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Llandaff, Glamorgan

Historical Description

Llandaff, a city and a parish in Glamorgan, and a diocese in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. The city stands on the river Taff, and near the Glamorgan and Cardiff Canal, 1½ mile SSE of Llandaff station on the Taff Vale railway, and 1 NEof Ely station on the G.W.R., and 2½ miles NW of Cardiff. Its name signifies "the Church on the Taff." Its history is mainly ecclesiastical, or is the history rather of the bishopric and the cathedral than of the city. Its situation is very beautiful, on the upper part of a declivity which is covered with some fine sheltering trees, and which slopes rapidly to a meadowy reach of the river. The town, though technically a city, as the seat of a bishopric, is practically, as to both size and government, a mere village. It presents a plain and straggling appearance, and contains few remains of antiquity. The cathedral is, of course, its main feature, and this will be noticed in the next paragraph. The episcopal palace is a mansion, formerly the seat of the Matthew family, and called Llandaff Court, but now renovated and called the Palace. Knins of the ancient episcopal castle, said to have been destroyed by Owain Glyndwr, still exist; and the gateway is still tolerably perfect, is castellated and of the 13th century, is flanked by two square towers, with their angles chamfered off. and forms the entrance to the garden of the present episcopal palace, which is a substantial modern building with a small domestic chapel. Residences for the dean, the canons residentiary, and the minor canons have been erected. Spacious and beautiful schools for thirty orphan girls, and for thirty boarders and 100 day scholars, on a plot of about 4 acres, in a commanding situation on the Cardiff Road, overlooking the hills of Monmouthshire, were erected by the Drapers' Company in 1860 at a cost of £20,000 from the funds of the Howell Charity. A working-men's club and reading-rooms were opened in 1867. An ancient stone cross, on a pedestal of four steps, stands near the Lych gate leading into the cathedral, and has been repaired, and there are vestiges of several buildings of the Decorated and Later English periods.

The cathedral is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. It succeeded a church, 28 feet long, 18 wide, and 20 high, which was destroyed at the Conquest, and it was commenced in 1120 by Bishop Urban, but not completed till 1296. It had no dean for several centuries till the time of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and though it underwent some recon-! struction in the 14th century, and perhaps may have undergone some subsequent repairs, it suffered very great neglect, and passed slowly but steadily into a state of decay. It appears to have been considerably dilapidated at the commencement of the 18th century, and it was almost destroyed by a storm in 1703. A proposal was made in 1717 to abandon it, and to erect a new cathedral in lieu of it at Cardiff, but that proposal was dropped owing to the collecting of a sum of £2000 in 1730 to restore the old building. The work of restoration was effected by a Mr Wood of Bath, and was done in so debasing a manner, especially by the erection of an Italian doorway and facade dividing the nave, as to render the structure " absolutely hideous." But a new restoration was begun in 1845, mainly through the exertions of Dean Knight, under the direction of the architects Pritchard and Seddon, was continued successively by Dean Conybeare and Dean Williams till 1869, and cost upwards of £30,000, contributed principally by church members residing in the diocese. The interloping wall in the nave was removed, the W front repaired, the W bays reroofed, the side aisles and the clerestory rebuilt, the chapter-house restored, other changes made in the walls, the interior highly improved, the SW tower rebuilt, and the NW tower restored. The edifice is oblong, has an uninterrupted line of roof, and comprises nave, choir, and presbytery, with aisles and a Lady chapel. The nave is 114 feet long, 70 wide, and 65 high; the choir and presbytery are 82 feet long and 65 wide; the Lady chapel is 54 feet long, 25 wide, and 36 high; the chapterhouse is 23 feet long, 21 wide, and 8 high; and the entire structure is 245 feet long. The nave is Early English, of six bays with aisles, and has no triforinm. The W front has a round double-headed door and a large central light. The NW tower was rebuilt by Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII.; it is about 105 feet in height, of three stages, and is crowned with an open-worked parapet with rich pinnacles; it contains a magnificent peal of eight bells as a memorial to Dean Williams. The SW tower was erected in 1869, the previous one having been pulled down in 1786; it is 195¼feet high to the top of the spire, and is of three stages, with massive buttresses at three angles terminating in open canopies with pyramidal roofs which contain figures of St Peter, St Paul, and Bishop Ollivant. The choir and the presbytery are each of two bays, and each with aisles, and the former has sedilia, with rich mosaic panels and four shafts, alternately red and green, erected in 1844. The presbytery is divided from the Lady chapel by a wide Norman chancel arch. The reredos is of Caen stone, and contains three paintings by Rossetti. The fragments of the 14th-century reredos are preserved in the N aisle of the presbytery. The Lady chapel was rebuilt in 1296-1323, and the windows of it, which are of Transitional character with Early Geometrical tracery, were restored in 1844. The chief monuments are effigies of St Teilo and Dubritius (both of whom were buried in the cathedral), Bishops de Bruce, Bromfield, and Marshall, Sir William Mathew and Lady Audley, the tombs of Sir David Mathew, standard-bearer to Edward IV., and of Sir Christopher Mathew and his wife, and a brass to Bishop Coplestone. A fine cross to Bishop Ollivant is in the churchyard, and a beautiful marble tomb within the cathedral.

