) from the
lake, and suddenly expired. The other, having lost his yoke-fellow, would not
be consoled, refused food, and wandered about until he died in a place called
Brefi, so called from the dismal moans of the sacred animal. Dewi, the patron
saint of Wales, founded a church and a religious seminary on the spot; hence
Llanddewi-Brefi. English name — Moanham. Llanddyfriog. — Tyfriog, a saint who
flourished about the close of the sixth century, founded the church. English
name — Tyvriog. Llanfair. — The church was dedicated to St. Mary; hence the
name of the little village would be Mary's Church. Llanfihangel Castell
Gwallter. — The church was dedicated to St. Michael. Walter l'Espec built a
castle on a hill near the church during the Norman
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(delwedd 8290) (tudalen 064)
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64 5 the additional
name. Omitting the rtion of the name, the English name ■'s Castle. el Lledrod. —
The church is dedicated Lledrod is a compound olllethv, a slope, , base; the
church being built at the English name — Foothill. el-y-Creuddyn. — The
church is dedi-;hael. Lewis Morris derives Cmiddyn; and dun, a fort,
signifying a bloody a commot of the same name near:h the castle of Dyganwy
was situated, ish kings, John and Henry III., had their fruitless expeditions
against the i name — Churchfort. . — St. Ceitho. who flourished in the inded
the church, which was dedicated l name — Ceitho. )R. — Coed, wood; moY-mawYy
great. The church is built abounds with timber luxuriant growth. English
name— >g. — Some trace the name to 5/ fc Df Corun, the son of Ceredig;
whilst rom Gwyddno Garanhir (long-shanked), crane, reckoned to be a
representative he ark, who safely landed the vessel Sam Badrig, Patrick's
Causeway. We derivation. — English name— Cranog. . — Cunllo, once a prince,
became the several churches in Wales. He is s's Welsh Saints as Cynllo, the
king. !unllo. on. — Gwyvyfon, virgins. Tradition says was dedicated to Ursula
and noo who fled with St. Padarn from i the persecution that raged there in ,
and settled in this parish, leading a:. — English name— Virginton. I
Luxilu._tj^ chi %«fcaoarished*;, «* denves IUr froldaf (higher) aiJtV ■""* Saxons. £i "fc«CSgand *<£* the ^T - U I Digitized
by VjOOQLC
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(delwedd 8291) (tudalen 065)
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65 Llanilar. — The
church was dedicated to St. Hilary, who flourished in the sixth century; but
one writer derives liar from ill, a particle implying two, both, and double,
and dr, land; hence the name signifies two portions of land, or territories.
The parish contains two hamlets bearing the names Llanilar Uchaf (higher) and
Llanilar Isaf (lower). English name — Hilarton. Llanina. — The church was
dedicated to Ina, king of the West Saxons. English name — Inaton.
Llanllwchhaiarn. — Llwchhaiarn was a saint of the seventh century. Iolo MSS.
give him the honour of having founded many churches, among which the above is
named. English name — Ironton. Llanllyr. — Llyr Metini flourished about the
end of the fifth century, and founded a church and nunnery at the above
place. English name — Lyrton. Llanrhystyd. — The church was dedicated to
Rhystyd, a descendant of Hywel ap Emyr Llydaw, who flourished in the
sixteenth century. " Rhystyd Sant, rhyw astud serch, A roe lln ar ryw
lanerch. " I.e.: — St. Rhystyd, with the love of pious zeal, Would with
a line enclose some sacred spot. English name — Rhystyd. Llansantffraid. —
The common opinion is that the church was dedicated to Sanffraid, but we are
inclined to think it was dedicated to St. Ffraid, who was called Bridget or
Bride, a celebrated Irish saint. English name — Brideton. Llanwenog. — St.
Gwenog is recorded to have founded the church. English name — Gwenogton.
Llanwndws. — Wndws is a corruption of Gwynws, the name of the saint who founded
the church in the sixth century. English name — Whitton. Llanwnen. — Wnen is
a corruption of Gwnen, the name of the saint to whom it is supposed the
church is dedicated. English name — Risby. 5
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(delwedd 8292) (tudalen 066)
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66 Llechryd. — Llech, a
stone; rhyd, a ford, a stream. This place is generally pointed out as the
scene of a terrible engagement that took place between Rhys ab Tewdwr and the
three sons of Bleddyn ab Cynvyn, in 1087, in which the sons of Bleddyn were
defeated, and two of them slain on the field. In course of time it is thought
a stone was raised here in memory of Riryd, one of Bleddyn 1 s sons. Some
think the name is derived from the river being seamed with ledges of rock.
English name — Stoneford. Llwyndafydd. — Llwyn, bush; Dafydd, David; from an
ancient house in the place, whicn belonged to Dafydd ab Ieuan, and where he
entertained the Earl of Richmond on his way to Bos worth field. English name
— Davidston. Merthyr Cyflefyr. — Merthyr, martyr; Cyfiefyr, name of a
descendant of Brychan, who is supposea to have been murdered at a place ever
since called after his name. English name — Martyrham. Mochros. — Moch, pigs;
rhos, a meadow, a moor. Tradition says that St. Dyfrig was warned in this
place by an angel to build a church in the name of the Trinity, where he
would see a white sow lying with her sucklings; hence the name. If we take
mdch as an adjective, it means quick, abrupt. Therefore, the name signifies a
sloping meadow. English name — Pigmoor. Mydyreilin. — The name, probably,
means the eilin (arm) of the river Mudyr. Penelin is the Welsh for elbow. The
crooked course of the river here reminds the observer very vividly of a man
holding his arm in a sling. Myllyr is a corrupt form of Mudyr, the silent
water. English name — Armton. Nantcwnlle. — Nant, brook; Cwnlle, a corruption
of Cunllo, an eminent British saint of the fifth century. The parish is intersected
by the brook, and the church is dedicated to Cunllo. English name — Brookham.
Nanteirw. — This place derives its name from the brook Eirw. Nant, brook;
eirw, eirwy, a. foaming cataract. ■ Some think that eirw is
a corruption of aeron,
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6 7 summer fruits, so
called on account of the abundance of these fruits on the banks of the
rivulet. English name — Foam brook. Newchurch. — It was anciently called
Llanfihangel- y-Creuddyn-Uchaf. The new name was derived from the fact that
Colonel Thomas Johns, Hafod Uchtryd, built a new church here in 1803.
Penddol. — Pen, top; dol, meadow, signifying a place at the top or head of a
meadow. English name — Upton. Penrhiwbal. — Pen, top; rhiw, slope; bal,
prominence. Bal is a general term applied to those mountains that terminate
in a peak. English name — Peakton. Penrhylog. — Pen, head, top; rhylog,
according to some, is a contraction of yr-haleg, salty place. We rather think
it to be rhyllcg, the name in full signifying a high place full of clefts.
English name — Clefthead. Penrhyngoch. — Penrhyn, headland; coch, red, so
called from the hue of the soil of the land. English name — Redland. Pentref
Taliesin. — Pentref, a village; Taliesin, the name of the chief of the Welsh
bards. His sepulture took place near the village. English name — Bardham.
Penybryn. — The name, which signifies " the head or top of the
hill," is derived from the situation of the church on the summit of a
hill overlooking the sea. Sometimes the parish is called Llanfihangel
Penybryn from the dedication of the church to St. Michael. English name —
Hilltop. Penyparc — Pare means an enclosed piece of land. In the Southern
counties it is synonymous with cae, a field. Penyparc, therefore, means the
end of a field. Park is an Anglicized form of pare, English name — Parksend.
Ponterwyd. — Pont, bridge; Erwyd, the name of the river that flows under the
bridge. The village derives its name from the old bridge. English name —
Bridgewater.
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68 Pontrhydfendigaid. —
Bendigaid, blessed. This name, evidently, is a relic of the Roman epoch. The
blessed celebrities of the monastery at Strata Florida were wont to cross a
certain ford in the river, where they invoked the blessings of the blessed
virgin, over which, in course of time, a bridge was built; hence the name.
