Cilgerran
Encyclopedia
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in the Hundred
Hundred (division)
A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...
of Cilgerran
Cilgerran (hundred)
thumb|200px|right|Pembrokeshire showing Cilgerran HundredThe Hundred of Cilgerran was a hundred in the north of Pembrokeshire, Wales...
, Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, lying on the River Teifi
River Teifi
The River Teifi forms the boundary between the counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales for most of its 75 mile length, flowing into the sea below the town of Cardigan. The catchment of the river is estimated to be 1,008 square kilometres yielding an average flow at Glan...
. It is the site of Cilgerran Castle
Cilgerran Castle
Cilgerran Castle is a 13th-century ruined castle located in Cilgerran, Pembrokeshire, Wales, near Cardigan.The castle is a National Trust property, in the guardianship of Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments Executive Agency....
, built in 1100, from which Owain of Powys
Owain ap Cadwgan
Owain ap Cadwgan was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales. He is best known for his abduction of Nest, wife of Gerald of Windsor.Owain was the eldest son of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, prince of part of Powys. He is first recorded in 1106, when he killed Meurig and Griffri, the sons of Trahaearn ap Caradog,...
is said to have abducted Nest in 1109. It is first mentioned by name in 1164. This is probably one of the most picturesque castles in Wales and has been painted by many artists including Turner.
The town is first mentioned in 1204 from when it was the administrative centre for a lordship until the sixteenth century. Although the town remained small it was considered one of the main market centres in Pembrokeshire in the seventeenth century. It was a marcher borough
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
. Owen, in 1603, described it as one of five Pembrokeshire boroughs overseen by a portreeve, and it still retains some of its corporate traditions.
Other attractions in the town include annual coracle
Coracle
The coracle is a small, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales but also in parts of Western and South Western England, Ireland , and Scotland ; the word is also used of similar boats found in India, Vietnam, Iraq and Tibet...
races. This event, started in 1950, attracts competitors from all over the world.
The churchyard of St. Llawddog contains a megalithic standing stone or Ogham
Ogham
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a High Medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.There are roughly...
stone upon which Ogham
Ogham
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a High Medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.There are roughly...
writing can still be seen. Also contained in the churchyard is the burial site and memorial to William Edmond Logan
William Edmond Logan
Sir William Edmond Logan was a Scottish-Canadian geologist.Logan was born in Montreal, Quebec, and educated at the High School in Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh . He started teaching himself geology in 1831, when he took over the running of a copper works in Swansea. He produced a...
of Mount Logan
Mount Logan
Mount Logan is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America, after Mount McKinley . The mountain was named after Sir William Edmond Logan, a Canadian geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada . Mount Logan is located within Kluane National Park and...
, Canada fame. Logan was the first director of Geological Survey of Canada and mapped the coal mines of South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
. The memorial was erected in the centenary of his death.
The town was renowned for the quality of the slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
that was mined there and exported through the port at Cardigan
Cardigan, Ceredigion
Cardigan is a town in the county of Ceredigion in Mid Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Teifi at the point where Ceredigion meets Pembrokeshire. It was the county town of the pre-1974 county of Cardiganshire. It is the second largest town in Ceredigion. The town's population was 4,203...
.
The census population
Census in the United Kingdom
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...
of the parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
of Cilgerran was: 854 (1801): 1266 (1851): 1033 (1901): 815 (1951): 703 (1981). The percentage of Welsh speakers was: 96 (1891): 94 (1931): 78 (1971).
The community
Community (Wales)
A community is a division of land in Wales that forms the lowest-tier of local government in Wales. Welsh communities are analogous to civil parishes in England....
of Cilgerran includes the parishes of Bridell
Bridell
thumb|250 px|right|The [[parish church]] of St. David, BridellBridell is a village and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated in the north of the county, 4 km south of Cardigan. The parish includes the village of Pen-y-bryn . Together with the parishes of Cilgerran and Llantood, it...
and Llantood, and had a population of 1453 in 2001
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
. Cilgerran is also an electoral ward of Pembrokeshire (including Manordeifi
Manordeifi
Manordeifi is a parish and community in the hundred of Kilgerran, in the northeast corner of Pembrokeshire, Wales. The population of the community was 478. Together with the community of Cilgerran, it makes up Cilgerran electoral ward....
community); its population was 1931 in 2001, with 53% Welsh speakers. Cilgerran has its own elected town council
Town council
A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....
.
External links
- http://www.cilgerran.info
- Photos of Cilgerran and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk