LLANVIHANGEL-CWM-DU, a parish, in the union and hundred of CRICKHOWEL, county of BRECKNOCK, SOUTH WALES, 4+ miles (N. by
W.) from Crickhowel; containing 1039 inhabitants. This parish, which is also called St. Michael's Cwm-Dii, derives its
name from the dedication of its church to St. Michael, and its distinguishing adjunct from its situation in a vale bounded
on one side by the Black Mountains, and from that circumstance usually called Cram Dd, or " the black vale." In the ninth
century the parish was distinguished by the appellation of Llanvihangel-Tre'r-Caerau, or " the church of St. Michael aped
caatra," in allusion to the numerous remains of military fortifications that are still discoverable within its limits. The
vale in which it is situated is beautiful, and nearly inclosed by lofty mountains; it is watered by the river Rhiangol,
over which are several bridges, and the river Usk runs through the southern portion. The parish extends five miles in
length, and is nearly of equal breadth, comprising by computation about 7000 acres, 2000 of which are mountainous and
uninclosed land, and the remainder rich arable and pasture, in a state of good cultivation. The surface is pleasingly
varied; and the views from the higher grounds, embracing many objects of interest and features of picturesque beauty, are
diversified and extensive; the soil is in general dry, and rests upon the old red sandstone formation, and the chief
produce is wheat, barley, oats, hay, clover, peas, turnips, &c. A few quarries of old red sandstone are in operation, the
produce of which is used in the locality, chiefly for tiles and building-stones. Penmyarth, anciently the seat of the
family of the Vaughans, afterwards by purchase the property of William Augustus Gott, Esq., who built the present mansion,
and now belonging to Joseph Bailey, Esq., derives its name from its situation on the sloping front of Myarth bill, an
isolated eminence in the centre of the Vale of Crickhowel, over which it commands a beautiful prospect. The lawn in front
of the house slopes gradually to the margin of the river Usk, the banks of which are finely rounded on the north and south;
the prospect is rich and imposing, comprehending almost every variety of scenery; and the view from the summit of the
hill is unrivalled for beauty by any in this part of the country. The turnpike-road from London to Milford intersects the
parish, and a new line to Tillgarth, begun in 1830, has been formed almost entirely at the private cost of John Hotchkis,
Esq.: the parish contains the four hamlets (or parcels, as they are here called) of Blaenau, Tretower, Cenol, and Kilwych;
and the villages of Velindre and Bwlch. The living consists of a sinecure rectory and a vicarage; the rectory, rated in
the king's books at £19. 15. 2+., of the net annual value of £396, and in the gift of the Duke of Beaufort; the vicarage,
rated at £9. 13. 11., of the net value of £191, and in the patronage of the Rector. The vicarage is endowed with one-third
part of the great and small tithes of the whole parish, with the exception of a certain impropriated portion called the
Priory tithes, which were granted to the prior and monks of St. John the Evangelist, in Brecknock, by Pycard, a Norman
knight, to whom Bernard de Newmarch gave the lordship of Ystradwy. By a late survey it appears that the impropriation
extended to the exclusive tithes of six hundred and thirty-four acres, one rood, and thirty-five perches, situated in
the hamlets of Tretower, Cenol, and Kilwych, and is now lay property. The church appears to have been originally founded
in the early part of the eleventh century; for, in the Liber Landavensis, an ancient register of Llandaf, quoted by
Wharton in his Anglia Sacra, and lately published by the Welsh MS. Society, it is stated that a church, dedicated to St.
Michael, in the lordship of Ystradwy, was consecrated by the venerable Herewald, Bishop of that see, who, according to
Godwyn, died in 1103, in the 98th year of his prelacy, at a very advanced age, exceeding one hundred years: as there is no
other church in that district to which this description will at all apply, it is supposed to relate to the church of this
place. The ancient structure appeared, from the varieties in its style of architecture, to have been erected at different
periods: it was a spacious and handsome edifice, consisting of a nave, with two aisles, and _a chancel, with a square
embattled tower of grey stone, which probably was the most ancient, and perhapsthe only remaining part of the original
building. This church was found to be in such a state of irreparable dilapidation, that, in 1830, it was judged expedient
to take it down, with the exception only of the tower; and in the following year it was handsomely rebuilt in an
appropriate style, and opened for divine service in May. It is in the later style of English architecture, and consists of
a nave, with two aisles, and a chancel; the roof is divided into compartments, and the interior is well lighted by ranges
of six large windows in the sides, and at the west end by a large window of five lights, with cinque-foiled heads,
surmounted by an ogee arch, and by two other windows of smaller dimensions. The chancel is ornamented with a handsome oak
screen, removed from the front of the ancient rood-loft, and placed around the walls: the mullions of the windows, and the
stone work of the old church, as far as was practicable, have been employed in the present edifice, which was erected at
an expense of £1600, of which sum, about £225 were raised by subscription. In one of the buttresses on the south side of
the church has been inserted by the Rev. Thomas Price, vicar of the parish, an ancient stone, which was removed for fear
of destruction, from a former situation (its original site being uncertain), where it served as a stepping-stone over a
brook: the purport of the original inscription is preserved on a brass plate, also inserted in the buttress. In the
churchyard is an old stone, about three feet long and sixteen inches wide: it originally formed the sill of the chancel
window of the church, and is evidently a fragment of a larger stone; one side of it is inscribed with a rude cross,
