Glamorganshire.

Coychurch (cross of Ebisar).

Llangefelach.

Llandough (cross of Irbic).

Margam (great-wheel cross of Conbelin).

The usual method of erecting a cross in pre-Norman times was to dig a hole in the ground and place the lower part of the shaft, which was left rough, in the hole, and fill in the earth round it. This was very

5 AL

Fig. 6.-Cross-Base at Llangefelach: West Face.

Scale, linear.

clearly shown in the case of St. Iltyd's cross at Llantwit Major, recently removed.

It is stated in the Life of St. David that he built a church at a place called Llangevelach in Gower. It is also referred to as a monastery in the district of Gower, at a place called Llangevelach, in which he afterwards placed the altar sent by Pepian, with which he had cured the blind king Erging by restoring sight to his eyes.

Judging from the dimensions of the socket-stone at

Llangefelach the cross must have been one of considerable size, probably not less than 8 ft. or 10 ft. high. It is to be hoped that if the shaft and head of the cross have not been destroyed, they may some day be recovered. A thorough search in the churchyard might lead to the discovery of some of the missing portions of what must have been, when perfect, one of the finest monuments of the kind in Wales.

We are indebted to Mr. T. Mansel Franklen for kindly allowing us to reproduce his admirable photographs to illustrate this paper.

A HISTORY OF THE OLD PARISH OF GRESFORD IN THE COUNTIES OF DENBIGH AND FLINT.

BY ALFRED NEOBARD PALMER, ESQ.

INTRODUCTION.

THE old parish of Gresford contained, besides the chapelry of Holt, with its sub-chapelry of Isycoed (containing the town and liberties of Holt and the townships of Sutton, Dutton Diffaeth, Dutton y brain, Cacca Dutton and Ridley), the townships of Gresford, Burton, Llai, Gwersyllt, Allington, Marford, Hoseley, Burras Riffri, Erlas, and Erddig.

The parish, therefore, was of enormous extent, containing, with Holt and Isycoed, 19,572.551 statute acres, and without those chapelries, now distinct parishes, 13,427.070 acres.

With Holt and Isycoed I have here no concern. Erddig, Erlas, and Burras Riffri were not only quite distinct from each other, but touched at no point the main body of the parish. Erddig and Erlas were, in 1851, transferred to Wrexham in exchange for Burras Hovah. I have dealt with Erddig, Erlas, Burras Riffri, and Burras Hovah elsewhere (see my "History of the Country Townships of the Old Parish of Wrexham"). What, therefore, I propose to describe as "the old parish of Gresford" in this essay is the area surrounding the parish church of Gresford, comprising the townships of Gresford, Burton, Llai, Gwersyllt, Allington, Marford, and Hoseley-an area containing 12,063.715 acres.

Llai, treated as a township at least as early as 1660, was, in Norden's Survey (A.D. 1620) spoken of as a hamlet of Burton. Hunkley, treated in the same

Survey as another hamlet of Burton, had, by 1600, lost that status, and become a mere district. At an earlier date (in 1435) it was put on the same level as Llai, Burton, and Allington, and treated as a township.

Gresford, Burton, Llai, Burras Riffri, and the greater part of Allington were in the medieval manor of Burton; Gwersyllt and Erddig, in the manor of Eglwysegl; and Erlas was in the manor of Isycoed. Hem, in Allington, formed a manor by itself, and another portion of Allington-Cobham Almer-was part of the manor of Cobham Almer and Cobham Isycoed. All these are in Denbighshire, and their courts have long ceased to be held. But Marford and Hoseley, which are in Flintshire, form a manor even now, the courts whereof are still held, though at irregular intervals.

The whole of the parish of Gresford, except Marford and Hoseley, has been for centuries in the lordship, commote, or hundred of Bromfield or Maelor Gymraeg (Welsh Maelor). But this was not always so. Domesday Book, for example, describes Gresford, Allington, and Hoseley as in Exestan, or Estyn, hundred-that is, in Hopedale, and in the county of Chester. Afterwards the Welsh acquired possession of all this district, which they formed, with other townships, into the commote of Merford, the town and parish of Hope, or Estyn, being, however, not included, as remaining more or less in English hands. Then came the times of the Anglo-Norman lords of Bromfield, who made that lordship co-extensive with its present area, taking into it that is to say-all the townships which lay within the parish of Gresford. But, in 1415-16, a writ was issued to the escheator of the county of Flint, commanding him to take a moiety of the town of Trefalyn (= Allington) into the king's hands, the same together with the free chapel of St. Leonard having been found by inquisition to be parcel of the lordship of Hopedale (see Thirty-Seventh Report of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records). Spite of this, the Earl of Arundel, lord