English name — Blissford. Pontrhydygroes. — Pont, bridge; rhyd, ford; y, the;
groes, cross. English name — Crossford Rhiwarthen. — Rhiw, slope, declivity;
Art hen, according to some, is the name of a king or lord of Ceredigion, who
died in 804, but we rather think it is a clipped form of garthen, a camp or
battle. English name — Camphill. Rhuddlan. — A compound of rhudd, red; and
glan, bank. English name — Redbank. Rhydmanteg. — Rhyd, ford; man, place,
spot; teg, fair. English name — Fordham. Rhyd-Pennant. — Pennant means the
end of the brook. English name — Brookford. Sarnau. — This name is the plural
form of sarn, paved road, causeway, so called from the remains of several
paved roads across a bog in the district. English name — Roadby. Strata
Florida. — Strata, paved roads. The Roman strata became the Saxon streets.
Florida, abounding with flowers. Some maintain that the abbey was dedicated
to Fflur, the daughter of Mygnach Gorr, but the supposition is unsupported by
historical fact. An eye-witness wrote, a few years ago, anent the famous
place — " even now the adjacent peat land is covered with heath flowers.
As we were travelling over it, reaching Tregaron about sunset, we gazed on
the scene, and the whole extensive plain blushed as it bathed in a sea of
purple. '" English name — Florid ton. Swyddffynon. — Swydd here means
jurisdiction. In ancient times the law court of the commot of Mefenydd was
held here, perhaps near a celebrated
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69 well, called Ffynon
oer, cold well. English name — Lexwell. Talsarn. — Tal, end; sarn, road; from
a branch of a Roman road which terminated here. English name — Roadton.
Traeth Saith. — Traeth, sands, seashore; Saith is referred by some as
Seithedin, famous in Welsh mythology. The small river that flows into Traeth
Saith is called Saeth, which means an arrow, so called probably from its
arrow-like course. " As straight as an arrow " is a proverbial
phrase. Perhaps it was so called in contradistinction from the river Ystwyth
with its meandering course. The names Blaensaeth and Dyffryn Saeth, which are
found in the vicinity, induce us to adopt the latter derivation. English name
— Straighton. Trefilan. — The church was dedicated to Elen the mother of
Constantine the Great; therefore, Ban is a mutation of Elen. Eglwys Ilan,
Glamorgan, bears her name. English name — Ellenton. Treflyn. — A compound of
tref, a place, a town; and llyn, a lake. The place takes its name from a
beautiful lake called Llyn y maes, the lake of the field, which, according to
tradition, covers the original site of Tregaron. English name — Laketon.
Tregaron. — The church was dedicated to Bishop Caron, and the place is named
in honour of him. English name — Carontown. Tremaen. — Tre, place; maen, stone;
its literal signification being " the town of the stone," so called
from the noted stone, Llech yr ast, and the adjacent cistfaens near the
village. English name — Stoneton. Troedyraur. — Troed, foot, base, lower
part. Troedybryn, the lowest part of the hill. Piedmont has the same
signification, from It. pie di monte, foot of the mountain, so called from
its situation. Yr, the; aur, probably wrongly-spelt for air, bright, clear.
If we adopt the termination air, the name means the basement of a hill, from
which a clear view may be had of
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(delwedd 8296) (tudalen 070)
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7o the surrounding
district. Some derive the name from the tradition that aur, gold, was
discovered at the foot of the hill. It appears that the ancient name of the
church was Tredeyrn, the king's town, from the supposition that Owain ab
Hywel Dda, the king of Ceredigion, some time took up his abode in the
vicinity. Llys Owain, Owen's court, the ruins of which are still discernible,
about a quarter of a mile from the church, inclines us to think that Tredeyrn
is the correct name of this place. English name — Kington. Tynyswydd. — Ty,
house; yn, in; y, the; swydd, jurisdiction. The house, from which the village
takes its name, was probably situated at the extreme end of the Mefenydd
judicature. English name — Lexham. Ystrad Meurig. — Meurig is recorded to
have been killed at a place where a church was dedicated to him. The place is
also famous for its ancient seminary. 44 Meyryg, son of Meirchion, was a
brave, far-famed king. In his time the Irish Picts came to Cambria; he,
however, marched against them, drove them away, or slew them; but was killed
by an Irishman concealed in a wood, since called Ystrad Meyryg." Iolo MSS.,
p. 352. English name — Meurig's Vale. Ystumtuem. — Ystum, a bend, a shape, a
form; Tuem, the name of the river that flows through the place. Tuem probably
is a compound of tu, a side, a region, a part; and an-ain, water, signifying
a piece of land near the water. English name — Waterham. CARMARTHENSHIRE.
Carmarthen is an Anglicized form of Caerfyrddin. The Welsh Chronicle derives
the name from Myrddin, the pseudo-prophet and bard, and many are the
traditions that boldly, but absurdly, support the derivation. History rejects
this popular etymology by stating that the town was called " Maridunum
" by the Romans, during and after the Roman subjugation, long ere the
prophet was born. The Kaervyrddin of the Britons is the "
Maridunum," the city by the sea, of
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(delwedd 8297) (tudalen 071)
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7i Ptolemy; and the
" Muridunum," the walled city of Antonius. Some think that the
Latin name is a translation of the Welsh one, and derive the latter thus:
Caer, fortress, wall; fyr, a mutation of mor-tnyr, the sea; din-ddin, a hill;
signifying a fortified hill upon or near the sea. Others maintain that
Caermyrddin, the ruinous city, is the true derivation. Another derivation is
offered. Caerfyrdd-ddyn, the citadel of ten thousand, from myrdd, a myriad,
and dyn t a man. We are inclined to think that " Maridunum " is the
etymology of the name, and that the Welsh caer was prefixed to it, and hence
it was transmuted to its present form — Caerfyrddin. Abergwili. — Aber f
estuary; Gwili, the name of the river that flows into the Towy; hence the
name. Gwili is a derivative of gwyllt, wild, and lli t a flux, signifying
wild water. Some derive it from gwy, water, and Hi, a flux. The "
Dictionary of Universal Information " appears to confuse Abergwili with
Abergorlech, and wrongly informs us that in the latter "is an episcopal
palace belonging to the see of St. David's." Welshmen know that the two
places are not one and the same, and that Abergwili still retains the honour
of being the residence of the Bishop of St. David's. English name —
Waterflux. Abergorlech. — The river Gorlech discharges itself into the river
Cothi near the village; hence the name. Gorlech, probably, is a mutation of
Garwlech. Garw, rough; lech-llech, stone; rough stones from the bed of the
river. English name — Stonemouth. Abercowyn. — The river Cowyn or Cywyn flows
into the river Taf at the place; hence the name. Cywyn means a rising or
swelling up; the popular word cwnu, rising, comes from the verb cywynu, to
rise, mount up. English name— Swellmouth. Aberarad. — Arad, the name of the
river on which the village is situated, so called, perhaps, from its
resemblance to an aradr, plough. Arad is the popular pronunciation of the
Welsh aradr. English name — Ploughton.
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(delwedd 8298) (tudalen 072)
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72 Aberbran. — This
place takes its name from the river Bran, which is a contraction of bre,
mountain; and an, ain, or en, brook, signifying the mountain brook. English
name — Brookmouth. Aberduar. — The right wording probably is Aberdyar, from
its situation on the river Dyar, which means a noise, a sound, a din. English
name — Dinmouth. Above-Saw ddwy. — The village derives its name from the
river Sawddwy, on which it is situated. Sawdd implies depth, a sinking;
wy-gwy, water; the name signifying the deep or plunging water. English name —
Deepwater. Ammanford. — The ancient name of the place was Cross Inn, from a
public house of that name, which is situated at the junction of four roads.
Ammanford, from its situation on the river A man, which name is probably a
compound of ami, many; and ain, water; signifying a river of many tributaries
or sources. Burry Port adjoins the ancient village of Penbre* Pen, head, top;
bre-fre, up high, or perhaps bre is a corruption of bryn, a hill. Both
suffixes come from the same root, and have analogous significations. Some
think Burry is a compound of bur, wild, frothy, and gwy, water. Burym, barm,
is derived from the same root. The river Berem is not far from this vicinity.
