The place probably owes its Celtic name of Llan-ym-ddyffri (the church amid the waters) to the proximity of Llandingat church to the streams of the Towy, Brân and Gwydderig. On account of its commanding position at the head of the fertile vale of Towy, Llandovery was a strategic site of some importance in the middle ages. The castle erected here by the Normans early in the 12th century frequently changed owners during the course of the Anglo-Welsh wars before 1282. In 1485 the borough of Llandovery, or Llanymtheverye, was incorporated by a charter from Richard III., and this king’s privileges were subsequently confirmed by Henry VIII. in 1521, and by Elizabeth in 1590, the Tudor queen’s original charter being still extant and in the possession of the corporation, which is officially styled “the bailiff and burgesses of the borough of Llanymtheverye, otherwise Llandovery.” The bailiff likewise holds the office of recorder, but has neither duties nor emoluments. In the 17th century the vicarage of Llandingat was held by the celebrated Welsh poet and preacher, Rhys Prichard, commonly called “the vicar of Llandovery” (d. 1644). In the middle of the 19th century William Rees of Tonn published at Llandovery many important works dealing with early Welsh history and archaeology.
LLANDOVERY GROUP, in geology, the lowest division of the Silurian (Upper Silurian) in Britain. C. Lapworth in 1879
proposed the name Valentian (from the ancient north British
province of Valentia) for this group. It includes in the type
area the Tarannon Shales 1000–1500 ft., Upper Llandovery
and May Hill Sandstone 800 ft., Lower Llandovery, 600–1500 ft.
The Lower Llandovery rocks consist of conglomerates, sandstones and slaty beds. At Llandovery they rest unconformably upon Ordovician rocks (Bala), but in many other places no unconformity is traceable. These rocks occur with a narrow crop in Pembrokeshire, which curves round through Llandovery, and in the Rhyader district they attain a considerable thickness. Northwards they thin out towards Bala Lake. They occur also in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire in many places where they have not been clearly separated from the associated Ordovician rocks.
There is a change in the fauna on leaving the Ordovician and entering the Llandovery. Among the graptolites the Diplograptidae begin to be replaced by the Monograptidae. Characteristic graptolite zones, in descending order, are:—Monograptus gregarius, Diplograptusvesiculosus, D. acuminatus. Common trilobites are:—Acidaspis, Encrinurus, Phacops, Proëtus; among the brachiopods are Orthis elegantula, O. testudinaria, Meristella crassa and Pentamerus (Stricklandinia) lens (Pentamerus is so characteristic that the Llandovery rocks are frequently described as the “Pentamerus beds”).
The Upper Llandovery, including the May Hill Sandstone of May Hill, Gloucestershire, is an arenaceous series generally conglomeratic at the base, with local lenticular developments of shelly limestone (Norbury, Hollies and Pentamerus limestones). It occurs with a narrow outcrop in Carmarthenshire at the base of the Silurian, disappearing beneath the Old Red Sandstone westward to reappear in Pembrokeshire; north-eastward the outcrop extends to the Longmynd, which the conglomerate wraps round. As it is followed along the crop it is found to rest unconformably upon the Lower Llandovery, Caradoc, Llandeilo, Cambrian and pre-Cambrian rocks. The fossils include the trilobites Phacops caudata, Encrinurus punctatus, Calymene Blumenbachii; the brachiopods Pentamerus oblongus, Orthis calligramma, Atrypa reticularis; the corals Favosites, Lindostroemia, &c.; and the zonal graptolites Rastrites maximus and Monograptus spinigerus and others (Monograptus Sedgwicki, M. Clingani, M. proteus, Diplograptus Hughesii).
The Tarannon shales, grey and blue slates, designated by A. Sedgwick the “paste rock,” is traceable from Conway into Carmarthenshire; in Cardiganshire, besides the slaty facies, gritty beds make their appearance; and in the neighbourhood of Builth soft dark shales. The group is poor in fossils with the exception of graptolites; of these Cyrtograptus grayae and Monograptus exiguus are zonal forms. The Tarannon group is represented by the Rhyader Pale Shales in Radnorshire; by the Browgill beds, with Monograptus crispus and M. turriculatus, in the Lake district; in the Moffat Silurian belt in south Scotland by a thick development, including the Hawick rocks and Ardwell beds, and the Queensberry group or Gala (Grieston shales, Buckholm grits and Abbotsford flags); in the Girvan area, by the Drumyork flags, Bargany group and Penkill group; and in Ireland by the Treveshilly shales of Strangford Lough, and the shales of Salterstown, Co. Louth.
