Llanfrothen () is a hamlet and

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

in the county of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, Wales, between the towns of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

and

Blaenau Ffestiniog Blaenau Ffestiniog () is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,0 ...

and is 108.1 miles (174.0 km) from Cardiff. In 2011 the population of Llanfrothen was 437 with 70.1% of them able to speak Welsh. Parc, a Grade II* Listed Building is within the community, as are the village of Garreg and the hamlet of Croesor. The church at Llanfrothen is dedicated to St Brothen and is a Grade 1 listed building and is in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches The church and parish achieved prominence throughout Wales in 1888 when

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...

, then a young local solicitor, took a case involving burial rights in Llanfrothen churchyard on appeal to the Divisional Court of the

Queen's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

. The case became known as the , and decision of the Divisional Court established the right of the family of a deceased nonconformist to have his body buried in the parish churchyard, by a Baptist minister, and without using the Anglican burial service.

Location

The parish is located at the edge of the high lands, immediately overlooking the salt marshes of Morfa Gwyllt. The nearest stations are Pont Croesor on the Welsh Highland Railway and Penrhyndeudraeth and Tan-y-Bwlch, both on the Ffestiniog Railway.

History

The older part of the village is called Garreg, Llanfrothen, and other parts of the village are scattered to the east of Garreg, on the minor road (B4410) leading towards the village of Rhyd. There is a notable pub, the "Brondanw Arms" ("Y Ring" to the locals) and a primary school. On the road north-eastward towards Croesor is Plas Brondanw, a former home of the architect

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Military Cross, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate architecture, Italianate village of Portmeirion in North ...

. The hymn writer Richard Jones (Cymro Gwyllt) (1772–1833) served as a

Calvinistic Methodist The Presbyterian Church of Wales (), also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church (), is a denomination of Protestant Christianity based in Wales. The Calvinistic Methodist movement has its origins in the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival ...

minister in Llanfrothen, where he spent much of his life (he was from

Llanystumdwy Llanystumdwy () is a predominantly Welsh-speaking village, community and electoral ward in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd in Wales. The village lies on the southern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, with a beach facing Cardigan Bay, between Cricci ...

in Eifionydd). The church is dedicated to St Brothen, traditionally a son of

Helig ap Glannog Helig ap Glanawg (standard modern Welsh (language), Welsh orthography: Helig ap Glannog) is a legendary figure described in various accounts dating to at least as early as the 13th century as a 6th-century prince who lived in North Wales. Post- ...

. It is said that he is buried there.T. D. Breverton, ''The Book of Welsh Saints'' (Cyhoeddiadau Glyndŵr, 2000). The Brothen Spring, or Old Spring, can be found near the church. There a number of architectural features in the church, including a 13th-century window.

References

External links

* http://www.garreg.gwynedd.sch.uk Communities in Gwynedd {{Gwynedd-geo-stub

Location

History

See also

References

External links