LLANGYVELACH (LLAN-GYFELACH), a parish, in the union, and partly within the limits of the new borough, of SWANSEA, and partly in the hundred of LLANGYVELACH, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, 4 miles (N. by W.) from Swansea; comprising the townships of Higher and Lower ClAs, Upper and Lower Mawr, Upper and Lower Pen Derwi, and Upper and Lower Rhwngdwy Clydach; and containing 8901 inhabitants. About the year 990, Howel, Prince of South Wales, and his nephew Edwin, having entered the dominions of Ithel, Prince of Glamorgan, and ravaged them without mercy, were met, on their return, at a place called Cors Eineon, in this parish, by Howel, the brother of Ithel, who had suddenly raised the country in their rear: having assembled an immense multitude, armed with the first weapons they could obtain, he here routed his enemies with great slaughter, and recovered the plunder which they were carrying away. The parish, which is shunted in a district abounding with mineral wealth, is more than ten miles in length, and in many parts six in breadth. Clasemont, lately the property of Sir John Morris, Bart., has been recently taken down; and the only seat deserving notice, now within the limits of the parish, is Penlle'rgaer' an elegant residence. The principal mineral production is coal, which is procured in great quantities, and the working of which affords employment to the greater part of the population. The copper works, established here for the manufacture of the ore produced in other parts of the kingdom, and the collieries, are conducted by different companies on a very extensive scale, the former furnishing occupation to more than one thou. sand five hundred, and the latter to two thousand, men. For the residence of .the workmen a very considerable village has been built by Sir John Morris, on the western bank of the river Tawy, which falls into Swansea bay, and is navigable to this place for sloops of small hurtles: it has been designed upon a regular plan, with a view to its future improvement, from the probable increase of the works, and is called, after the name of its proprietor, Morriston. The Swansea canal intersects the parish in its course up the western bank of the Tawy. A fair is held on March 1st in the village of Llangjavoelach, in which petty sessions for the hundred take place; and the Bishop of St. David's, who, as Dean of the College of Christ Church, in Brecknock, is lord of the manor, holds two manorial courts here in the year. The living is a vicarage, rated in the king's books at £9. 14. 9k., and in the patronage of the Bishop, who, as Dean of the College of Brecknock, is appropriator: the tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £1050, of which sum £845 are payable to the Bishop, and £205 to the vicar. The church, dedicated to St. Cyvelach, is a very neat and compact structure, consisting of a nave and chancel, the former lately rebuilt: the old tower, which still remains, is detached from the present, as it was from the former, edifier, standing at a short distance from the nave: in the sepulchral chapel belonging to the family of Penlle'rgaer is an elegant eanotaph of black marble, to the memory of the late — Llewellyn Esq., of that place. The aitua. tion of parish-clerk is worth from £70 to £100 per annum, arising chiefly from a charge of two shillings and sixpence upon each plough used upon every farm in the parish, and is in the gift of the Bishop. There are four places of worship for Baptists, six for Independents, two for Calvinistic Methodists, and one for Unitarians. Six day schools are carried on in the parish, one of which, in the hamlet of Llangyvelacb, contains about 50 children, and is partly maintained by an endowment of £4. 10. per annum, arising from the Penlle'rgaer estate, bequeathed by Thomas Price, Esq.; in the others, three of which are held at Morriston, 280 children are instructed at the expense of the parents. There are also seven Sunday schools, supported by subscription or conducted by voluntary teachers, in which about 440 males and females are taught. Lewis Thomas, in 1642, left a messuage and tone-went called Tir Bach, and also a sum of £20, the produce to be divided on Christmas-eve among the poor not receiving parochial aid: the piece of land, named Tir Bach, contains about 10 acres, with a small cottage, but is not worth more than about £5 per annum; and nothing has been received from the property for the last 35 years, when it is said to have been taken possession of by a descendant of the testator. In 1783, Mary Williams bequeathed a rent-charge of £2 for erecting and maintaining a free school, in the parcel of Rhwngdwy Clydach, and the sum was paid to a schoolmaster at Gellyonen until 1808, since which time nothing has been re. oeived, though a school was built by subscription in the place named by the testatrix; the arrears are, however, about to be enforced by the minister and churchwardens. Mary Rogers, in 1789, left £500, the interest to be expended in clothing six men, and an equal number of women, at Christmas, and the residue to be retained by the minister for his trouble in seeing the trust performed; the fund is vested in the three per cent. reduced annuities, yielding an interest of £19. 13. 6., of which £12 are allotted to the clothing of three poor men and women in each division of the parish, and the remainder is paid to the vicar. Thomas Price, of Penlle'rgaer, bequeathed a rent-charge of £4, on a farm called Abergwenlais, the amount to be distributed among the poor on Christmas-eve and Good Friday, and he Ilk wise charged the land with a payment of £4. 10, for instructing ten children, as stated above. A few other small charities have been either lost or are unpra, ductive; among which are a bequest by Alexander Amyas of £40, in 1773; a grant of £20 by one of the Penderry family; and another rent-charge, variously stated at £2, and £7. 10., on a tenement called Havod, in the parish of Bettws, Carmarthen, Penlle'rgaer, near the western confines of the parish, is the only place besides Loughor having any claim to be regarded as the site of the Roman station Lea-°arum; and this consists partly in its name, which may be translated "the camp summit," and partly in the discovery of fragments of ancient walls, in a situation likely to have been chosen by the Romans for a military post.