Another attempt is bre-borth; bre-bryn, hill; bortk-porth, port The seaport
is situated at the entrance of the river Burry; hence the English name —
Burry Port. Bryn-y-Beirdd. — This place derives its name from an ancient
farmhouse in the vicinity, called Cwri-Bryn- y-Bcirdd, from the supposition
that it was once the residence of the bards. English name — Bardshill. Bryn
Gwyne.— Bryn, hill; Gwync, intensified form of gwyn, white, blessed. Gwyndud,
a happy land. English name — Blisshill. Bryn Hafod. — Hafod means a
summer-house, which was generally built on a hill. English name — Summer
Hill.
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(delwedd 8299) (tudalen 073)
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73 Brynaman. — Bryn,
hill; Aman, the name of the Tiver on which the place is situated. For Aman,
vide Ammanford. English name — Waterhill. Bwlchgwynt. — Bwlch, an opening, a
pass; gwynt, wind; signifying a pass where the wind occasionally asserts its
power very vehemently. English name — Windham. Caledfwlch. — Caled, hard,
severe; bwlch, opening, pass. Tradition has it that bloody wars were fought
in the vicinity, and that the distress and calamity was so great at a certain
spot that it was henceforth called Caledfwlch. A brook in the place is called
Nantgoch, red brook, from the traditional belief that it was sometime red
with blood. English name — Warstow. Cilmaenllwyd. — Cil, a place of retreat;
tnaen, stone; llwyd, grey, blessed; so called from the relics of druidical
stones in the place. English name — Greystone. Cwmsarnddu. — Cwtfi, vale;
sarn, paved road; ddu, black; from a farm so named. English name — Blackroad.
Cydweli. — This ancient name implies two streams of water joining to run on
the same bed. The place is situated about half-a-mile from Carmarthen Bay at
the junction of the rivers Gwendraeth Fach and Gwendraeth Fawr. Gwcilgi means
a flood, sea, beds of water. English name — Biwater. Cefncethin. — A village
in the parish of Llandilo. The common opinion of the inhabitants is that the
place took its name from an eminent poet, named Cethin, who lived in the
neighbourhood in the sixteenth century. Ctthin means dark, frightful,
terrible. English name — Frighthill. Cynwil Gaio. — Cyn, prior, first;
wil> gwyl, to watch; Caio, Caius, the name of a Roman personage. The Rev.
Eliezer Williams, in the '• Cambrian Register," thinks that the place
was taken possession of by Caius's advanced guards. He says: " It is probable
that the advanced guards of the British were stationed at Cynwyl Elfed (the
advanced post of Elfed),
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(delwedd 8300) (tudalen 074)
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74 a place situate some
miles to the south of Caio." English name — Caiustown. Cloygyn. —
Clogwyn is the right wording. English name — Rockham. Capel Paulin. — Capel,
chapel; Paulin, a mutation of Paul Hen, St. Paulinus, who flourished in the
fifth * century. English name —Paul's Chapel. Crugybar. — Crug, heap; bar,
affliction, fury, wrath. The place derives its name from the supposition that
the Romans buried their fallen soldiers in the vicinity, where they suffered
heavily from the hands of the wrathful and formidable Britons, led by the
immortal Buddug. English name — Wrathby. Cwm Gwendraeth. — Cwtn, valley;
Gwendraeth, the name of the river that runs through the valley. Gwen, white;
traeth, a tract, beach. English name — Whitcombe. Capel Iwan. — Capel,
chapel; Iwan, Ivan, loan, John; meaning John the Baptist. English name —
John's Chapel. Capel Isaac — A noted place in connection with the
Congregational body since the year 1650, when the Rev. Stephen Hughes,
formerly the vicar of Meidrym, left the Church of England and founded a
Congregational church. Suffering from persecution, they took refuge in a cave
for a short time, and afterwards built a chapel in 1672 on the land of Isaac
Thomas; hence the name, Capel Isaac. English name — Isaac's Chapel. Cwmcothi.
— The river Cothi flows through the combe. Cothi means to eject or evacuate;
ysgothi, to babble. The Greek Kaithaiso has a similar meaning. Dolaucothi is
the seat of the Johnses, a well-known family in the county of Carmarthen, and
close by was the residence of the celebrated bard, Llywelyn (Lewis) Glyn Cothi,
who flourished in the fifteenth century. English name — Throwcombe. Cwmcuch.
— A village situate on the banks of the river Cuch. Cuch means what is
contracted or drawn together. Cuchio, to frown. English name — Frowncombe.
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(delwedd 8301) (tudalen 075)
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75 Cwmhwplin. — Hwplin
only requires explanation. Hwp, an effort, a push. Trwy fawr hwp, through a
great effort. Hwpio means to push. Lin-glin, leg. The early Christians
suffered severely from persecution in this place, and consequently were
obliged to make great efforts to maintain their own and proceed with their
good work despite all obstructions. English name — Pushton. Cwm Duad. — Duad
implies blackness. The river Duad flows through the vale. English name —
Blackcombe. Cenarth. — Cen, low Celtic for pen, head or top; arth- garth, a
hill. It is synonymous with Penarth. English name — Hill's Head. Cilcarw. —
Cil, a place of retreat; carw, stag. In olden times stags resorted to this
sequestered vicinity as a place of refuge; hence the name. English name —
Stagham. Cilcwm. — The name signifies a sequestered vale. English name — Glenham.
Ceryg Sawdde. — A village near Llangattock derives its name from the river
Sawdde that flows through it. One of the inhabitants assured us that the
first row of houses in the village were built of stones conveyed from the
river Sawdde; hence the name. English name — Riverstone. Cenol. — The name,
which signifies " middle," was given to this hamlet because it
comprises the middle part of the parish of Llansawyl. English name — Midham.
Cwmaman. — Cwm, narrow vale; Aman, the name of the river that flows through
it. Aman is a compound of ami, many, and an or ain, which implies waters;
hence the name means a river of many sources. English name — Aquaton. Dafen.
— From the river Dafen, which flows through the place. Some think the name is
a con traction of dwr-afon, river water, so called to distinguish it from the
sea-water, which is near the place. We are
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(delwedd 8302) (tudalen 076)
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7 6 induced to derive it
from taf-ain, the spreading water* - Tafwys, the Thames, signifies the same.
Englislan name — Spread water. — Dyffryn Ceidrych. — Dyffryn, a valley;
cei-caitir'" clear, fair, beautiful; drych, aspect, sight; the namff-J
signifies a valley of beautiful sceneries. Some think that the valley was
named after Ceindrych, a daughter - of Brychan. English name — Fairview Vale.
Edwinsford. — A semi-translation of the Welsh name, Rydodyn. Rhyd, ford;
odyn, kiln; signifying a ford near the kiln. Some think it is a translation
of Rhyd Edwyn. Felinwen. — This village takes its name from an old mill
called Felinwen, white mill, which is still in the place. English name —
Whitemill. Ferry Side. — A pretty village near the mouth of the river Towy,
where passengers ferry over in boats to the opposite village, Llanstephan;
hence the name. Goytrey. — A mutation of coed, wood, and tre, a place.
English name — Woodham. Gwynfe.— Gwyn, white, blessed; fe-fai, an inflection
of mat, a plain. Gwynfa is the Welsh for Paradise. English name — Blissham.
Hengoed. — A compound of hen, aged, and coed, so called from the abundance of
ancient and large forests of wood that once adorned the district. English
name — Oldwood. Hyreth. — A corruption of hiraeth, longing, earnest desire,
or, perhaps, a mutation of hyriaeth, a shock, a concussion. English name —
Shockham. Johnstown. — A small village near Carmarthen town named in honour
of Mr. John Jones, Ystrad. Laugharne. — The old Welsh names are Talycoran,
Abercoran, Tal-Llacharn. Tal, end; y, the; Coran, the name of the river that
finishes its individual course by flowing into the river Taf. Abercoran means
the same. Some derive the present name from Field-Marshal W
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(delwedd 8303) (tudalen 077)
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77 Laugharne, but we are
inclined to think it is an Anglicized form of Llacham or Talycoran. Coran is
an abbreviation of Corafon. a rivulet. English name — Streammouth. Llangeler.
— The church was dedicated to St. Celert, who flourished in the fifth
century. St. Celert's well is near the church. English name — Celerton.