The Upper and Lower Llandovery rocks are represented in descending order by the Pale shales, Graptolite shales, Grey slates and Corwen grit of Merionethshire and Denbighshire. In the Rhyader district the Caban group (Gafalt beds, shales and grits and Caban conglomerate), and the Gwastaden group (Gigrin mudstones, Ddol shales, Dyffryn flags, Cerig Gwynion grits) lie on this horizon; at Builth also there is a series of grits and shales. In the Lake district the lower part of the Stockdale shales (Skelgill beds) is of Llandovery age. In south Scotland in the central and southern belt of Silurian rocks, which extends across the country from Luce Bay to St Abb’s Head, the Birkhill shales, a highly crumpled series of graptolitic beds, represent the Llandovery horizon. In the Girvan area to the north their place is taken by the Camregan, Shaugh Hill and Mullock Hill groups. In Ireland the Llandovery rocks are represented by the Anascaul slates of the Dingle promontory, by the Owenduff and Gowlaun grits, Co. Galway, by the Upper Pomeroy beds, by the Uggool and Ballaghaderin beds, Co. Mayo, and by rocks of this age in Coalpit Bay and Slieve Felim Mountains.
Economic deposits in Llandovery rocks include slate pencils (Teesdale), building stone, flag-stone, road metal and lime. Lead ore occurs in Wales. (See Silurian.) (J. A. H.)
LLANDRINDOD, or Llandrindod Wells, a market town,
urban district and health-resort of Radnorshire, Wales, situated in a lofty and exposed district near the river Ithon, a tributary
of the Wye. Pop. (1901) 1827. Llandrindod is a station on the
Mid-Wales section of the London & North-Western railway.
The town annually receives thousands of visitors, and lies within
easy reach of the beautiful Wye Valley and the wild district
of Radnor Forest. The saline, sulphur and chalybeate springs
of Llandrindod have long been famous. According to a treatise
published by a German physician, Dr Wessel Linden, in 1754, the
saline springs at Ffynon-llwyn-y-gog (“the well in the cuckoos’
grove”) in the present parish of Llandrindod had acquired
more than a local reputation as early as the year 1696. In the
18th century both saline and sulphur springs were largely patronized
by numbers of visitors, and about 1749 a Mr Grosvenor
built a hydropathic establishment near the old church, on a site
now covered by a farm-house known as Llandrindod Hall.
LLANDUDNO, a seaside resort in the Arfon parliamentary division of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, in a detached portion of the county east of the Conwy, on a strip of sandy soil terminating in the massive limestone of Great Orme’s Head. Pop. of urban district (1901) 9279. The town is reached by the London & North-Western railway, and lies 227 m. N.W. of London. A village in 1850, Llandudno is to-day one of the most flourishing
watering-places in North Wales. Sheltered by the Great Orme on the N.W. and by the Little Orme on the E., it faces a wide bay of the Irish Sea, and is backed by low sandhills. A Marine Drive encircles the Great Orme. The Little Orme has caverns and abounds in sea birds and rare plants. Close to the town are the Gloddaeth woods, open to visitors. On the Great Orme are old circular buildings, an ancient fortress, a “rocking-stone”
(crŷd Tudno) and the 7th-century church of St Tudno, restored
in 1885. Druidical and other British antiquities are numerous in
the district. At Deganwy, or Diganwy, 2 m. from Llandudno, is
a castle, Dinas Gonwy (Conwy fort), known to English historians
as Gannoc, dating from the 11th or (according to the Welsh)
earlier than the 9th century.
LLANELLY, a market town, urban district, and seaport of Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated on the north shore of the
broad estuary of the river Loughor (Llwchwr), known as Burry
river, which forms an inlet of Carmarthen Bay. Pop. (1901)
25,617. Llanelly is a station on the South Wales section of the
Great Western railway. The town is wholly of modern appearance.
The mother-church of St Elliw, or Elli (whence the town
derives its name) has been practically rebuilt (1906), but it
retains its 13th-century tower and other ancient features of the
original fabric. Its situation on a broad estuary and its central
position with regard to a neighbourhood rich in coal, iron and
limestone, have combined to make Llanelly one of the many
important industrial towns of South Wales. Anthracite and
steam-coal from the collieries of the coast and along the Loughor
Valley are exported from the extensive docks; and there are
also large works for the smelting of copper and the manufacture
of tin plates.
Llanelly, though an ancient parish and a borough by prescription under a portreeve and burgesses in the old lordship of Kidwelly, remained insignificant until the industrial development in South Wales during the 19th century. In 1810 the combined population of Llanelly, with its four subsidiary hamlets