The city has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Cardiff, and is a seat of petty sessions. In a comparatively new and handsome building is held the probate registry of the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan. A market and fairs were formerly held, but have fallen into disuse. A considerable trade is carried on in vegetables for the supply of neighbouring towns, and some traffic is conducted northward to Merthyr Tydfil both by the Taff Vale railway and the Glamorgan Canal. The parish contains also the hamlets of Canton, Ely, Fail-water, and Gabalfa. Area of Llandaff (exclusive of Canton), 2678 acres of land and 68 of water; population of the civil parish, 4379; of the ecclesiastical, 2747. Area of Canton (which is a suburb of Cardiff), 1649 acres of land and 24 of water, with 57 of adjacent tidal water and 538 of foreshore; population of the township, 32,805; of ecclesiastical parish, 32,775. Gabalfa is a separate ecclesiastical parish; population, 938. The cathedral is also the parish church. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £297 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Llandaff. All Saints, Llandaff Yard, is a chapel of ease, erected in 1891. There is also a church at Ely, a chapel of ease to Caeran parish church. There are Wesleyan, Primitive. and Calvinistic Methodist chapels. Llandaff House, Baynton House, Eookwood, High Mead, Fairwater House, and Ely Court are the chief residences.

The bishopric claims, according to some writers, to be the most ancient in Great Britain, and appears, according to less partial writers, to have been founded in the early part of the 5th century. It never made any such figure as some other ancient British bishoprics, and it became utterly impoverished at and soon after the Reformation. The first bishops were Dubritius and Teilo, who were canonized after their death and are still revered throughout Wales. Among the other bishops have been Cymeliauc, who was seized in his church by the Danes and was ransomed for £40 by the king; Owen, who died in his chair at the news of Laud's death; Beaw, who fought in the cause of the king; Godwin, Marsh, Bar-rington, Van Mildert, Copleston, and Watson, who was thirty years non-resident, and who wrote the "Apology for the Bible." The cathedral establishment includes the bishop, the dean, the chancellor of the church, the precentor, four canons-residentiary, five prebendaries, two archdeacons, and two minor canons. The income of the bishop now is £4200; of the dean, £700; of each of the canons-residentiary, £350; of each of the minor canons, £150. The diocese comprehends all Glamorgan, except the deaneries of East and West Gower and part of the ecclesiastical parish of Cwmamman (St David's); all Monmouthshire, except part of the ecclesiastical parish of Kentchurch with Llangua (Hereford); the ecclesiastical parishes of Beaufort and Hirwain in Brecknockshire, and parts of the ecclesiastical parishes of Cwmyoy and Dixton in Herefordshire. It is divided into the arch-deaconries of Llandaff and Monmouth. Population, 799,376.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Registration districtCardiff1837 - 1922

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Findmypast, in conjunction with the National Library of Wales and the Welsh County Archivists Group, have the following parish records online for Llandaff, St Donatts:

ParishBaptismsBannsMarriagesBurials
Llandaff, St Donatts 1756-1812  

Findmypast, in conjunction with the National Library of Wales and the Welsh County Archivists Group, have the following parish records online for Llandaff:

ParishBaptismsBannsMarriagesBurials
Llandaff1777-1907  1777-1924

Maps

Online maps of Llandaff are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers online:

CountyCaerdydd - Cardiff
RegionSouth Wales
CountryWales
Postal districtCF5
Post TownCardiff

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