- From what we can tell there is only one Church in the world dedicated to St Lleurwg.
- Lleurwg is pronounced ‘Thly-Roog’. Locally people call it ‘Llu-reg’ or ‘Ear-Wig’. Virtually everyone gets it wrong! It took the Priest 3 years to say it right! We don’t mind how you say it!
- Lleurwg is thought to be the Welsh name for ‘Lucias’ a second century English king who helped introduce Christianity to England.
- We don’t know if point 3 is true or legend!
- There are 2 Churches dedicated to St Winifred in the Cynon Valley
- St Winifred is a Welsh Saint from North Wales
- The man she was supposed to marry is said to have cut off her head when she told him she was going to be a nun
- The head is said to have ‘rolled down a hill’ to a place where a healing spring appeared.
- There her head and body re-joined together and Winifred was ok!
- We don’t know if points 7-9 are true or legend!
- St Lleurwg’s Hirwaun was opened in 1858
- There is a stained glass window in the Church that suggests St Lleurwg’s was opened in 1884 – it is wrong!
- St Winifred’s opened in 1958 to meet the needs of the new Penywaun community
- St Winifred’s was opened to serve both as a Church and a community building
- St Winifred’s used to be part of the neighbouring Parish of Aberdare St Fagan’s.
- St Lleurwg’s used to be part of the Parish of Aberdare, before the Parish of Hirwaun was formed.
- The Parish magazine ‘the Crucible’ has one of the largest circulations of any Church magazine in Wales. It is used to both share Church and community news.
- Hirwaun means ‘Long Meadow’ in Welsh
- Hirwaun is home to Tower Colliery, which the workers famously bought and operated using their redundancy money
- See point 25
- Penwyaun is a relatively new community, built mostly after the Second World War
- People from Hirwaun are often called ‘Brocks’
- People form Penywaun are often called Daps
- The Current Priest in Charge is from Merthyr, where they are known by an entirely different name!
- Hirwaun used to be famous for its 1960’s built tower blocks visible from the A465. They were knocked down in 2004
- Tom Jones sung in the Penywaun Working Men’s Club before he was famous
- See point 18
- The Parish sits in the South Wales Valleys, famous for their warmth and welcome
- We love our communities and passionately want to serve them.
- Above all we passionately love God and want to serve and worship Him.
Links
The Church in Wales
https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/
Diocese of Llandaff
https://llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/
The Evangelical Alliance
New Wine Cymru
Find a Food bank