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Notes on Place-names LLANYNEWYR (LLANYRNEWYDD) The uncertainty that still exists concerning the form and meaning of the name of the church once generally referred to as Llanrhidian Chapel in Gower, or Llanyrnewydd, to give it its rather unusual current name, would seem to warrant the inclusion of a summary note in this series. Formerly a chapel-of-ease to Llanrhidian, until the 1920s the whole benefice was known as Llanrhidian with Llanyrnewydd (Penclawdd), the Higher portion achieving separate ecclesiastical status in 1924, centred on Llanyrnewydd, and the church enlarged by 1926. A mission chapel at Gwernffrwd, dating from 1898, is now included in the parish which is designated that of 'St. Gwynour's, Llanyrnewydd and St. David's, Gwernffrwd' (Orrin, Gower Churches (1979), 56-59). This dedication to St. Gwynour also appears to have added to the confusion, the form of the saint's name apparently having little affinity with the elements that follow llan in the present name, bearing in mind that the second element in such a name is often, though not always, the name of the patron saint. As it stands, -yrnewydd appears to consist of the full form of the Welsh definite article yr + the Welsh adjective newydd 'new', clearly in such a context of little if any relevant meaning. In his admirable reconstruction of the text of Rice Merrick's Morganiae Archaiographia for the South Wales Record Society (1983) the editor, Brian James, comments on the form Llangnewyr which occurs in the text of the Peniarth MS 120 version of portions of Merrick's work and correctly regards it as being for Llanynewyr, adding 'Llanyrnewydd or Penclawdd church. The correct Welsh version seems to be Llan + Gynewyr = Llanynewyr' (p. 184, n. 285). It is the interpretation of the second element of the name which is suspect and offers a variation on the officially accepted Gwynour. Both forms are based on the reasonable assumption that the element -ynewyr does not look like a personal or saint's name but that if it is such a name it must be the lenited form of an original beginning with g- as would be the case, according to the accepted rule, after llan (lenition of initial g- in modern Welsh causing, in effect, its disappearance). Hence Mr. James's Gynewyr. The form. Gwynour on the other hand (which is in any case an anglicised form of Gwynnwr) has probably a longer pedigree in that it appears to follow the interpretation of A. W. Wade- Evans in his Parochiale Wallicanum (1911) which records Llanrhidian Chapel or Llangwynner and the patron saint as Gwynnwr (p. 34), based