Llangadog. — The church was dedicated to St. CadoCy a martyr who flourished
in the fifth century, and died in Brittany. English name — Cadocton.
Llanfrynach. — The church was dedicated to St.. Brynach, whose history,
according to some, is marked by somewhat remarkable incidents. English name —
Bernard. Llanstephan. — The church was founded by Ystyffan, a saint and bard
of the sixth century. Some derive the name from the dedication of the church
to StepJien, the first martyr. English name — Stephen's Church. Llangyndeyrn.
— The church was dedicated to St* Cyndeyrn, one of the most popular of the
Welsh saints of the seventh century. English name — Chiefchurch. Llandyfaelog.
— The church was dedicated to Maelog, one of Catwg's disciples. The proper
name is Llanmaelog. English name — Martton. Llanon. — The church was
dedicated to Honn, the pious mother of Dewi, the patron saint of Wales.
English name — Honnchurch. Llangathen. — The church was dedicated to Cathen,
a Welsh saint who flourished early in the seventh century. English name —
Cathenton. Llanedi. — The church was dedicated to Edyth, a Saxon saint. There
were five Saxon saints bearing the name. Edi is an abbreviation of Edith.
English name — Edithchurch . Login. — Some think the name is a contracted
form of Hahgyn, the polluted or turbid, but from the geographical position of
the place we are inclined to
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(delwedd 8304) (tudalen 078)
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78 derive the name from
clogwyn, precipice, steep. Clogwynog, craggy, rocky. English name — Steepham.
Llan.- This hamlet takes its name from the parochial church being situated
within its limits, near the right bank of the Gwendraeth Fechan river.
English name — Churchham. Llanarthney. — Arthney is probably a corruption of
garthen, a camp. There are several objects of antiquarian interest in this
district, such as the ruins of Dryslwyn castle, and Grongar hill, which has
been immortalised by the famous Dyer. English name — Campton. Llansadwrn. —
The church was dedicated to Sadwrn, the brother of Illtud. English name —
Sadwrn. Llan sadyrnyn.- The church was dedicated to Sadyrnyn, the Bishop of
St. David's in the early part of the ninth century. English name — Saturnine.
Llanwrda. — Wrda is a corruption of Cawrdaf, a saint, and a son of Caradog
Freichfras, to whom the church was dedicated. English name — Cawrdaf.
Llangain. — Cain was a saint of the early part of the sixth century, to whom
the church was dedicated. English name — Fairchurch. Llangan. — The church
w^s dedicated to Cana, the daughter of Tewdwr Mawr, and the wife of Sadwrn.
English name — Brightchurch. Llanpumpsaint. — PunC saint, five saints. The
church was dedicated to five brothers, Ceitho, Gwyn, Gwynno, Gwynoro, and
Celynir, who were born at the same time, and devoted themselves to religious
life. English name — Brotherston. Llangenech. — The church was dedicated to
St. Ccnych. English name — Cenyton. Llangynin. — The church was dedicated to
Cynin, a saint of the fifth century. English name — Cyninton. Llanegwad. —
The church was dedicated to Egwad, a saint of the seventh century. English name
— Egwadton.
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(delwedd 8305) (tudalen 079)
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79 Llanwynio. — The
church is supposed to have been dedicated to Gwynio, a Welsh saint. English
name — Foamton. Llanllwni. — Llwni is a corruption of llotti, to gladden.
Llonio Lawhir (long hand) was a descendant of Emyr Llydaw, and is supposed to
have founded the churches of Llandinam (Montgomery) and Llanllwni (Carm.).
English name— Gladchurch. Llansawyl. — The church was dedicated to Sawyl y a
saint of the eighth century. English name — Stopchurch. Llandybie. — Tybie
was a daughter of Brychan, and a saint of the fifth century. History tells us
she was murdered at a place where a church was afterwards built and
consecrated to her memory. English name — Tybton. Llandeilo. — The church was
dedicated to St. Teilo> a descendant of Cunedda Wledig, and one of the
most popular saints in the ancient British Church. A large number of churches
in Wales bear his name. In the "Liber Landavensis" he is written
Teiliau. He was St. Teliaus, the patron saint of Llandaff. He departed this
life at Llandeilo Fawr, and was interred at Llandaff in 566. English
name-Teiloton. Llandefeisent. — Tyfei Sant, a nephew of St. Teilo. He lived
in an early period of the sixth century. The above church was dedicated to
him. English name — Growchurch. Llanboidy. — Boidy, probably, is a corruption
of bendy, an ox house. Most of our parish churches have been dedicated to
saints, but this is one of the few exceptions. The church might have been
built in conjunction with the ox-house, or, perhaps, the oxen had to perform
the same duties there as their kindred at Brevi. Some think the church was
dedicated to St. Brynach. English name — Oxchurch. Llandovery. — An
Anglicized form of Llanymddyfri, which means a church between waters. The
" Myvyrian " calls it Llanymddywy. The town is situate on the river
Towy, at the confluence ot the rivers
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(delwedd 8306) (tudalen 080)
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8o Gwytherig and Bran,
the latter joining the Towy a little distance below the town. English name —
Waterchurch. Llanelli. — The church was dedicated to Ellyw, a descendant of
Brychan, and a saint of the fifth century. Llanelliw is the proper name. On a
map published in 1788 by a Mr. William Owen it is spelt Llanelliw. English
name — Elywton. Llandysilio. — The church was dedicated to St. Tyssilio.
English name — Tysilio. Llanddarog. — The church was dedicated to St~ Twrog.
English name — Towerchurch. Llanddowror. — A corruption of Llanddyfrgwyr^ the
church of the men of the water, so called on account of the seven sons of
Mainaur Mathru, who were called Dyfrgwyr, water-men, because they were found
in the water, escaped from the water, and were maintained by fishes of the
water. They devoted themselves to religious life; hence the above church was
dedicated to them. English name — Waterton. Llanfihangel-ar-Arth. — The
church was dedicated to St. Michael, and is situated on a hill above the
Teivi. Ar-arth or ar-y-garth means on the hill. English name — Church Hill.
Llanfynydd. — The name signifies a church on the mountain. English name —
Mountain Church. Llanybydder. — Bydder is a corruption of Pedr y Peter. The
church is dedicated to St. Peter; hence the right wording is Llanbedr.
English name — Peterchurch. Llanybri. — Bri is, according to one writer, a
corruption of beyr, the Norse for farmstead; but we are induced to think it
is a mutation of bu t up high, or bryn, a hill. English name — Highton.
Llanllwch. — Llwch> an infet of water, a lake. The church is situated in a
low place, which is frequently covered by floods and the tide, leaving many
pools and lakes behind them. Many places in rres^ 5 ~~
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(delwedd 8307) (tudalen 081)
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81 Wales derive their
names from this word, as ] Sawdde, Amlwch, Talyllychau, &c. English m
Lakechurch. Llechfron. — LUchy stone; gron-crwn, rounc cular. English name—
Roundstone. Llwynhendy. — Llwyn, bush; hendy, old There was a bush near an
old homestead called , concerning which a local dispute arose, and in or r
distinguish it henceforth from other bushes i called Llwyn-hendy. English
name — Bushham. Mynachdy. — The name signifies a monaster | is supposed that
a cell to some ancient abbe; I situated here sometime; hence the name, L/a«j
I the church of the cross, the name of the parish w \ the place lies is of
Roman origin. English n I Monkham. I Marros. — A mountain in ihe parish is
Marros. The name signifies a wild, mount region, which was undoubtedly
suggested b physical aspect of the district. English n j Montham. Myddfai. —
Mydd-tnedd, meadow; fai-mai, a or open field. The place is noted for its cele
physicians in the twelfth century. Meddygon M the physicians of Myddfai is a
proverbial ] English name — Meadham. _v^i ^ i. Mydrim. — Meidrum is the true
orthography Millie 5 * 1~z> \ ,w?*' a P* am or °P en fi^d; drum-trum, a
ridge, a ^ ta io C ~" ^: f r> hill. English name— Plainhill. *~r:-~
*" w*n£ . vt a i e co^^^^r^ ". ^ [ Manorfabon. — A compound of
maenor, man d to S 1 - Jz#^ Mabon, a proper name. English name— Mabon's gflgk
Meinciau.— A corruption, probably, of M ^er- * • edge of the field. Some
think it is the plural o to ° ne uat* e ^ a bench » implying elevated pieces
of land. ] rt(iste* d; U J h#- * name— Highfield. f n oi bf '' U • Machynys
-~ Annslet at the estuary of the I * vltofl. a ^ T^* Some think the name is a
mutation of hi 5 f W^ ter ' hic^ * the Uttle island » but » viewing the fact
that a mj Jet n lace> i^vM a monaster}', was established here in 513 by 9
10 ftbe »*>** 6 .ST ^V' he** 1 '
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(delwedd 8308) (tudalen 082)
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82 we incline to derive
it from the name of the institu- tion, mynach-ynys reduced to machynys,
monk's island. English name — Monk's Island. Moelfre. — A compound of mod,
bare, and b*yn y hill. English name — Barehill. Nantgaredig. — Nant, brook;
garedig, loving, kind. English name— Lovingbrook. Nantycain. — Nant, brook;
coin, clear, fair. English name — Clearbrook. Nantymwyn. — Mwyn, mine, ore.
