Tythegston

History

The parish name comes from the patron saint of the village church, St Tudwg, one of the disciples of the hermit Cenydd, and is derived from its ancient Welsh appellation, Llan Dudwg, meaning "Dudwg's Town". Its English name has been spelt in different ways, including Tedegestowe (13th century), Tegestowe (14th century), Dythyston (15th century), Tythegston and Tithexton (16th century). The Welsh name has been spelt as: Llandudock (15th century) and Landidwg (16th century). There is evidence to suggest that a Roman villa was once constructed in or near the village. Bronze Age remains (which include a barrow and a cremation) have been found in the area.

Medieval

The parish was absorbed into the territory of Newcastle with the Norman appropriation of the Glamorgan lowlands. Tythegston was constituted as a sub-manor sometime around the late 13th or early 14th century. In 1870–72 the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales by John Marius Wilson described Tythegston as:

TYTHEGSTON, a parish, with two hamlets, in Bridgend district, Glamorgan; 4 miles W by S of Bridgend r. station. Post town, Bridgend. Acres, 2,871. Real property, £3,602. Pop. in 1851, 1,152; in 1861, 1,678. Houses, 340. The increase of pop. arose from extension of collieries, and of coke and iron works. The property is divided among a few. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to Newcastle. The church is good.

Geography

Tythegston is located in the southern part of Bridgend in South Wales, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Bridgend, its nearest town and lies to the north side of the A4106 road. The village covers an area of 2,871 acres (1,162 ha), of which 278 acres (113 ha) are of common land or waste. By road Tythegston is situated 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Swansea and 23 miles (37 km) west of the capital city Cardiff. The landscape is dominated by farms and woodland such as Tythegston Church.

Governance

At the national level Tythegston is in the Welsh parliamentary constituency of Bridgend, for which Madeleine Moon (Labour) has been MP since 2005. In the general election of 2015, Moon won 14,624 votes (37.1%), giving her a majority of 1,927; the Conserative Party won 12,697 votes (32.2%) and the United Kingdom Independence Party won 5,911 (15%), while the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats each won fewer than 3,000 votes, the Green Party performed better of the two. In the Welsh Assembly Tythegston is in the constituency of Bridgend for which Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales, has been the Assembly Member since 1999. For European elections Tythegston is in the Wales constituency.

Notable landmarks

The present church, St Tudwg, is of 11th century design. It was deconsecrated in around 1990. St Tudwg was converted into offices in 2010 after a four-year restoriation project. In the Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff a book of the registers contains baptisms from 1758, burials from 1766 and marriages starting from 1837; marriages ended until 1965, baptisms and burials to 1987. Tythegston includes one Grade II building, in addition to one Grade II* building.