PENYRCH, a parish, in the union of CARDIFF, hundred of MISKIN, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, 7 miles (N. W. by W.)
from Cardiff; containing 1248 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the western bank of the river Tilf, here crossed by
an iron bridge, the passengers over which are subject to a toll, and is divided into Garth and Castle hamlets. Messrs.
Richard Blakemore and Co., of the Melin Grufydd Works, two miles southward, have an extensive establishment here also: at
the upper works is a blast furnace, and pig-iron and fibers' metal are there manufactured, which are rolled into charcoal
bar-iron at the lower works; the metal thus completed is conveyed by a tram-road to Melin Grufydd, for the manufacture of
tin and sheet-iron: the number of persons employed, including colliers and miners, is about a hundred and seventy. In one
part of the parish the iron-ore is found in parallel strata; in another, in patches, indiscriminately blended with
limestone: there is also an abundance of good coal, which is actively worked. The living is a discharged vicarage, rated
in the king's books at £8. 3. and endowed with £200 royal bounty; present net income, £113; patrons and appropriators,
Archdeacon and Chapter of Liandaf. The church is dedicated to St. Cadocus; and there are places of worship for Baptists
and Calvinistic Methodists. A National school, partly supported by subscription and partly by small payments from the
parents, contains 50 children; and in another day school, appertaining to Independents, about 30 are instructed wholly at
their parents' expense. There are also three Sunday schools, gratuitously conducted by dissenters, and consisting of about
200 males and females; in one, the books are furnished by the Sunday School Society. Mary Matthew, in 1729, gave by will
the sum of £300, for the benefit of the poor, which was laid out either in a mortgage or the purchase of a rent-charge on
an estate in the parish of Llangonoyd, now the property of Sir Digby Mack-worth, Bart., £12 being annually paid in respect
of the charity, which, with £15, a voluntary yearly gift from Lord Dynevor, is expended in the purchase of cloth and
flannel, which are distributed on the 1st of January among the most deserving poor not receiving parochial relief. An old
mansion in the parish, called " Castell-y-Mynach," now belonging to Lord Dynevor, and occupied by a farmer, was formerly a
religious house, but nothing is known of its history.