Lead mines abound in this district. English name — Leadbrook.
Newcastle-Emlyn. — Opinions differ as to the origin of this name. It is a
translation of the Welsh Castell-newydd-Emlyn. The present castle was built
on the site of the old one by Sir Rhys ap Thomas, in the reign of Henry
VIII., hence the appellation Newcastle. Emlyn is variously derived. Some
derive it from Emilianus, the name of a Roman nobleman that took up his abode
here. Others derive it from the shape (llun) of the letter M formed by the
winding course of the Teivi in the vicinity of Newcastle, thus M tun, shape
of the letter M. The most plausible are the following derivations:—£;», am,
round, about; lynglynu, to adhere, to cleave. The river encompasses the town,
and its slowness indicates, as it were, its preference to adhere to the town
than make for its salty home. Another attempt: Emyl, border or edge, add the
particle yn to it, and then we have Emylyn; t omit the first y, and we have
Emlyn, a borderer. Once < more: Em, round; lyn, llyn, a lake, or a body of
water, signifying water-circled. English name — Newcastle- on-Teivi.
Pantyffynon. — Pant, a low place; y, the; ffynon, a well; from a farm so
called which is situated in a low place. English name — Wellton. Penrhiwgoch.
— Pen, top; rhiw, slope; gock, red. The suffix coch forms a part of many
names in the district, as Garreg-goch, red-stone; Ffynon-goch, red-well,
<&c. This place is situated on a rising eminence. English name —
Redhill.
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(delwedd 8309) (tudalen 083)
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83 Poxtaman. — Pont,
bridge; a man, the name of the river that flows through the place. The
village takes its name from a mansion so called, which is situated on the
river A man. English name— Bridgewater. Pontyberem. — This name was taken
from the river Berem, on the banks of which the village is situated. Pont,
bridge; the general opinion is that a wooden bridge crossed the Berem before
the Gwendraeth bridge was built; hence the name. Btrem comes from berw y a
boiling, an ebullition. Sion Lam Roger, about 170 years ago, called the place
Pontyberw. English name— Boil ton. Pontyates. — Pont, bridge, which was,
according to some, built by a Mr. Yates; hence the name. English name —
Yatesbridge. Pencader. — Some think it was originalfy called Pencadlys. Pen,
head; cad, battle, battlefield; lys, court. Near the church there is a cairn
called " The Castle," and from that the common inference is that
some battles were fought in the vicinity. Coder means a stronghold or a
castle. Many fortified hills still retain the name of Cadet, as Cader
Dinmael, Cader Idris, &c. Cadernid is the Welsh for strength or
fortitude. English name — Headfort. Pontargothi. — Pont, bridge; ar, on,
across; Gothi- tothi, the name of the river, which means to cast out, to
eject. The village took its name from the bridge. English name — Bridgecast.
Penrhos. — The name of this village signifies the top of a meadow or plain.
English name — Meadow Top. Pontbrenaraeth. — Pontbren, a wooden bridge; Aratth,
the name of the river. Ar, surface; aeik, went, signifying a shallow river.
English name- — Woodbridge. Penbeyr, or Penboyr. — Pen, top; beyr and hoyr
are Norse for farmstead. The name signifies a district of farmhouses
terminating at the foot of a certain mountain. English name — Farmsend.
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(delwedd 8310) (tudalen 084)
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84 Pump Heol. — Putnp,
five; heol, road; so called from thejunction of five roads in the place.
English name — Five Roads. Rhandirmwyn. — Rhandir, a portion of land, a
district; tnwyn, a mine, ore. There are ancient lead mines in the district
called Nantymwyn, which are noted for pottery ore. English name— Mineton. St.
Clears. — The Normans, immediately after the Conquest, built a castle and a
church here, the latter of which was dedicated to one of their own clan,,
named St. Clar; hence the name of the place. In the- " Myvyrian "
she is called Sain Cler and St. Clares. Tygwyn. — A village in the parish of
Llanboidy. It means the white house. In ancient times it was called Ty gwyn
ar Daf, white house on the Tanv English name — Whitehouse. Tkimsaran.— A
compound of trum, ridge, back,, hill, and sarn, road, way. English name —
Hillroad. Talyllychau, or Talley. — Tal, front or end; y, the; llychau, plural
of llwch, lake or pool. There are two large pools near the church; hence the
name. Talley is an abbreviation of the Welsh name. English name — Lakesend.
Terra-Coed. — Much like the Italian terra-cotta, but we have no reason why we
should refer it to any Italian source. It is, probably, a corruption of
Tir-y- coed, which implies woody land. English name — Woodland. Tir Esgob. —
Tir, land; esgob, bishop. To what bishop the reference is made, we do not
know. English name — Bishopsland. Tir Rosier. — Tir, land; rhos, meadow,
plain; hir t long; Tir-rkos-hir is the right wording, which means 44 the land
of the long meadow," or " the long peatland." English name —
Peatland. Trelech. — The name signifies " the town of stones." Not
far from the village there is an immense carnedd called Crug y Deyrn, or more
correctly, Crug
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(delwedd 8311) (tudalen 085)
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85 Edeyrn. The place
derives its name, probably, from this and other relics of Druidism in the
district. Some antiquarians believe that Edeyrn was buried here. The
celebrated poet and antiquarian, Nathan Dyfed, and another gentleman opened a
cistfaen here in 1830, and found therein calcined bones and charcoal. English
name — Stoneton. Tachbuan. — Tach, what spreads or vanishes; buan, soon,
quick. English name — Quickton. Treclas. — Clas means a green covering or
surface. " Clas Merddin, the green space of smooth hills; the old name
of the Isle of B ritain." — Triocdd. English name — Greenham. Talog. —
The name signifies high-fronted, bold- faced. Talwg means a high house with
stone roof, in contradistinction to the low cot with thatched roof. Fob ty
talwg, all highly frowning houses. English name — Highham. Trerhos. — Tre,
place, town; rhos, meadow. The village is situated on a marshy plain. —
English name — Marshton. Felinfoel. — It signifies the bald or bare mill. The
old mill near the river Lliedi was designated Felinfoel in order to
distinguish it from Felinyrafr, or Felingyrnig, which was higher up on the
side of the same river. The latter was remarkable for its cornigerous
appearance, whereas the former was a bare building, and, therefore, entitled
to the appellation Felinfoel. When the village grew sufficiently to claim a
share in nomenclature, it was decided to perpetuate the name of the old mill.
English name — Baremill. Whvtland. — A semi-translation of the Welsh name
" Hen dy Gwyn at Daf," old white house on the Taf. This was the
hunting-house of Hywel Dda, built by him in 914. In order to distinguish it
from co.i.mon houses it was built of white perches, supposed to be 1 8ft. in
length. Here Hywel and six of the wisest men in his dominion met in 927 to
revise and amend the laws of the Cymry. English name — Whitham.
