| Llandeilo | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Llandeilo Location withinCarmarthenshire | |
| Population | 1,784 (Community, 2021)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SN625225 |
| Community |
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| Principal area | |
| Preserved county | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LLANDEILO |
| Postcode district | SA19 |
| Dialling code | 01558 |
| Police | Dyfed-Powys |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
51°53′06″N3°59′31″W / 51.885°N 3.992°W /51.885; -3.992  Map of the community | |
Llandeilo (Welsh pronunciation:[ɬanˈdeilɔ]ⓘ) is a town andcommunity inCarmarthenshire,Wales, situated at the crossing of theRiver Towy by theA483 on a 19th-century stone bridge. At the2021 the community had a population of 1,784. It is adjacent to the westernmost point of theBrecon Beacons National Park. The town is served byLlandeilo railway station on theHeart of Wales Line.
In 2021,The Sunday Times called the town one of the top six places to live in Wales.[2] The newspaper praised the town as a ‘sophisticated shopping destination and a great showcase for local arts and crafts’.[3]
Roman soldiers were active in the area around Llandeilo around AD74, as evidenced by the foundations of twocastra discovered on the grounds of the Dinefwr estate.[4][5] The fortifications measured 3.85 hectares and 1.54 hectares, respectively. Roman roads linked Llandeilo with Llandovery and Carmarthen. A small civil settlement developed outside the gates of the fort and may have continued in use as the embryonic town after the Romans left in around AD120.[6]
Llandeilo is named after one of the better-knownCeltic saints of the 6th century,Saint Teilo. TheWelsh wordllan signified a monastery or a church. Saint Teilo, who was a contemporary ofSaint David, thepatron saint ofWales, established aclas (a small monastic settlement) on the site of the present-day parish church.[7] There is reasonable evidence to suggest, however, that Saint Teilo was buried in Llandeilo. Theparish church of Llandeilo Fawr ("Great Llandeilo") is dedicated to Saint Teilo, and until 1880 its churchyard encompassed hisbaptistery.
The early Christian settlement that developed around theSaint Teilo's Church prospered, and by the early 9th century it had attained considerable ecclesiastical status as the seat of a Bishop-Abbot. The Church of St Teilo soon became a 'mother church' to the surrounding district, acquiring an extensive estate, and possessing one of Wales' most beautiful and finely illustrated manuscripts – theGospel Book of Saint Teilo. The discovery of fragments of two largeCeltic crosses from this period provides further testimony to Llandeilo's importance and indeed prestige as an early ecclesiastical centre. Towards the end of the 9th century, the importance of Llandeilo as a spiritual centre had started to decline.[8]
Dinefwr Castle (anglicised as Dynevor) overlooks theRiver Tywi near the town. It lies on a ridge on the northern bank of the Tywi, with a steep drop of about 250 feet (76 m) to the river. Dinefwr was the chief seat of the kingdom ofDeheubarth.[9]
The estate ofGolden Grove lies near the town, and further away, the impressiveCarreg Cennen Castle, another Welsh stronghold. The remains ofTalley Abbey can be seen 6 miles (9.7 km) away to the north of the town. 10 miles (16 km) further north are the remains of the RomanDolaucothi Gold Mines.
In the centuries that followed theNorman conquest of England, theBishop of Llandaff andBishop of St David's both claimed Llandeilo for their respectivediocese. By the early 12th century, Llandeilo came under the patronage of the Bishopric of St David's, an ecclesiastic borough that became responsible for the affairs of the town including its development as an importantmedieval market centre to an extensive agricultural hinterland. Until the middle of the 20th century, a fair called St. Teilo's Fair, which had been authorised initially byEdward I of England in 1291, was held annually in the churchyard. Some of the agricultural produce and other goods offered for sale are recorded to have been displayed on the tombstones.[10]
The town was put to the torch duringOwain Glyndwr's march through the Tywi Valley in July 1403.[11] Nearby Carreg Cennen Castle was besieged by Yorkist forces in 1461 during theWars of the Roses and partially demolished.[12]
At the Reformation, the town was at the centre of the parish known as Llandeilo Fawr. It was in theDiocese of St Davids and part of thearchdeaconry of Carmarthen. In 1560, thebishop of St Davids recorded the population of Llandeilo Fawr as 620 households (perhaps amounting to 2,790 people), many of whom would have lived in Llandeilo itself.[13]
In the middle of the seventeenth century, Llandeilo was in the area of influence of the royalist general Sir Henry Vaughan. A royalist skirmish took place in the town in April 1648, defeating elements of theNew Model Army.[14]
In 1887,John Bartholomew'sGazetteer of the British Isles described Llandeilo as having a population of 1,533. He observed that “the principal trade of the town is in corn and flour; the other industries include woollen cloth mills, timber and saw mills, and tanneries”.[15]
The road and railway bridges over the Tywi are of engineering interest. The single-archedLlandeilo Bridge was completed in 1848 and is Grade II*listed.[16] The railway bridge, opened in 1852, is a rare survival of an earlylattice truss bridge.
