EGLWYSILAN (EGLWYS-ILAN), a parish, in the hundred of CAERPHILLY, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, on the road from
Cardiff to Merthyr-Tydvil, comprising the market town of Caerphilly, and containing 2818 inhabitants. This parish is
bounded on the east by the river Romney, and on the west by the Taf, and is computed to comprise about fifteen thousand
acres: it formerly contained several ancient family mansions, of which, Energlyn, or Genan 'r Glyn, the property of
Thomas Goodrich, Esq., alone remains, and even this is now uninhabited. That called the Vann, which was for ages the seat
of the family of Lewis, ancestors of the Earl. of Plymouth, to whom it now belongs, still forms an interesting object in
descending the hill towards the town of Caerphilly. The surface of the parish is partly hilly and partly flat: the
prevailing soils are gravelly clay and peat. The parish is rich in mineral wealth, especially coal, which is worked to
great advantage: iron-ore is raised at its south-western extremity, under Castell COch, where are also some excellent
stone quarries. At Newbridge, the largest village within its limits, are situated the original works of Messrs. Brown and
Co., for the manufacture of chain cables, the iron work of suspension bridges, &c.; the suspension bridge over the Thames
at Hammersmith, one over the Tweed, another over the Usk, and the chain pier at Brighton, were made at these works, which
afford employment to about one hundred persons, and manufacture annually from ten to twelve hundred tons of iron. The
Glamorganshire canal traverses the whole extent of the parish, and opens a cheap and expeditious communication between the
mines and Cardiff, where the produce of the works is shipped. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual
curacy of Llanvabon annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaf, rated in the king's books at £6. 13. 1i., and in
the patronage of the Archdeacon and Chapter of Llandaf. The church, dedicated to St. Helen, is situated on the brow of a
lofty hill, at a considerable distance from any habitation but the vicar's and the clerk's, and is almost inaccessible,
during some weeks in the winter, to the majority of the parishioners. There are places of worship for Baptists,
Independents, and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. Mrs. Aldworth, of Bristol, by will dated in 1729, left certain
lands in the parishes of Eglwysilan and Llandaf, in this county, and Bedwas, in the county of Monmouth, to endow a school
for the education of poor girls, natives of the parishes of Eglwysilan and Bedwas: the property produces about £140 per
annum, the greater part of which is appropriated to the support of three schools, viz., one at Newbridge, to which a
salary of £27 per annum is attached; another at Caerphilly, with a salary of £35 per annum; and the third at Bedwas,
with a salary of £25. 10. Within the parish are situated two picturesque and interesting ruins, viz., Caerphilly Castle,
described in the account of that place, and Castell COch, or " the Red Castle," at the south-western extremity of the
parish. The latter is so called from the colour of the stone used in its erection, which is ascribed to Ivor Bich, who,
having succeeded in compelling Robert Earl of Gloucester, and lord of Glamorgan, to restore the ancient laws of the Welsh
to his native vassals in this part of the principality, placed in it a garrison of two hundred men, to command the pass of
two valleys, which here converge. The situation of these ruins is very striking, and commands a magnificent prospect of
the rich Vale of Glamorgan, with the sea, and the distant hills on the English coast. They consist principally of two
circular bastions of unequal sizes: in front is a steep precipice, and behind, a wide and deep fosse, excavated in the
solid rock, which rises to a considerable height above it. About a mile higher up the river, on its eastern bank, is a
celebrated spring, called Fynnon Tat or "the well of Ulf," the water of which is justly held in high estimation for its
efficacy in the cure of rheumatic disorders: it is sometimes called Fynnon Dwym, or " the tepid well," and is the only
thermal spring in South Wales an extraordinary flood, in the year 1799, is said to have laid bare some Roman masonry
adjoining this well, which was covered again by subsequent inundations of the TH. There are some other springs, the waters
of which are considered serviceable in the cure of pulmonary diseases. William Edwards, the self-taught architect of Pont
y Prydd, who rose gradually by his own talents to be the most celebrated bridge-builder in this part of the kingdom, to
which he added also the profession of a Dissenting minister, and the business of a farmer, was born in this parish, in
1719, and was the youngest son of a farmer: his remains were interred in the churchyard: three of his sons practised the
same branch of architecture as their father, and greatly distinguished themselves in it. The average annual expenditure of
the whole of the parish, including the town of Caerphilly, for the support of the poor, amounts to £664. 12.