Welsh Journals

The ancient commote of Mochnant Uwch Rhaeadr occupied an essentially moorland region on the southern slopes of the Berwyns, encompassing the headwaters of the Efyrnwy (Vyrnwy), the Tanad (Tanat) and three of its tributaries Afon Eirth which joins the Tanad at Llangynog, Nant Himant which joins it Penybontfawr, and Afon Rhaeadr which joins it just below Llanrhaeadr. The western part of the commote, above Llangynog and Llanwddyn, consists of extensive upland moors rising to 500-600m above sea-level, dissected by steep- sided glacial valleys which form narrow tongues of farmland typically less than 0.5km wide. Below Llangynog and Llanwddyn, small blocks of upland, 300-400m high, rise up between the slightly broader valleys of the various tributaries of the Tanad and Efyrnwy. The commote included the medieval ecclesiastical parishes of Pennant Melangell, Hirnant and Llanwddyn, each of which had been founded by at least the mid-13th century, and some of the parish of the portionary church at Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, the greater part of which lay within the commote of Mochnant Is Rhaeadr. The earliest record of the names of townships within the parish of Pennant seem to date from the later 16th century. New names appear and disappear during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, and since it is not possible to construct a definitive list, the term 'township' is employed somewhat loosely in the text which follows. The townships of Nanfyllon & Cornorion, Garthgellinyn vawr (Garthgelynen Fawr), Garthgellinyn vechan (Garthgelynen Fechan), Doyfrod (Dwyffryd) and Pennant (the latter of which probably comprised the various townships later included in upper Pennant), were already in existence by 1577.9 The church terrier of 174910 lists the townships and tenements belonging to the rector as follows: Cornorion, Allen-fawr, Allen-fechan, Peniarth, Ffinffrwd, Dwyffrwd (all in Montgomeryshire), and Cwm blowtyn (Denbighshire). Income from the township of Pengwern and the rent of half the township of Bryn (Shropshire)11 were divided on the following basis: the rector was due all the tithe corn and the vicar was due all the tithe hay from Pengwern; the rector was due three-quarters and the vicar a quarter of the rent of half of Bryn The terrier of 1 772 12 lists the vicar's income as including the tithe corn from the 'three distinct townships' of Cwm y Llêch, Llechweddgarth and Cablyd and the tithe hay from these townships as well as from Pengwern, and again a quarter of the tithes from Tre'r Bryn, Llanymlodwel (Llanyblodwel). Further details are given in these two terriers of wool and lamb tithes (Blith y ddafad), lactuals, and a modus in lieu of tithe hay called Ceirch March y Person. The phrase 'of the Townships of Cwm Pennant & Cwm y Llech' appears in a memorandum of 1776,13 the phrase 'of the Townships' having been crossed out. The principal townships 9NLW Montgomeryshire Court of Great Sessions, M.25, Wales 4/128-4, 18 March 1577. 10NLW Pennant Parish Register 1720-92. The relationship with Bryn was of evidently of long-standing; in the extent of the manor of Oswestry in 1393, the township of Bryn is said to contain six gwelys, of which one was gwely Ririd Vlaieth (Rhirid Flaidd), the nobleman associated with Pennant in the later 2th century; see Thomas 1911 op. cit. (note 8), 260, n. 3; W.J. Slack, The Lordship of Oswestry 1393- 1607, (Shropshire Archaeological Society, Shrewsbury, 1951), 157; E.D. Jones, Rhirid Flaidd, Archaeologia Cambrensis 108 (1959), 112. Bryn is listed in 1272 as one of the four vills in the Walcheria of Oswestry, in the manor of Duparts, corresponding to the present parish of Llanyblodwel (see R.W. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, vol. 10, (London, 1860), 353). Slack (op. cit., 29) suggests that the gwely names in these townships, indicating family title to lands descended by partible inheritance, had become fixed before the end of the 13th century and probably went back to a much earlier period, possibly to the time when the Fitz Alans recovered Oswestry from Madoc ap Meredith in the middle of the 12th century. There is said to have been achapel in Bryn which was served once a month by the rector of Pennant (see D.R. Thomas in Shropshire Parish Registers: Diocese of St Asaph, vol. 3 (1913), Llanyblodwel Registers, iv; Thomas 1911 op. cit. (note 8), 261, n. 2). 12NLW Pennant Parish Register 1720-92. UIbid.