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Llandeilo () is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated where the River Towy is crossed by the A483 on a 19th-century stone bridge. At the 2021 census the community had a population of 1,784. It is adjacent to the westernmost point of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The town is served by Llandeilo railway station on the Heart of Wales Line.
In 2021, The Sunday Times called the town one of the top six places to live in Wales. The newspaper praised the town as a ‘sophisticated shopping destination and a great showcase for local arts and crafts’.
Llandeilo is named after one of the better-known Celtic saints of the 6th century, Saint Teilo. The Welsh language word llan signified a monastery or a church. Saint Teilo, who was a contemporary of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, established a clas (a small monastic settlement) on the site of the present-day parish church. There is reasonable evidence to suggest, however, that Saint Teilo was buried in Llandeilo. The parish church of Llandeilo Fawr ("Great Llandeilo") is dedicated to Saint Teilo, and until 1880 its churchyard encompassed his baptistery.
The early Christian settlement that developed around the Saint Teilo's Church prospered, and by the early 9th century it had attained considerable ecclesiastical status as the seat of a Bishop-Abbot. The Church of St Teilo soon became a "mother church" to the surrounding district, acquiring an extensive estate, and possessing one of Wales' most beautiful and finely illustrated manuscripts – the Gospel Book of Saint Teilo. The discovery of fragments of two large from this period provides further testimony to Llandeilo's importance and prestige as an early ecclesiastical centre. Towards the end of the 9th century, the importance of Llandeilo as a spiritual centre had started to decline.
Dinefwr Castle (anglicised as Dynevor) overlooks the River Tywi near the town. It lies on a ridge on the northern bank of the Tywi, with a steep drop of about to the river. Dinefwr was the chief seat of the kingdom of Deheubarth. The estate of Golden Grove lies near the town, and further away, the impressive Carreg Cennen Castle, another Welsh stronghold. The remains of Talley Abbey can be seen away to the north of the town. further north are the remains of the Roman Dolaucothi Gold Mines.
The town was put to the torch during Owain Glyndŵr's march through the Tywi Valley in July 1403. Nearby Carreg Cennen Castle was besieged by Yorkist forces in 1461 during the Wars of the Roses and partially demolished.
In the middle of the 17th century, Llandeilo was in the area of influence of the royalist general Sir Henry Vaughan. A royalist skirmish took place in the town in April 1648, defeating elements of the New Model Army.
In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Llandeilo as having a population of 1,533. He observed that “the principal trade of the town is in corn and flour; the other industries include woollen cloth mills, timber and saw mills, and tanneries”.
In the Great Storm of 1987, the floods were so severe that the River Tywi (Towy) overwhelmed the railway bridge crossing the river near Llandeilo. Four people, one of them a boy, were drowned when the 05:27 train from Swansea to Shrewsbury plunged off the damaged Glanrhyd Bridge into the river.
The Llandeilo community is bordered by the communities of: Manordeilo and Salem; Dyffryn Cennen; Llanfihangel Aberbythych; and Llangathen, all in Carmarthenshire.
The official spelling of the name of the urban district was 'Llandilo' until 1957, when it was changed to 'Llandeilo' to better reflect modern Welsh orthography.
Llandeilo Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A community called Llandeilo was created instead, covering the area of the abolished urban district. Although the community name is officially just Llandeilo, its community council calls itself Llandeilo Fawr Town Council. District-level functions passed to Dinefwr Borough Council. Carmarthenshire County Council was abolished as part of the same reforms, with county-level functions passing to the new Dyfed County Council. Dinefwr and Dyfed were both abolished in 1996 and their councils' functions passed to a re-established Carmarthenshire County Council.
The parish of Llandeilo Fawr Rural also became a community in 1974; it was abolished in 1987, being divided between the communities of Cwmamman, Manordeilo and Salem, and Dyffryn Cennen. At the same time, the community of Llandeilo was enlarged to take in the area of the abolished community of Llandyfeisant west of the town, which brought Dinefwr Castle and its grounds into the community of Llandeilo.
The town has several sports clubs. The local rugby union team is Llandeilo RFC, which was one of the founding clubs of the Welsh Rugby Union. The town is also home to Llandeilo Town AFC, an association football club currently playing in the Carmarthenshire League. Llandeilo Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1908/9. The club and course disappeared in the late 1960s. “Llandeilo Golf Club”, “Golf’s Missing Links”. The town also has a thriving cricket club that fields a male, female and junior teams.
The town hosted a celebrity football event that took place between 2015 and 2017 to help raise funds for Tŷ Hafan children's hospice. Celebrities who took part in the event included EastEnders actor Matt Lapinskas, Former Blackburn & Scotland defender Colin Hendry, Big Brother runner-up Glyn Wise, former Wales rugby player Mark Taylor, and Everton & Wales legend Neville Southall. The event helped raise over £4,500 for the hospice.
In 2008 Llandeilo hosted the World Sheepdog Trials.
==Gallery==
A final decision on how best to proceed with the bypass was scheduled for the autumn of 2022, but was delayed until later in the winter.
Sports and recreation
Llandeilo has two main parks: Penlan Park and Parc le Conquet. Penlan Park contains a bandstand and a woodland walk to the Dinefwr estate. Parc le Conquet is home to the town’s bowls club.
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Culture
Notable people
Llandeilo relief road
The amount of traffic coming into the town has caused considerable debate. In 2020, town mayor, Owen James, said, "As it stands it’s simply dangerous for people to come into Llandeilo. I know of people who don’t want to come into Llandeilo for that reason. Stand on the main road – you know exactly why we need a bypass." Work on a bypass road was scheduled to begin in 2019, directing traffic around the town. Commencement of construction work has been delayed. A freeze on construction of new roads in Wales did not include the bypass, which the Welsh Government has estimated to cost £50m.
See also
External links
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