Mynyddyslwyn, Monmouthshire

Description
Mynyddyslwyn, a large and populous parish in Monmouthshire. The original village and the grand old church etand 1 1/2 mile E of the river Sirhowy, 2 1/4 miles E by S of Tredegar Junction station on the G.W.R. and L. & N.W.R., and 10 1/2 NW of Newport. Post town, Newport; money order and telegraph office, Abercarn. The parish comprises the hamlets of Clawrplwyf, Mynyddmaen, and Penmaen; and includes the villages, or centres of large populations, of Abercarn, Newbridge, Cwm Cam, Flenr-de-lis, Gellygroes, Pont-llanfraith, and Ynysddu. Acreage, 15,960 of land and 117 of water; population of the civil parish, 14,364; of the ecclesiastical, 10,065. The parish is subdivided into urban and rural districts, and has a parish council in each district, with fifteen members for the Mynyddyslwyn rural district and fifteen for the Abercarn urban district. The petty sessions are held at the Abercarn police court. The surface is hilly and boldly undulating, and descends to the rivers Sirhowy and Ebbw. Chemical works, iron and tin-plate works, and extensive collieries are at or near Abercarn. Stone is quarried. A large tumulus called Twyn Tewdwr, supposed to have been n beacon or signal station, is near the church. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Llandaff; net value, £300 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Llandaff. The church is large and good, and was rebuilt in 1821. It has a fine square tower over seven centuries old, also a crescent of grand old yew trees of at least the same age as the tower. The church is dedicated to St Tewdwr, a Welsh saint who lived in the 6th century. There is a well-founded tradition that a rude church stood on the site of the present church in his time. Penmaen forms a separate ecclesiastical parish, constituted in 1845. Population, 4299. There are chapels of ease at Abercarn, Cwm Cam, Newbridge, Pontllanfraith, and Ynysddu, and Baptist, Calvinistic Methodist, Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic chapels.