Clydach in the Parishes of Llangyfelach and Cadoxton-juxta-Neath

"CLYDACH, or Rhyndwyclydach, is a parish and village, on the high road from Brecon to Swansea, with a station (Clydach-on-Tawe) on the Swansea and Hereford branch of the London, Midland and Scottish railway, about 5 miles north from Swansea; in 1847 it was formed into an ecclesiastical parish from the civil parishes of Cadoxton and Llangyfelach and is in the Neath division of the county of Glamorgan, petty sessional division and union of Pontardawe, county court district of Swansea, rural deanery of East Gower, archdeaconry of Carmarthen and diocese of St. David's. The church of St. John is a cruciform building of Welsh sandstone, in the Late Perpendicular style, ... ; there are 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1847. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £280 and residence, in the gift of the Bishop of St. David's and the Board of Patronage...The church of St. Mary, erected in 1905, at a cost of £12000, from designs by Mr. Bruce Vaughan F.R.I.B.A. of Cardiff, is a building of stone ... will seat 600 persons. There is also a chapel of ease to the church of St. John at TREBANOS, erected in 1912, to seat 300 persons. The remains of a British cross of the 5th century have been built into the east wall of the Unitarian chapel. At Carn Llechart stands a circular dolmen. Ynys penllwch, which is used as a home for Catholic children, is an elegant mansion, standing in its own grounds, surrounded by trees and bounded on one side by the river Tawe ; from the house and grounds can be seen the hills for a long distance on either side of the valley. The Duke of Beaufort is lord of the manor; the principal landowners are John Herbert Purdon Lloyd esq. J.P. and H. N. Miers esq., J.P. The soil is alluvial; subsoil, gravel. The area of the civil parish (Rhyndwyclydach) is 7,636 acres of land and 68 of water; rateable value, £37, 556; the population of the ecclesiastical parish (Clydach) in 1911 was 7,707, and of the civil parish, 6,994." [From Kelly's South Wales Directory 1923 (ArchiveCDBooks) - transcribed by Gareth Hicks]