Talk:Eglwysilan

Which Rumney or Rhymney?

We currently have

• [...]the formal parish was defined - an area of more than 30,000 acres extending from Rumney to Abercynon, including both Caerphilly and Llanfabon.

With the in-source comment "Rhymney is more likely than Rumney in Cardiff on geographical grounds, but the source specifically says Rumney".

This is unsatisfactory: we should not write anything ambiguous, and should indicate which place is meant, or delete the text if we are unsure.

I think it is probable that the Rhymney was sometimes Anglicised as Rumney, and it is anyway possible that they have been confused.

30,000 acres is 47 square miles. Rumney is about 11 miles south of Eglwysilan and Rhymney is about 14 miles north, so either is possible without the parish being unfeasibly long and thin; indeed the orientation of the valleys makes it reasonable to expect the parish to have had a north-south orientation.

I have found a 1841 parish map[1] which indicates that the parish then bordered Llanfabon parish to the north (a long way south of Rhymney), and Llanishen and Whitchurch parishes to the south (a few miles from Rumney). It is likely that the new parishes were introduced before 1841, when the population increased significantly.

I think that Rhymney is more likely to have been in the parish, as the land around Cardiff was richer farmland then the area south of Rhymney, and so was more likely to be densely parished.

There must be good sources to confirm this, and I plan to have another attempt later.

I think there is sufficient doubt so I will change the text to

• [...]the formal parish was defined - an area of more than 30,000 acres (47 sq mi; 120 km²), including Caerphilly.

Caerphilly is in the 1841 parish map, so we can be confident to include that.

Verbcatcher (talk) 01:10, 18 August 2019 (UTC)