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(delwedd 8312) (tudalen 086)
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86 CARNARVONSHIRE. An Anglicized form of Caev-yn-Arfon, the
fortified town opposite to Mona. After
the subjugation of Wales under Edward
I. the name of the town was applied to
the newly-formed county, Lleyn. — A
region, according to some, that derived
its name from Lleyn, the son of Baran. He conquered this portion of the territory of the King
of Gwynedd, and called it the country
of Lleyn (Iolo MSS., 346). The late
celebrated antiquarian, Mr. Owen Williams,
of Waenfawr, derives it from lleuyn, which is synonymous with lleuar,
lleuad, goleuad, goleuni, signifying light,
splendour. Lleuer haul, the light of the sun. He founds his reasons upon the fact that Lleyn is an
even country, enjoying the light of
the sun from morning till dusk; hence
it was called Lleyn, the land of the light. Dr. Owen Pughe translates Lleyn thus — lleyn, a
stripe, a tongue of land, which
corresponds with the physical aspect
of this part of the Principality.
Eifionydd. — Eifion means the land of rivers. Afon f a river, eifion, an old plural form of
afon, as meibion becomes trie plural
of tnab, a son. Ap, a Sanskrit root
signifying water, is seen in the names of the Punj-ab, the land of the five rivers; Do-ab, a
district between the two rivers Ganges
and Jumna. We find it also in the
river-names of the L-ab and Dan-ub-ue, or Danube. Aber, or Abergwyngregyn.— From the
quantity of cockles found there. The
river Gwyngregyn, white shells,
discharges itself into the sea about half-a-mile below the village. English name —
Shellmouth. Aberdaron. — The village
is situate at the mouth of the river
Daron. Although an insignificant place, it
is famous for being the birth-place of Richard Robert Jones, alias Die Aberdaron, the celebrated
linguist. The name was anciently
applied to the Deity, signifying "Thunderer." Daron implies noisy
water. English name — Dinmouth.
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(delwedd 8313) (tudalen 087)
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87 Abererch. — The river Erch flows into the
sea a little below the village; hence
the name. Erch means dark, frightful.
Some think the ancient name of the
river is Eirch, the plural form of arch, coffin, from the tradition that coffins were sometime seen
floating down the river. We adopt the
former derivation. English
name-Darkmouth. Abersoch. — The
village lies at the mouth of the river
Soch. Soch means a sink, a drain, a ditch, so
called from the slow course and muddy hue of the river. English name— Drainmouth. Avon Wen. — This name was taken from the
river, which has its source near
Mynachdy gwyn, the white monastery.
Wen is the feminine form of gwyn, white.
English name — Whiteriver.
Bangor. — Ban, high, superior; gor-cor, a circle, a stall, a choir. C6r is now used in many
parts of the Principality to denote a
pew or seat. The term cor has also
been rendered " college." Bangor means the chief enclosure or circle, and when applied to
any particular establishment, it
signifies a *' high choir, or chief
college. " The common churches were called corau, but the chief or superior churches
bangorau, because they were the chief
theological seminaries of the period,
the centres from which the Christian religion
extended over the country. It is supposed that this Bangor was established as early as the year
525 by Deiniol ab Dunawd, which shows
that a University College is not a new
boon to this city. English name —
Highton. Beddgelert. — Various
derivations are assigned to this
popular name. It is said that a hermit erected a booth in the place, and, in the course of
time, a church was built on the same
site, and was called Bwth Cilfach
Garth, which was corrupted into Bwth Cilarth, and then Bethcelert. Some trace it to the name of
Celer, the patron saint of Llangeler.
Tradition says the name is derived
from the following circumstance: — At a
remote period, when wolves were numerous, and consequently formidable
in Wales, Llewelyn the Great came to
reside here for the hunting season, with his princess
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(delwedd 8314) (tudalen 088)
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88 ; but while the
family were absent one itered the
house, and attempted to kill an is
enjoying his sleep in the cradle. The
ful greyhound named Gelert, in whose
Id doubtless was entrusted, seized the
imal and, after a severe struggle, killed ruggle the cradle was overturned, and e wolf and child. On the prince's ig the infant, and observing the dog's i wiih blood, he rashly jumped to the it Gelert had killed the child, and, in a age, drew his sword, and buried it in
the faithful animal; but how great was
h; s when, on replacing the cradle, he
found and the child alive. He,
however, caused slert to be honourably
interred, and, as a his memory,
erected a church on this spot •ffering
to God for the preservation of his eld
contiguous to the churchyard are two
verhung with bushes, which point out the ert, and a rustic seat is placed near, i may recline and meditate the legend.
• the name means the " grave of
Celert ap cendant of one of the Irish
princes that untry about the beginning
of the fourth ^lish name— Gelert's
Grave. ^ — Its ancient name was Cilfoden.
Its is derived from Bethesda, the name
of a il chapel built in the place in
1819. An recently made to abandon the
Scriptural
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(delwedd 8315) (tudalen 089)
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1 it " Glan
Ogwen," after the new church
Penrhyn, but it proved unsuccessful.
-Coed.— Bettws is a Welshified form of
house of prayer, a monkish institution of es, built, perhaps, on or near the
site -hes that perpetuate the name of
Bettws. ives its name from an ancient
religious fed Bettws Wyrion Iddon, the
bead-house p of Iddon. Bettws in Welsh
means a r and comfort. William Llyn
writes:— >m yr owan i Fettws, hyny
yw, lie cynhes tymoraidd;"
i>., « We ^ comfortable pla c ny churches bearing 1D Altered and^? g ^ lis?- til
sssrrvfcv s »ifth am Chur <*
it descendant ^\? ls Wi twee ntwn^ p ° r t; -11 ^-Glen^ 18 situat V fe-A Corr , St Wi. ahi,, . i^ hi11 - c <uort, st On es
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(delwedd 8316) (tudalen 090)
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90 Caer Rhun. — Rhun, the son of Maelgwyn Gwynedd, and a prince of the sixth century,
who took: up his abode in the Roman
Conovium; hence the name* English name
— Grandfort. Capel Curig.— Capel,
chapel; Curig, the name of the son of
Hid or Julitta, who flourished in the seventh
century. The church was dedicated to Curig and his mother. English name— Curig's Chapel. Carn Giwch. — Cam, a heap. On the summit of
a hill close by, called Mod Cam Ciwch,
there is a large heap of loose stones,
supposed to have been raised to-
Ciwch, a British saint of an early period. English name— Heapham. Clwtybont.— Clwt, a portion; " clwt o
dir" a piece of land; y, the;
bont-pont, bridge; signifying a piece of
land near a bridge. English name — Bridgeland. Clynog. — A corruption of Celynog, a place
over- run with hollywood. It is
situated in a small grove near the
shore, on a plain near the base of the hilL.
English name — Hollyham. Colwyn.
— Some derive the name from Colwyn, the
name of the chief shepherd of Bran ab Llyr Lledfaith. Others think it is a compound of cau,
hollow, enclosed;. and llwyn, a grove,
a bush, from the deep brooks and
encircling groves in the district. English name — Grovebrook.
Conway. — The town of Conway was built on the north side of the river by Maelgwyn
Gwynedd, in 581, and was called Caer
Gyffin, which signifies the border
fortress. Conwy is the present Welsh name, taken from the name of the river, which signifies the
chief water. Some philologists derive
the name from cain, fair, fine,
beautiful; and wy, water. Conwy and Cainwy are equally applicable to this beautiful river.
From gwy or wy, water, most of the
Welsh rivers derive their names. For instance,
Llugwy, clear water; Elwy y gliding
water; and the above, Conwy, chief water, or
Cainwy, fair or fine water. The site of Conway Castle was anciently called Cannock, from cann,
white, fair,, clear, and oich, water.
English name — Fairwater.
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(delwedd 8317) (tudalen 091)
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91 Criccieth. — Pennant spells it Crickaeth,
" The Myvyrian" Cruciaith,
and others C rug -earth. Some think it
is a compound of crug, a heap, a hillock,
and aeth, sorrow, pain; signifying a frightful or formidable promontory. Others say it is
Crug-caeth* the narrow hill. Perhaps
it is a compound of craig aeth,
signifying the awful rock. English name — FrethilL Croesor. — A narrow comb in Blaenau Nanmor. Tradition says that Elen Lueddog was on her
journey homewards when, on hearing the
sad news of her son's death, she
sorrowfully exclaimed, " Croesawr i mi 91 — i.e. 9 " an hour of adversity to me/' and the
place was called Croesawr or Croesor
from that sorrowful circumstance.
