Betws Bledrws, is a village between Lampeter and

Llangybi, Ceredigion Llangybi is a village and community in the south of Ceredigion, Wales. It is located on the A485 between Tregaron to the north and Lampeter to the south, a mile and a half north of the village of Betws Bledrws, which is in the wider communit ...

, Wales that was also known as Derry Ormond when under the influence of Derry Ormond Mansion. Situated on the valley floor of the River Dulas, approximately north of

Lampeter Lampeter (; (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, after Aberystwyth and C ...

and a mile or so to the southwest of the village of Llangybi, on the road from Tregaron to Lampeter. Betws Bledrws (SN596520) lies beside the

Afon Dulas The Afon Dulas, or North Dulas, is a river forming the border between Merionethshire/Gwynedd and Montgomeryshire/Powys in Wales. Another river called Afon Dulas joins the Dyfi from the south, upstream of its confluence with the North Dulas: loca ...

, 4.8 km north-west of Lampeter on the B4343. Its name combines betws—from

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

''bed-hus'' ("prayer house")—with Bledrws.

History

During the nineteenth century the parish extended to about 1,600 acres and supported 227 inhabitants. Samuel Lewis judged Derry Ormond "one of the best houses in the county", observing that its ornamental lake and plantations dominated the scene. He described a mainly

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

economy: arable ground was limited, lead

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

was thought to lie beneath the surface but never exploited, and annual poor-law expenditure stood at £89 17 s. Nonconformity thrived beside the parish church. Pen-y-coed

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

chapel was erected in 1735, re-roofed in

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. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

in 1827 and, after services moved to Silian in 1831, allowed to decay; the ruin was finally cleared before 1998. Lewis also recorded separate meeting houses for

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

ic Methodists. Between Derry Ormond and the

River Teifi The River Teifi ( ; , ), formerly anglicised as Tivy, forms the boundary for most of its length between the Welsh counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, and for the final of its total length of , the boundary between Ceredigion and Pembr ...

an oval Iron-Age earthwork known as Castell Goedtrêv crowns a low knoll, lending its name to the adjoining farm and adding an earlier layer of human occupation to the locality. Derry Ormond Mansion, a neo-classical seat by

Charles Robert Cockerell Charles Robert Cockerell (27 April 1788 – 17 September 1863) was an England, English architect, archaeologist, and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke (architect), Robert Smirke. He went on an extended Grand Tour lasting sev ...

for John Jones (c. 1825–1953), shaped the parish; its landscaped park is registered Grade II. Jones also erected Tŵr y Dderi, a 31 m-

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

column (1821–24) now Grade II. St Bledrws Church was rebuilt in 1831—probably by Cockerell—and altered in 1886; it retains a 12th-century square font, and the churchyard holds the grave of David Morgan, contractor of the tower. Modern Betws Bledrws is a line of farms and houses along the valley road, with the column still a dominant landmark. *Postcode SA48 8 *Gridref SN596520

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Ceredigion