apparently of the date of the sixth, seventh, or eighth century, and a mutilated monumental inscription. On a stone which
also belonged to the old church, and is now inserted in the south wall of the present building, are a cross fleury within
a circle, and two shields of armorial bearings. In the hamlet of Tretower is the chapel of St. John the Evangelist,
formerly a chapel of ease to the mother church. There are places of worship for Independents and Calvinistic Methodists. A
day school, commenced in 1833, contains about 45 children of both sexes, and is chiefly supported by the interest of a
bequest of £800, left by the late David Williams, Esq., in 1835, to Lord William George Henry Somerset, rector, and the
Rev. Thomas Price, vicar, of the parish, and their successors for the time being, in trust, to invest the same in
government security, and to apply the produce in establishing a school for poor children, and instructing them in the
principles of the Church of England; and the same benefactor also bequeathed .f,400 to the vicar and his successors, to
invest in the same manner, and apply the interest for distribution at Christmas, among such deserving poor as should not
receive parochial relief. The school-room was built by subscription, on a plot of land granted by the Duke of Beaufort. A
rent-charge of one guinea on a tenement called Pen-yr-heol, the bequest of Janet Powell, is distributed among poor old
spinsters. At the small village of Geer, in the parish, are unequivocal marks of an ancient Roman encampment; and local
tradition affirms that a town of considerable size once extended from that spot to a place still called Tre'r Graig, or "
the town on the hill." It is quite certain that this space of ground has beep formerly occupied by buildings; the
foundations of walls have been discovered, and wrought stones, fragments of brick, cement, and pottery have been
frequently turned up by the plough. The camp itself was situated on a plot of ground sloping gently towards the south,
with a small inclination towards the west, and having at the lower extremity a stream named the Ywen its form was an
oblong square, of which the eastern side and the upper end are still traceabl1 e by the, foundations of the walls; and
heaps 3, of rubbish, consisting of fragments of bricks, stones, and masses of cement, were till very lately lying on the
spot. Coins of the lower empire have been found here at various times, some of which were in the pos. session of the late
Archdeacon Payne. In the garden belonging to the farm on which this encampment is situated, within the last few years, wee
discovered a vaulted chamber, six feet in length, three feet wide, and three feet high, nearly filled with fragments of
human bones; and in an adjoining field same workmen, who were clearing the ground, broke into an arched covered way, which
appeared to have been a drain. The Roman road from Gobasnaan (Abergavenny), leading up the Vale of Usk, passed by this
station; and a respectable farmer, son of the owner of the land at that time, informed Archdeacon Payne that, about fifty
years before, he had himself assisted in breaking up the part of the road which lay to the east of the camp, and
distinctly remembered that his father's neighbour, who occupied the land on the opposite side of the camp, was similarly
employed. He described it as a causeway of considerable breadth and of great solidity, composed of pebbles deeply imbedded
in gravel, and so hard, that It was with difficulty separated by pickaxes and iron bars. In a field about a quarter of a
mile to the south-east of the camp was the stone already noticed as being now placed in one of the buttresses of the
chUrch, which was described by the Hon. Dairies Barrington to the Society of Antiquaries in 1773, upon the communication
of Mr. Maskelyne, brother of the Astronomer-Royal of that name: the inscription, in ancient characters, was CATACUS HIC
JAM' FILIUS TEGERNACUS. Archdeacon Payne, struck with all these circumstances, which he had personally investigated,
employed a land-surveyor of the neighbourhood,;11 1803, to form a plan of the entire precincts, which he sent to the late
Mr. Jones, who was at that time engaged in preparing his History of lirecknockshire, in which work an engraving of it may
be seen. That there was a line of Roman stations from Ina (Caerlleon upon Usk) to Maridunum (Carmarthen) through the
interior of the county, as well as along the coast, is, in the Archdeacon's opinion, beyond a doubt; and he considered it
strange that it has Sat been noticed by Antoninus, nor investigated by,f1PY modern writer, with the exception only of Sir
Mar and Colt Hoare, who designates it the Via Julia _Ramona, and with whom he agreed in his opinion, that this must have
been one of the stations on that line, in which it occupied a situation precisely where a station might be. expected. On
the bill called Pentir, above the parish church, are the remains of another military post of considerable strength,
evidently of Roman origin, and probably the CamPla "Estivus of the principal station: it incloaes a quadrilateral area,
one hundred and forty yards in lengths and one hundred and five in breadth, and is fortified LL by high ramparts, and
defended on the lower side by a deep fosse; below it is a wood, which from the contiguity of this post has obtained the
appellation of Coed-y-Gaer, or "the wood of the encampment." On the little hill of Myarth are vestiges of a stronghold,
overlooking the station of Geer; it is supposed to be of British origin, but no particulars of its history have been
satisfactorily ascertained. In the ninth century, as stated in Dugdale's Monasticon, considerable tract of land marked by
boundaries, which may still be traced, extending from the river Rhiangol,' which runs through the centre of this parish,
to St, Keyna's well and Glangrwyney, in the parish of Llangenny, was conferred upon the church of Llandaf, by Tudur, the
son of Rhain, a regulus of the principality of Brycheiniog, in expiation of a crime committed by him against the ehurch.
Of the ancient castle, manor, and chapel of Trtower, an account is given under its own head.