English name — Griefham.
Crynaxt, — Cry, a. corruption of crai, a word implying a narrow place;
crai'r nodwydd, the eye of the needle;
nant, a brook. The old inhabitants spell it
Crainant, and a bridge that spans Nant-y-Bettws is called Pont-y -Crainant, because under the bridge
the brook is very narrow. English
name— Brookton. Cwmeigiau. — Cwm,
valley; eigiau, the plural form of
aig, which signifies what brings forth, anything that is prolific. Month (mynydd, mountain)
Eigie, in Scotland, implies a hill covered with luxuriant grass. Eigion is another plural form of aig, meaning the
sea, or a conflux of many waters. There are several lakes in the valley, and the natural inference is that
it was so called from its bifurcated
aspect. English name — Watervale.
Cwmglo. — Cwm, valley; glo, a corruption probably of goleu, goleuni, light; signifying a
valley remarkable for enjoying the
sunny beams. English name — Lightcomb.
Cymydmaen. — Cytnyd-Cwmwd, a vicinity; maen, a stone. On the sands, opposite Bardsey
Island, there is a stone called Maen
Melyn Lleyn, from which the vicinity
took its name. English name — Stoneton.
Dinas Emrys. — Dinas, a fortified city; Emrys, the surname of a celebrated bard of the fifth
century, who was known by the name of
Merddin Emrys, or
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(delwedd 8318) (tudalen 092)
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92 Ambrosius. King Gwrtheyrn presented the
place to Emrys, and hence it is called
after his name. English name —
Emryston. Dolbadarn. — The church was
dedicated to Padarn; hence the name.
English name— -Fatherton. Dolgarrog. —
A compound oi dol, a meadow, and
carog, a torrent, a brook. The place is remarkable for its deep hollows and beautiful waterfalls.
English name — Glenham. Dolwyddelen. — Some say that the right
wording is Dolyddelen, Elen's meadow,
from the supposition that Elen
Lwyddog, daughter of Coel Codebog, took up her abode here. Others think it is Dol t
meadow; gwydd, wood, and Elen. We
rather think the name signifies the
meadow of Gwythelan, or Gwyddelan, to whom the church of the parish was dedicated. English
name — Bushton. Dwygfylchi. — Dwy, a corruption of dy, on,
upon; gy-cydy with, united; fylchi y
plural of bwlch, a gap, a breach, a
pass. The name signifies the joint passes.
Some think the right wording is Rhiwfylchi, which signifies a slope with passes. The village
is perched on the mountain side, between
Penmaen Mawr and Penmaen Bach. English
name— Passton. Ebenezer. — The village
derives its name from the Congregational
Chapel called Ebenezer, which was
built when the place was developing into a populous village.
Edeyrn. — Probably called in honour of Edeyrn ab Nudd. The church is dedicated to St.
Edeyrn. Efail Newydd. — The name
signifies a new smithy. English name —
Smithby. Four Crosses. — Near the
village there are two roads
intersecting each other; hence the name.
Garndolbenmaen. —Gam, a heap, a cairn; dol, mountain meadow; pen, top, head; tnaen,
stone. In the vicinity there is a
large mount, on which mighs have been
a watch-tower. About the beginning of thit
century some cairns and urns were discovered here. English name — Cairnton.
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(delwedd 8319) (tudalen 093)
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93 Garswyllt.— Probably a corruption of
corswyllt y which signifies a wild
bog. English name — Bogham. Glan Adda.
— A corruption, probably, of Clyn
Eiddw; clyn, a place covered with brakes; eiddw, ivy* English name — Ivyham. Glanwydden. — The village takes its name
from a farm of the name in the
vicinity. The name, probably, is a
compound of glan, brink, side, shore,
bank; and gwyddtn, a standing tree; or gwydd-din,. woody hill. English name — Woodbank. Groeslon. — Grots-crocs, cross; I6n, a
narrow road x signifying the cross
road, Ldn is cognate with lanc English
name — Crossroad. Gwibernant. — This
name is variously spelts namely, Ewybr
Nant, a fleet, swift brook; Gwyber Nant*
a brook of sweet water; and Gwiber Nant, the viper's brook. The last is the proper name. English
name — Viper's Brook. Gwydir. — Prima facie one may take it to be
a compound of gwy, water, and tir, land. Some derive it from gwydir, glass, upon the supposition that
the mansion of Gwydir was the first
house in Wales to have glass windows.
Sir John Wynn mentions a date of 15 12 on
a window at Dolwyddelen, which is long before the building of Gwydir. Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr,
who flourished about the year 1250,
mused the following line: — " Trwy ffenestri Gwydir yd ym gwelant
" — that is, " They see me
through the glass windows." The
name probably is a corruption of gwaed, blood, and tir, land, signifying the bloody land. Bloody
battles were Sought here between
Llywarch Hen and his foes about the
year 610, and also between Grufiydd ab Cynan and Traehaearn ab Caradog, and others. English
name — Bloodham. Gyffin. — An inflection of cyffin, a
confine, a limit, a border. The
village is situated on the rivulet Gyffin,
about three-quarters of a mile from Conway, which was anciently called Caer Gyffin. English name
— Borderton*.
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(delwedd 8320) (tudalen 094)
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94 Hirael. — Hir. long; ael, brow; ael bryn,
the brow of a hill. The name is quite
descriptive of the situation of the
village. English name— Longbrow.
Hebron. — The village took its name from the Congregational Chapel that was built in the
place. Llanaelhaiarn. — The church is
dedicated to Aelhaiam, a brother of
Llwchhaiarn, and a saint of the .sixth
century. English name — Ironbrow. Llanddyniol.
— The church is dedicated to
Deiniolen, a descendant of Dunawd, the founder of Bangor Iscoed. English name—
Danielston. Llanllechid. — The church
is dedicated to Llechid, daughter of
Ithel Hael, and a saint of the sixth
century. English name — Lurkton.
Llaneugan, or Llaneinon.— The church is dedicated to Einion, a royal
saint of the sixth century. The following
inscription was in the belfry of the church
some time ago: " Eneanus Rex Wallia Fabricavit" English name — Rexton. Llandegwynin. — The fair church of Gwynin,
a saint of the seventh century, to
whose memory it was dedicated. English
name — Whitham. Llangwnadle. — The
church is dedicated to Gwynodl, son of
Seithenyn, and a celebrated saint of the
sixth century. English name — Lifeton.
Llanrhychwyn. — According to the " Myvyrian," the church was dedicated to Rkychwyn, son
of Ithel Hael. English name —
Wailton. Llandwrog. — The church is
dedicated to Twrog, son of Ithel Hael.
English name — Towerton. Llanfor. —
The church is dedicated to Mdr ab
Ceneu ab Coel, a saint of the fifth century. English name — Morton. Llaniestyn — The church is dedicated to
Iestyn ab Geraint, the founder of it.
He flourished about the end of the
sixth century. English name— Iestyn.
Llandudwen. — The church was dedicated to Tttdwen, a Welsh saint. English name —
Whitplace.
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(delwedd 8321) (tudalen 095)
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95 Llandudno. — The church is dedicated to
Tudno, son of Seithenyn, and a saint
of the sixth century. A curious rocking
stone, called Cryd Tudno, Tudno's
cradle, is seen on the Great Orme's Head. English name — Stopton. Llanberis. — The church was dedicated to
Peris, a saint of the sixth century,
and a cardinal missioned from Rome,
took up his abode an i died here. English
name — Causeton. Llanarmon. —
The church is dedicated to Gartnon, or
Germanus, a saint and bishop of the fifth century. English name — Garmon. ' Llangystenyn.— The church was probably
dedicated to Cysttnyn Gorneu, and not to Constantine the Great, as some believe. English name —
Constantine. Llanfaelrys. — The church
was dedicated to Maelfrys, a
descendant of Emyr Llydaw, and a saint
of the sixth century. English name — Mart by. Llanystumdwy. — Ystum, a bend, a turn, a
curve, a form; dwy, two; signifying
the form of two rivers. English name —
Biwaters. Llanbeblig. — The church is
dedicated to Peblic, son of Macsen Wledig,
and a saint of the fifth century.