In theGreat Storm of 1987, the floods were so severe that the River Tywi (Towy) overwhelmed the railway bridge crossing the river near Llandeilo. Four people, one of them a boy, were drowned when the 05:27 train fromSwansea toShrewsbury plunged off the damaged Glanrhyd Bridge into the river.[17]
There are two tiers of local government covering Llandeilo, atcommunity (town) andcounty level: Llandeilo Fawr Town Council (Cyngor Tref Llandeilo Fawr) andCarmarthenshire County Council (Cyngor Sir Gâr). The town council is based at Hengwrt (Old Courthouse) at 8 Carmarthen Street, being the formerShire Hall, built in 1802.[18][19][20]
The Llandeilo community is bordered by the communities of:Manordeilo and Salem;Dyffryn Cennen;Llanfihangel Aberbythych; andLlangathen, all being in Carmarthenshire.[21]
Llandeilo historically formed part of the parish of Llandeilo Fawr, which also included extensive rural areas north and south of the town itself.[22] In 1859, alocal government district called Llandilo was established covering the central part of the parish around the town itself.[23] Such local government districts were converted intourban districts under theLocal Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also directed that parishes could no longer straddle district boundaries, and so that part of the parish outside the urban district became a separate parish called Llandeilo Fawr Rural.[24]
The official spelling of the name of the urban district was 'Llandilo' until 1957, when it was changed to 'Llandeilo' to better reflect modern Welshorthography.[25]
Llandeilo Urban District was abolished in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972. A community called Llandeilo was created instead, covering the area of the abolished urban district. Although the community name is officially just Llandeilo,[21] its community council calls itself Llandeilo Fawr Town Council.[18] District-level functions passed toDinefwr Borough Council. Carmarthenshire County Council was abolished as part of the same reforms, with county-level functions passing to the newDyfed County Council.[26] Dinefwr and Dyfed were both abolished in 1996 and their councils' functions passed to a re-established Carmarthenshire County Council.[27]
The parish of Llandeilo Fawr Rural also became a community in 1974; it was abolished in 1987, being divided between the communities ofCwmamman, Manordeilo and Salem, and Dyffryn Cennen. At the same time, the community of Llandeilo was enlarged to take in the area of the abolished community ofLlandyfeisant west of the town, which brought Dinefwr Castle and its grounds into the community of Llandeilo.[28][21][29]
Llandeilo has two main parks: Penlan Park and Parc Le Conquet. Penlan Park contains a bandstand and a woodland walk to theDinefwr estate.[30] Parc Le Conquet is home to the town’sbowls club.[31]
The town has several sports clubs. The local rugby union team isLlandeilo RFC, which was one of the founding clubs of theWelsh Rugby Union. The town is also home to Llandeilo Town AFC, anassociation football club currently playing in theCarmarthenshire League. Llandeilo Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1908/9. The club and course disappeared in the late 1960s.[32] The town also has a thriving cricket club that fields a male, female and junior teams.
The town hosted a celebrity football event that took place between 2015 and 2017 to help raise funds forTy Hafan children's hospice. Celebrities who took part in the event included EastEnders actor Matt Lapinskas, Former Blackburn & Scotland defender Colin Hendry, Big Brother runner-up Glyn Wise, former Wales rugby player Mark Taylor, and Everton & Wales legend Neville Southall. The event helped raise over £4,500 for the hospice.[33]
In 2008 Llandeilo hosted theWorld Sheepdog Trials.[34]
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The amount of traffic coming into the town has caused considerable debate. In 2020, town mayor, Owen James, said “As it stands it’s simply dangerous for people to come into Llandeilo. I know of people who don’t want to come into Llandeilo for that reason. Stand on the main road – you know exactly why we need a bypass.”[47] Work on a bypass road was scheduled to begin in 2019, directing traffic around the town. Commencement of construction work has been delayed.[48] A freeze on construction of new roads in Wales did not include the bypass, which the Welsh Government has estimated to cost £50m.[49]
A final decision on how best to proceed with the bypass was scheduled for the autumn of 2022, but was delayed until later in the winter.[50]
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