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A Topographical Dictionary of Wales
published 1849.
Llanmadock 1849
¶
LLANMADOCK, a parish, in the union and hundred of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 15 miles (W.) from the town of Swansea; containing 269 inhabitants. This parish is situated on Whitford harbour, at the mouth of the Burry estuary; and is bounded on the east by the parish of Cheriton, and on the south by that of Llangennith. It comprises 450 acres, of which the arable and pasture lands are in nearly equal portions. The most striking feature of the surface is Llanmadock Hill, which is generally considered as the highest point in the peninsula of Gower, and is a well-known landmark to mariners off this part of the coast. The view from the hill is extensive and magnificently grand, comprising the whole of the peninsula of Gower, the entire course of the Burry estuary, the luxuriant woods of Penrice Castle, the lofty and precipitous cliffs that form the eastern side of Oxwich bay, with the vast expanse of sea beyond, the Devon and Cornish hills in the distance, and the coasts of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The soil consists of a reddishbrown earth, resting upon gravel, with a substratum of limestone; and the chief produce is barley and wheat: the land in the parish is chiefly inclosed and in a good state of cultivation. The village, called Froglane, extends about half a mile along the base of the hill. It carries on a considerable trade in coal and limestone, in which about thirty vessels, varying in burthen from twelve to twenty tons, are employed: in these vessels, the coal is brought from Loughor and Llanelly, and the limestone conveyed to the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The living is a rectory, rated in the king’s books at £9, and in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £50, and the glebe comprises fifty-two acres, valued at £45 per annum. The church, dedicated to St. Madoc, the son of Gildas, a saint in Gower, was rebuilt in 1748, and is fifty feet long and eighteen broad. There is a place of worship for Calvinistic Methodists, in which a Sunday school is also held. On Llanmadock Hill are traces of an ancient encampment, comprising a nearly circular area of about four acres, defended by triple ramparts, and commanding the entrance of Burry River. A stone axe of the early Britons, found at Llanmadock, is preserved in the museum of the Royal Institution at Swansea; its form is rather unusual, its length six inches, and weight twenty-three ounces. At Sprit-sail Tor is one of the five large bone-caverns that have been discovered in Gower: bones of hyenas, of a rhinoceros, a human lower jaw, were found in it in 1839.
Cheriton
¶
CHERITON, a parish, in the union and hundred of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, 13½ miles (W.) from Swansea; containing 282 inhabitants. This parish, according to some, derived its name from the quantity of cherries abounding in the neighbourhood, and which formerly grew wild in the hedges. It is situated on the southern shore of the Burry estuary, and contains the villages of Cheriton, and Landymor or Llandemore. Landymor Castle, called by the country-people Bovehill Castle from the farm on which it is situated, stands on the side of a hill, overlooking a small valley; it was originally an important edifice, and though the remains consist of little more than a rude curtainwall, foundations are to be traced as far as a bold rock that overlooks the Burry. The parish is destitute of wood, and the only stream running through it is Cheriton brook; there are some quarries of limestone. The living is a rectory, rated in the king’s books at £9. 7. 3½., and in the patronage of the Crown; present net income, about £160. The church, dedicated to St. Catwg, is a small venerable edifice, consisting of a nave and chancel, between which rises a square embattled tower: the churchyard is bounded on one side by the brook. A dayschool in connexion with the Church of England was established in 1846 at the village of Landymor, where also are two Sunday schools on Church principles. The Calvinistic Methodists, likewise, have a place of worship in the parish, with a Sunday school held in it.
Samuel Lewis, ‘Cellan – Cheriton’, in A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (London, 1849), pp. 238‑241. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/wales/pp238-241
[accessed 1 February 2023].