English name — Peblicton.
Llanllyfni — Llyfni, the name of the river that flows through the village. The name
signifies a church on or near the
smooth water. English name — Smooth
ton. Llandegai — Tcgai, son of fthel
Hael, and a popular saint of the sixth
century, founded the church. In "
Achau y Saint," he is Tegai Glasog o Ma elan. This beautiful little place is called a "
model village." English name —
Beauchurch. Llanbedrog. — The church
is dedicated to Pedrog, son of
Clement, who is supposed to have founded it in the seventh century. English name —
Petrocton. Llanrhos. — Rhos, a dry
meadow, a plain; the name signifies a
church on the meadow. The church
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(delwedd 8322) (tudalen 096)
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96 is celebrated for the death of Maelgwyn
Gwynedd, who* had taken shelter here
to avoid the fad felen, yellowplague, which at that time raged tnrough
Europe. However, he fell a victim to
the plague, and was buried in this
church; hence the adage — " Hun Maelgwyn yn Eglwys y Rhos " — *.*.,
the sleep of Maelgwyn. in Llanrhos.
English name — Meadow Church. L lan
fag lan. — The church is dedicated to Baglan r son of Dingad. English name — Baglan. Llanfihangel-y-Pennant. — The church is
dedicated to St. Michael, and is situated near the river Pennant. English name — Brooksend. Llangybi. — The church is dedicated to
Cybi, a popular British saint of the
sixth century. English name— Covetton. Llithfaen. — Llith implies attraction;
maen, stone. There is a stone in the
vicinity that partakes of the nature
of a loadstone, from which, probably, the place derives its name. English name —
Stoneton. Llanfair Fechan. — The
church is dedicated to- St. Mary, and
the adjective fechan, small, little, was
added probably to distinguish it from other and larger churches dedicated to the same saint.
English name — Marychurch. Meini H irion. — Mciniy plural of maen,
stone m r hirion, plural of kir, long.
Druidic monuments, such as cromlechs
and other large stones, are still visible in
this vicinity. The place took its name from the long stones that were seen above the Bwlch,
which, according to tradition, were
conveyed there by a giant.. English name-
Longstone. Moel Tryfan. — Moel y bare,
bald; ttyfan, high place, upland.
English name — Barehill. Mynytho. — A
corrupted form of mynyddoedd*
mountains. The name is quite descriptive of the place, which is situated on a rugged
eminence. English name —
Mountham. Nazareth. — This village
takes its name from Nazareth, the
Congregational Chapel.
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(delwedd 8323) (tudalen 097)
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97 Nantffrancon.— Nant, a brook; francon a
beaver; the name signifies the
beaver's hollow. English name —
Beaverton. Nantlle. — A compound of
nant, a brook, and lief, a cry, a
voice, so called from the traditional belief that some sorrowful cries were heard near the
brook at some remote period. English
name — Crybrook. Nefyn. — The church
was probably dedicated to Nefyn,
daughter of Brychari Brycheinog, and a saint
of the fifth century; hence the name of the place. English name — Ndvin. Portmadoc — In 18:3 Mr. Maddock,
Tan-yr-Allt, made an embankment to
save the site of the present town from
the incursions of the sea; and in 1821 he
obtained an Act of Parliament for opening a port in the place, so he is naturally called the
founder of the town, and his name was
deservedly bestowed upon it.
Pontnewydd. — Pont, bridge; newydd, new; so called from a certain bridge that was built
over the river Gwyrfai. English name —
Newbridge. Pwllheli. — Pwll, pool;
heli, salt water; the seaport is situated on the edge of Cardigan Bay.
The 44 Myvyrian " derives heli
from Heli, the son of Glanog. English
name — Saltpool. Portdinorwig.— Din, a
hill fort; or-gor, border; wig-gwig,
wood, forest; signifying a castle near a
wood. The Rev. Isaac Taylor derives it thus: Port Dyn Norwig, the "Port of the Norway
men," founding his reasons upon
the probability that the Normans
frequently visited that haven. His derivation, in our opinion, is rather far-fetched and
misleading. English name —
Castleport. Penygroes. — So called
after an insignificant cottage of the
name, which stood near a crossway.
English name — Crossend.
Penmaenmawr. — Pen, head; maen, stone, rock; mawr, great. The prefix pen is frequently
found in the names of mountains, such
as Ben Nevis, Appennines, Pennignant;
La Penne, Penard, &c. Penmaenmawr is a
huge mountain, 1545 feet perpendicular from its base, 7
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(delwedd 8324) (tudalen 098)
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98 being the terminating point of the
Snowdonian range of mountains. The
beautiful watering-place, which
shelters at its base, takes its name from it. English name — Stonehill. Penmachno. — Machno, a mutation of
Machnawf; mach-moch, ready, quick,
swift; nawf, swim. " Moch dysg
nawf mab hwyad " — i.e. 9 the young of the duck soon learn to swim. Machno is the name of
the river near which the village is
situated. Some are of opinion that the
name signifies the head of Machno, a descendant of one of the Irish princes
that visited these shores about the
fourth century. The common opinion of the
inhabitants is that machno is a corruption of mynachlog, monastery, founding their reason upon the
supposition that a monastery stood
here in time of yore. English name —
Swifton. Pentir.— The name means
headland. Centire has the same
signification. Pen in Gaelic is cen. The
place is also called Llangedol, from the dedication of its church to Cedol, a Welsh saint. English
name — Headland. Penrhyn. — Rhyn means a promontory. Rhe, ,
run, rain, and rhyn, are derivatives
of the Sanscrit W. Rlie&eg,
running; reindeer, the running deer; the,
swift. Penrhyn, a point of land that runs into the sea. Rhine, a rapid river. The Rhyns are
numerous in our island. Rindow Point
near Wigton; Penrhyn in Cornwall;
Rhynd in Perth; the Rins of Galloway, &c.
English name— Capesend. Pen
Isa'r Waun.— The name signifies a place
situated at the lower end of the meadow. English name — Plainsend. Penllech.— This name signifies " the
head of the rock," from the
situation of the place at the extremity
of some rocks on the coast of St. George's Channel. English name — Rockham. Port Penrhyn. — The late Lord Penrhyn
made this a shipping-place for the
slates that were conveyed from his
quarries in the Vale of Nant Ffrancon; hence
the name.
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(delwedd 8325) (tudalen 099)
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99 Pisgah. — So called from Pisgah, the
Congregational Chapel that was built in the place. Pencarth. — A compound of pen, head or end,
and garth, a promontory, a ridge.
English name — Ridgend. Pen Morfa. —
The name signifies the head or end of
the marsh. The village is situated between some high rocks at the end of a tract of meadows
on the western bank of Traeth Mawr,
the great beach. It was anciently
called Y Wern, and supposed to be a seaport
before Mr. Maddock raised the embankment at Port Ma doc. English name — Marshend. Rhiw. — The name means a slope, which is
in correspondence with the physical
aspect of the village, being situated
on a rising eminence. English name —
Slope. Rhiwaedog. — Rhiw,
slope, brow of a hill; gwaedog,
bloody; signifying the bloody brow. The place is noted for a battle fought between Llywarch Hen
and the Saxons, in which Cynddelw, his
last son, felL English name —
Bloodbrow. Roewen. — Probably a
corruption of yr wy wen, the white
river. A place called Gorswen is contiguous
to it. English name — Whiteriver.
Rhydgoch. — The name signifies the red ford. English name — Redford. Rhydclafdy. — Rhyd, a ford; clafdy,
hospital; signifying a ford near the hospital. Several names in this neighbourhood point to the probability that
it was once a scene of war.. English
name — Sickford. Rhosfawr. — Rhos, a
moor; fawr-mawr, great. English name —
Bigmoor. Rhoslan. — Rhos, a moor;
lan-llan, a sacred inclosure, a church. English name — Churchmoor. Rhostryfan. — Rhos, a moor; try fan, high
place. The village is situated on a
high elevated place. English name —
Highmoor. 607559B
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B5237: 
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aith δ δ £