Lledrod is a village 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 ...

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

, Wales. The village is situated on the A485 road from

Llanilar Llanilar () is a village and community in Ceredigion, Wales, about southeast of Aberystwyth. It is the eponym of the hundred of Ilar. The population at the 2011 census was 1,085. The community includes Rhos-y-garth. Name In Welsh placenames ...

Tregaron Tregaron ( "town of St Caron") is an ancient market town in Ceredigion, Wales. It is sited astride the River Brenig, a tributary of the River Teifi, and is north-east of Lampeter. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census, the po ...

, where it crosses the valley of the River Wyre (). The parish is divided into Lledrod Isaf (Lower Lledrod) and Lledrod Uchaf (Upper Lledrod); Lledrod village is located in the former, Swyddffynnon village is situated in the latter. The name 'Lledrod' is a contraction of ''Llanfihangel-Lledrod'', which derives from ''Llanfihangel Llether-troed'', meaning 'the church of

St Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

at the foot of the slope'. The community includes the small settlements of Tyncelyn and Blaenpennal.

Geology

The solid geology of the area comprises

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

of the

Borth Borth () is a village, seaside resort and community in Ceredigion, Mid Wales; it is located 7 miles (11 km) north of Aberystwyth, on the Ceredigion Coast Path. The community includes the settlement of Ynyslas and the population was 1,399 ...

Mudstone Formation, which are partially overlain by

superficial deposits Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old) for the Earth. These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain dep ...

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

( Devensian

diamicton Diamicton (also diamict) (from Greek ''δια'' (dia-): through and ''μεικτός'' (meiktós): mixed) is a terrigenous sediment (a sediment resulting from dry-land erosion) that is unsorted to poorly sorted and contains particles ranging in siz ...

History

Lledrod village

The ' llan' element of Llanfihangel-Lledrod suggests that the parish church was established in the

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

period. The nature of the settlement prior to the 18th century remains obscure, but by 1610 it was significant enough to be included on

John Speed John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer, chronologer and historian of Cheshire origins.; superseding . The son of a citizen and Merchant Taylor in London,"Life of John Speed", ''The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compe ...

's map of

Cardiganshire Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a county in the west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Ab ...

Religion

The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church is dedicated to St Michael. The 'llan' element of the village's original name suggests that the church was founded in the

period. The present church was built in 1883. There are a number of non-conformist chapels in lledrod parish, one of which, Rhydlwyd

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 ...

Chapel, is located on the northern edge of the village. This denomination started meeting in 1745; the first chapel was built ''c'' 1755, and rebuilt in 1783, 1809 and 1837. The present chapel was built in 1833 and rebuilt in 1899. The chapel remained open in 2006.

Education

A free grammar school was founded in the village in 1745 by the Rev. Thomas Oliver. Ysgol Gynradd Lledrod (Lledrod Primary School) was built in 1877, but is now closed. The nearest alternative school is Ysgol Gynradd

, or Rhos y Wlad in Bronant.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

with the same name exists. This stretches beyond the confines of Lledrod Community with a total population at the 2011 Census of 2,209.

Demography

In 2021, the community had an estimated population of 694, 98.7% of whom are White, 0.9% are Asian, and 0.4% have a mixed ethnic background. The religious makeup of the district is recorded as: 57.2% Christian, 40.7% No Religion, 1.2% Buddhist and 0.9% other religions.

Notable residents

* Evan Evans (1731–1789), poet, born and died in Cynhawdref, Lledrod, and was buried in the churchyard of St Michael's church."Evans, Evan (1731–1789)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900 * Evan Davies (1805–1864), a Welsh Protestant Christian missionary among the Chinese in Malaysia in Penang * John Cambrian Rowland (1819–1890), a Welsh painter, mainly of Welsh costume prints * Richard Edwards (1822–1908), a Welsh American educator, emigrated to Ohio aged 11, where he taught astronomy, physics, map-drawing and geography. * Lt. Colonel John Rea (1868–1944), footballer who played for West Bromwich Albion, with nine caps for

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

* B. T. Hopkins (1897–1981), a Welsh poet and a noteworthy judge of the

National Eisteddfod The National Eisteddfod of Wales ( Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competito ...

References

{{authority control Villages in Ceredigion